ASTRONEER

Astroneer puts you in a spacesuit on a strange solar system that nobody fully understands. The signature tool is the Terrain Tool: a handheld device that can dig, collect, shape, build and color the ground itself in any way you choose. Mountains can be sculpted. Holes can be excavated to bedrock. Entire landscapes can be rebuilt to suit your needs. The terrain is fully deformable on a scale most games never attempt.

Base-building is modular and tactile. Objects snap into place along customizable layouts, and bases extend outward through automation systems, crafting stations, power plants, resource harvesters and railway facilities. Astroneers build from the ground up — literally — and can specialize their setups to handle any environment they find themselves in. Different planets present different challenges, and an effective base on one body may not work on another.

The solar system contains seven distinct celestial bodies, each fully explorable from rounded surface down to the planetary core. Each has its own geography, biome composition and resource distribution, and each hides its own challenges and mysteries. Confusing transmissions arrive from unknown sources. Mysterious structures and artifacts dot the planets. Curious Astroneers willing to chase the anomalies will find connections that explain — or partially explain — the strange architecture of this system.

Up to four players can share a session in online co-op, and solo online play lets fellow Astroneers drop in and out of your world freely. The game has been in active development since its 2016 Early Access launch and reached 1.0 in 2019, with ongoing free content updates since. System Era's pledge to continue building on the foundation has held — Astroneer continues to grow rather than stagnate.