I started out crash-landed on an alien planet and had to repair my starship. The game was kind enough to walk me through that, but I kept running out of heat protection and had to constantly scrounge up more sodium. Thankfully there were plenty of plants.

Once I got my ship fixed, I flew into space and hit hyperspeed…and accidentally went way past my objective and had to turn around. On the way back, I ran out of hyperspeed fuel and I thought I was boned, but the asteroids surrounding me were full of fuel. Hooray! I was able to make it to the second planet!

After landing in the wrong place, I made it to my destination and built a tiny little cabin where I could wait out the heat storms (and also hide from the Sentinel drone that kept chasing me around. Leave me alone! Those aren’t your plants!) Of course, I had trouble finding copper deposits, and I also ran into my first real problem: I got too far away from my ship and couldn’t find my way back for a while. I’m hoping I’ll eventually get a map or beacon or something so I can roam farther.

Then I went to a space station full of aliens! I couldn’t talk to most of them, but some of them taught me a few words, and a few offered to come work for me (though I didn’t have the necessary buildings.) Tonight I’m going back to my log cabin and I’ll see what else this planet has in store for me.

This game feels like it’s going to be me wandering around cluelessly, punctuated by a series of amazing discoveries. I’m stoked!