Asteroids: Outpost

Speaking honestly, my expectations were low when I walked in for my appointment to see Asteroids: Outpost in action at GDC 2015. What could Atari possibly be doing with the classic 1979 arcade game to make it relevant in the modern age? The last thing I expected to see on the screen was a developer roaming around a huge, lunar-like open world with a beautiful stellar backdrop. These are five reasons my excitement for the space-themed crafting and base-building MMO went from 0 to 60 within moments.

Space!

I loved the feeling of wonder I get every time I generate a new world to explore in Minecraft. Finding new nooks, structures to wander within, and resources to collect is a marvelous experience. That said, I’d much rather do that in a slick-looking version of a moon-like planetoid floating through space. Asteroids: Outpost’s world isn’t procedurally generated, but the moment I saw the expanse of white-dusted ground stretching out and the huge black void above I wanted to travel as far as my eyes could see. Get a better look at the game in the screenshot gallery below.

The Final Frontier

The news of astronauts being selected to travel to Mars made me realize how awesome I think it’d be to try to stake my claim on an alien planet. Outposts appears poised to deliver part of that fantasy. Players choose where to drop in on the 8 kilometer-by-8 kilometer planetoid, armed with nothing but Nanopick ore-harvesting gun and a repair tool. You need ore, quartz, and other resources to build out your initially humble base, but you’re low oxygen quantities prevent you from wandering too far from home. I love the idea of gradually gathering ore, expanding my outpost with sectors like a greenhouse (increased oxygen regeneration) and turrets to help ward off attackers. Steadily upgrading your oxygen capacity and building mining trucks to venture out further sounds like a very satisfying reward after sticking to a humble radius around home.

Blasting Asteroids For Resources

The Asteroids arcade game blew my mind back in the day with the degree of control players had over the ship and the sense of inertia the thrusters offered. Part of that also had to do with using the ship’s peashooter lasers to shoot asteroids and watch them crumble to bits. You can do that in Outpost, too, but there’s more incentive than a high score. Your outpost is equipped with a turret used to defend your base from damaging space rocks recurring asteroid showers. Shooting these hunks of rock not only protects you, but it turns them into glowing chunks of ore ready to claim. I love the idea of the gathering loop offered here: Defend base by shooting asteroids, see rare ore fall to the ground off in the distance, venture out to claim it and bring it back to do upgrades. It’s a clever mixture of shooting gallery fun and loot collecting.

Protect The Homestead!

Despite the logical learnings the late Leonard Nimoy’s Spock attempting to share with us about abandoning man’s warring tendencies, it seems like the old fighting spirit is alive and well on this Outpost. Players can attack one another openly in the game, either by defending their turf or being jerks and griefing others. Players can also damage their rivals’ bases, disabling important systems like oxygen regeneration or defensive turrets. Don’t worry, the repair tool will get thins working again. Alternatively, more progressive players can strike up alliances with others, and even build their outposts to connect with allies to create large mining collaborations. Developer Salty Games is being cagey about exact player counts, but they’d like to see their server populations number in the hundreds.

Truckin’ Around

Gathering ore allows you to make personal spacesuit upgrades (like a better jetpack) and outpost upgrades (like faster building speeds), but you can also build a mining truck with your spoils. This handy rig helps players explore even farther out thanks to its sizeable oxygen supply. Watching the developer demoing the game take floaty jumps off ramps and compensate for the low-gravity inertia made me eager to try it out myself. The mining truck also allows players to gather even more ore from fallen asteroids and return bigger hauls back home. Be warned, though – crappy neighbors can destroy your truck and the precious metals inside (the penalty for death is simply losing what you have and starting back at your outpost). Other players can also steal your trucks if you’re not careful, complete with the valuable cargo it might contain. 

The price isn’t set, but Atari will be using data gathered from an upcoming early access program to help determine what to charge. Additionally, developer Salty Games is incorporating a paid store where players might be able to speed up certain upgrades, but the team says it’s being very careful about not creating a pay-to-win economy. Asteroids: Outpost arrives on PC this spring, so thankfully I don’t have to wait long to start boring into fallen asteroids with a big laser drill.