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Astroneer trailer is absolutely lovely space-Minecraft of bounding around

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Well isn’t this all just lovely. Astroneer was linked to me by PCGN behind-the-scenes hero Pete, who makes the website look nice for your eyes so you can stomach our hateful, awful words. It’s a Minecraft-alike set on desolate alien worlds where you have to survive and thrive while using what are basically psychic powers to control the shape of the earth around you. It’s not working on the same sort of blocks, but does have a major theme of creation and destruction of the landscape around you.

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Like the tremendous nerd I am, the first thing I said about this trailer was “that’s a lovely walk cycle” – it’s the little things, y’know? It only gets nicer when they start properly leaping about towards the end there.

The game itself is based around the idea of mega-conglomerates sending out pioneers into space after the discovery of easy space travel. You are one of these brave/poor souls who must now scratch out a life for themselves on harsh planets. You’ll be digging for valuable resources, building shelters and exploring the terrain in search of secrets and mysteries.

I was a big fan of single-player exploration game Lifeless Planet, which has a lot of the same overtones. This is obviously more focused on an open environment and allows for multiplayer, but there’s something enticing about a giant, unconquerable alien wilderness covered in sand. I want to poke around in it.

No mention of a release date, but more info and great screenshots over on the excellently named astroneer.space.