In the era of survival games, up steps Solarpunk. Can this cosy new survival game make waves in an already crowded genre? Or are you left wondering what could have been?
Adventure Is Out There?
Survival games, or cosy survival and me, have never truly meshed together over the years. I often struggle with the brutal realities the games have and lose interest rapidly. So when indie developers Cyberwave announced Solarpunk, I immediately dismissed it as a game not for me. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Solarpunk is the exact style of cosy survival game I have been waiting for, but it’s not without its flaws.
From a narrative perspective, Solarpunk is extremely bare bones. The plot is simple: you create a character which is then dropped from the sky onto a floating island. The goal is to use the environment to survive and build a new life for yourself, whilst exploring. That is literally the story. There is no dialogue, no cutscenes, bar the opening, no text logs, nothing. If you are wanting a story you will be extremely disappointed. The adventure of the game is how you make it. The developers have put you in charge of deciding how the adventure unfolds which is quite admirable in some ways. For others, this immediately put them off.
Mine, Mine, Mine!
With no narrative at play, it was important for the developers to nail the gameplay loop for a cosy survival game. Whilst they have created an addictive loop, there are some glaring issues. When you are dropped onto the island, the game gives you a brief tutorial which does a solid job at setting you up for the adventure ahead. For veterans of this genre, the systems in place will feel familiar. You gather resources through chopping trees, mining ore etc. The starter island is all about learning the basics to build a crafting table, workbench and a home to store your resources. You are constantly gathering materials to unlock new items which eventually leads to building an airship.
Once you have built the airship you can fly to different islands and trade with a merchant to gain new upgrades for the ship to fly further and explore deeper. The freedom of the game is both its selling point and its weakness. I played the majority of my time with a friend in online co-op, which made it feel worthwhile. Playing solo, I often lacked motivation to do anything, as nothing was propelling me to go further. I would definitely advise playing in co-op overall due to its shared progression system which made working in a team feel so rewarding!
The Perils Of Survival
Solarpunk is billed as a cosy survival game but for players looking for real stakes, this is lacking. The only real threats on hand for the player are falling from heights and the game’s dynamic weather system which you can choose to enable or not. This weather system has lightning strikes which can damage your character; this adds some thrills but becomes tedious and frustrating after a while. For me, I loved the lack of threat on hand, as it allowed me to relax and focus on building and constructing my dream world. What I certainly didn’t enjoy was the game’s hunger and thirst systems which are hideously over the top. It takes only a few minutes in game for hunger and thirst to deplete, making it tiresome having to focus on drinking and eating so often.
The developers have put the game’s automation system front and centre in marketing as a huge selling point. I’m not sure if that was the wisest decision though. After building up your resources, you can unlock systems which automate farming and mining for you, through generators and cables. As someone who struggles with survival games, I thought I’d love this, but it annoyed me consistently. Obviously, every generator needs power, so before long, you are constantly depleting resources into these machines, only for them to last just a few minutes at a time. Perhaps this system can be tweaked over time by the developers. A solid, if inconsistent experience with gameplay.
A Muddled World
When it comes to visual presentation and performance, it’s a disappointing display. At times, the game can look beautiful with its cosy art style, reminding me of a something out of a Disney animation. Then unfortunately, you are ripped back to reality as environments look bland and reused across each island. There are only two biomes on display, making the game feel and look far too similar across each area. Then comes the bugs; too many visual bugs affected my time playing it, in particular an annoying bug where my co-op partner would cause a visual bug on my screen which could not be removed until we restarted the game.
Conversely, audio design and soundtrack do a solid, if unspectacular job. The audio design is consistent and sounds realistic as you chop down trees and mine ore. It’s just not very memorable for players. The same can be said about the soundtrack, which can be toggled as to how often you want it to appear. The cosy and soothing ambient beats do a good enough job to capture the feelings of the game but once more, they are not particularly memorable.
Verdict
When Solarpunk is at its best, I could get lost in this cosy world for hours, playing with my friends building and creating. The player choice and freedom are wonderful, as you fly around and explore this world. The problem is too often you are ripped out of that feeling with inconsistent systems, annoying bugs and visual discrepancies. This has the foundation of a great game which needs time and trust from the developers to flesh it out. Whether a player base will stay with them is the real question.
