“Genesis Alpha One” is an indie developed space exploration game that released Sept. 4 for PlayStation 4. Xbox One and PC versions will be made later this year.
“In a near future ravaged by wars, corrupt regimes and devastating pollution, influential corporations have created the Genesis program in a last-ditch attempt to save humanity. Your goal: Find new homes for humanity’s DNA and save the species from extinction,” reads the Steam store description of “Genesis Alpha One.”
“Genesis Alpha One” is a rogue-like, massive galaxy exploration game where you must protect the last seeds of humanity. You must also try to keep your crewmembers alive due to death being relevant to succeeding in your mission. This is due to a permanent death, or “perma-death,” system, which means that when a crew member dies they are gone forever. So, taking time to think decisions over is not a bad idea.
You may be wondering, what could kill crewmembers when we are safe on a spaceship? Everything is the short answer.
The long answer is yes, there are lots of things that can kill your crewmembers. From alien infestations, asteroid belts and gathering materials to upgrade your ship, all of these activities can see your crew’s life expectancy go down. To prevent that from happening, at least regarding alien infestation, you have an arsenal of tools and weapons at your disposal to eliminate all hostile aliens that want to use your ship and crew as food.
Something unique I have not seen in many other games like “Genesis Alpha One” is the “building your ship and then exploring it” mechanic. What this means is you can attach a variety of different modules onto your ship, kind of like the International Space Station. These modules can be anything from workshops to hangars and even cloning labs to expand your crew complement. After you are done constructing these pieces of your ship, you can go inside and explore them. Another cool feature that is implemented after fighting off an alien incursion is collecting alien DNA from the bodies littering your ship. You can use the alien DNA combined with your cloning centers to create humans with enhanced abilities.
From what I have seen of the trailers for this game, I do not know how mining for materials or hauling them back up to your ship will work. I do know smaller ships will be available due to the obvious hangar bay modules, and there is a scene in a trailer where your character is on a planet’s surface. I would guess either you or a small team could be sent to the surface of planets and asteroids to mine the precious materials held within. This is probably going to be a core mechanic of the game, since you will need a larger ship at some point in the game, and you won’t be able to whisk resources out of thin air to build a mini Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant on your spaceship.
My opinion on this game is only from what I have seen, but “Genesis Alpha One” seems a kind of cool. I like the concept of a ship that very well may be what they look like in the future. The graphics and art design portray a rough, bumpy spaceship, a ship made by human hands and not smooth and nonsensical like many other ships in the fiction genre.
“Genesis Alpha One” is out now on PlayStation 4, so go and save humanity or die trying.