Mission: Rift Seeker is a colony simulation developed by OneManGames. You have animals called seekers that you command to help build and explore the world. Its laid-back gameplay makes for a relaxing experience, but it’s a game with rough edges that could use smoothing out.
Brave New World
The game starts you on a procedurally generated map, where a rocket ship lands and seekers descend upon the world. The game gives you quests that help you set up the base for your workers to help them thrive. Seekers are random animals that have abilities to do different things. They can mine, build, fight, research, and gather, but they can’t do everything. These cute little animals have randomly generated stats that determine their abilities, as well as what they can eat. As you get deeper into the game, you unlock the ability to explore different dimensions. In different dimensions, you can find creatures, tame them, and bring them back to your base.
Mission: Rift Seeker functions similarly to an RTS. You can tell your workers to build facilities, dig out blocks, and cut down objects. There is a research tree you can have your workers complete, which can unlock and upgrade buildings. Researching technology gives you access to better water supplies, facilities, food, etc. Research can also unlock different dimensions to explore and tame creatures. You are also in charge of managing what tasks your seekers can do.
Gotta Tame Them All
Mission: Rift Seeker has a lot for the player to uncover as they play this game. The quests at the beginning are a good guideline, but not always correct. Blindly following these quests sometimes led me to disaster and restarting my world. It taught me to experiment with the technology trees and what I wanted to research. It showed me which buildings would set me up for success in the world. The world is procedurally generated, but it is a world that isn’t so big that I was overwhelmed. This allowed me to figure out how I wanted to progress through the game.
While there is depth to the game, there are some issues with the game. My biggest issue with the game is your lack of direct control over your seekers. The game gives you a list of things that seekers can and can’t do, and you can check what you want them to do. However, that still doesn’t completely solve the issue. The problem is that the seeker’s prioritization is lackluster. If I have multiple things being built, it just seems that they will randomly do whatever with no rhyme or reason. If an enemy comes and invades my base, they won’t drop everything to defend against enemies. It’s also not entirely clear what you’re researching, or how certain things you build work outside of basic descriptions, which can be vague.
Ground Control To Seeker Tom
Mission: Rift Seeker is a game that has launched in early access. The game has solid fundamentals and is a fun colony simulation game. The game teaches you how to start your base and gives you a solid foundation with room to experiment and learn how to let your seekers thrive. However, for a game that revolves around sending your minions to do things, I wish I had more control over my seekers. I also wish things in the game were more clear about how they worked. For those looking for a colony simulation game, this is one to keep track of, as it’s still in early access. In its current state, it is a game that I can’t recommend at the moment.
