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In most survival games, you’re cast naked and alone in a fantastical world with nothing but a rock and a stick to help you stay alive. The upcoming Astrobotanica promises to be a little different: Instead of playing as a human trying desperately to survive in an alien environment, you’re an alien facing the same challenge on Earth in the very distant past.

Your name is Xel, and you’re a botanist from a far-away world with a problem: “Irresponsible technological adoption” has put your homeworld on a downward ecological spiral, and so you’ve embarked upon a mission to find verdant worlds from which to harvest seeds and plants that can be taken home and, hopefully, used to turn things around. Which is why you happen to be in this particular galactic neighborhood when your ship blows a gasket and crashes.

Earth is a nice enough place, even in the Pleistocene era, but it’s not perfect. There are wild animals who aren’t exactly friendly, and more pressingly, Xel does not breathe oxygen, so that’s a situation that’s going to have to be dealt with fairly quickly, and on an ongoing basis. 

On the upside, the local neanderthals are friendly, or at least reasonably so: You’ll be able to learn bits and pieces of their language and help them deal with injury and disease, and in return they might hook you up with tools, building materials, and other resources useful for survival.

Also interesting is what sounds like a layer of roleplaying laid atop the survival game: The Astrobotanica Steam page says players will develop their own unique characters through a six-branch progression system consisting of planetary knowledge, research, investigation, management, adaptation, and learning. (It’s an anagram, by the way—it spells “primal.”)

“Form and navigate your unique path by leveraging your habits and obsessions into mastering the game challenges in your personal way,” developer Space Goblin Studio said.

I could be wrong here—that happens occasionally—but the more I look at Astrobotanica, the more I wonder if there’s an aspect of Subnautica hidden away there: That is, a game that presents as a relatively straightforward sci-fi survival game that is anything but once you start digging into it. Subnautica was one of the most unexpected and thrilling videogame surprises I’ve ever encountered, and Astrobotanica’s promise of “uncovering hidden places and solving intriguing mysteries” has me just a little more curious than I otherwise might have been.

Even if it doesn’t have that kind of hidden magic, Astrobotanica looks like it could be a fun twist on the survival formula. I also like that the Steam page describes the game as “relaxed survival.” Call me casual if you will, but I prefer survival-exploration games that are heavy on the exploration, and light on the “actively trying to kill me” part.

Astrobotanica is set to launch into early access on Steam sometime in 2025. In the meantime, as always, you can stay hip to what’s happening on Discord.