Collonise an alien world for your human corporation, while the planet, pirates, and other players fight back.
Outpost Zero is an early access survival game by Symmetric Games. Set in a gorgeous alien world called Gaia, you must construct a colony capable of withstanding the numerous environmental hazards thrown at you. The game features both a single player experience, and online multiplayer with Corporations (the game's alliance system), and both PvP and PvE servers.
The most fleshed out systems in the game at the moment are building and crafting. Building is a simple snap system á la Conan Exiles or Ark. I found the grid to be a little finicky at times as some pieces refused to snap, and I would have liked a way to adjust the height of foundations a little easier. There are only one set of basic pieces, although this does include rounded parts for circular buildings, and I personally would like to see a little more variety or customisation with the pieces.
Crafting is fairly in depth, though not too complicated. You start out able to make automated bots, as well as the parts to make those bots, at a Robot Manufacturing Facility, which you can then command to build, craft, or even farm for you. Upgrading the facility gives you access to more complex blueprints that require manufactured or refined materials. You have access to a variety of armour types from the start, suitable for however you'd like to play.
As much as I liked the crafting depth, I felt the resources needed some tweak. While there are a large variety available, from iron, water, and sodium, to uranium, silver, and petroleum, I found that after very little exploration I had found more of each of the resources than I could ever have needed. Maybe it was the small ish map size, or maybe the lack of confrontation I encountered, but I felt like perhaps there needed to be a few adjustments to node spawns.
Combat is something you'll encounter fairly frequently in single or multiplayer as AI pirates attempt to attack your base. While you have access to melee weapons (your starter weapon is in fact a hatchet), based on these AI it's clear very early on that ranged is the way to go. The melee weapons felt underpowered, particularly against the some of the creatures in Gaia, and some of the animations needed a little work. The range of guns available is good, but I found the aiming to be very hit and miss as the on-screen crosshairs were rather large even when scoping with the right click.
The world itself is absolutely gorgeous. Various biomes scatter the map, though there is an over desert/savannah feel to the orange world. The flora seems both alien and familiar, perfect for the setting of a new colony world. The sky at night is a wonder to see, beautifully detailed with stars and even a ringed planet to marvel at! Alongside giant, earth-like spiders, roam bug like deer and scuttling rock crab, as well as other weird and wonderful creatures. While I mentioned that the map seemed fairly small (I could run halfway across the map in about 10 minutes), this seems like a really good thing for multiplayer games as it provides greater opportunity for player interaction and possible conflict/co-operation.
As an early access game, there is room for improvement of course. There are some bugs floating around, some spawn tweaks and balancing that can be done, but that is the purpose of early access. Fixes are being rolled out as needed, and the devs seem to be pretty good at taking feedback and dealing with bug reports.