StarRupture Early Access Review
After 130.6 hours, I finally completed StarRupture‘s Early Access content. I’m not a big fan of survival games, but management simulations are my jam. So there’s some sort of love-hate relationship between me and StarRupture, but I can confidently say it’s mostly love that oozes out of me.
Story and Exploration
StarRupture’s story is hidden behind notes and audio logs scattered around its world. There are abandoned research sites left behind by previous scientists on the planet Arcadia-7, and the whole lore behind everything revolves around control of power (not military power or anything like that, more like electricity) and its effects on the wildlife and ecology of Arcadia-7.
Aside from these abandoned research sites, there is one major location in the game that serves as the endgame for both gameplay and the story. Honestly, you could miss out on the entire story and just do whatever you want in the game and still enjoy it, but it’s nice to know there’s real thought put into the in-game reality and world of StarRupture.
Yet, to find all these tidbits of lore and locations, you need to explore—and exploration is something I found very fun in StarRupture.
Other points of interest players will find include underground caves, monoliths, geoscanners, and material sources (i.e., ore and gas deposits).
Underground caves and monoliths are probably the most interesting, but they only become important in the mid-to-late game. Underground caves contain late-game raw materials that can be gathered to create advanced materials or buildings. On top of that, they can only be accessed at certain times, as they are covered in vines. Monoliths are actually something I want to keep secret, but a small hint I can give is that they are affected by electricity.
As for geoscanners, Arcadia-7 has a map with a “fog of war.” As a standard exploration mechanic, this fog clears when your character physically explores the map. Geoscanners are structures that can be interacted with to clear a large area, helping players remove the fog of war in certain regions without fully exploring them. Not to get your hopes up, though—it helps a lot, but you will still need to explore around 70% of the map manually.
Hazards and Enemies
Arcadia-7 isn’t a theme park. It is filled with different hazards coming from its environment and wildlife.
When exploring, you will encounter alien species pretty similar to Terminids in Helldivers, and they are pretty scary. The ones you encounter early on are pretty small and manageable, but as you progress your base and reach farther lands, bigger ones appear.
Their movements and behavior aren’t pretty complicated, but they are not to be underestimated.
Other things players must look out for are environmental hazards such as grass that drains energy from the player, and radiation.
RupturA
A special kind of hazard unique to Arcadia-7 is its star expelling high amounts of heat that burn the entire planet of Arcadia-7. This is called a star rupture, or Ruptura. This happens approximately every hour, and players must hide inside their base so they do not get burned to a crisp. I naively thought that hiding under large rock crevices would shield me from the Ruptura, but I was wrong, and I advise you not to make the same mistake I did.
After every Ruptura, the entire ecology of Arcadia-7 is essentially dead. Every plant life and wildlife is burned. You may wonder how such a thing is sustainable in a survival game, but a cool feature of StarRupture is that Arcadia-7 regenerates in real time, and you can actually notice it visibly. This is probably the best thing StarRupture has and what sold me that this game is one of a kind.
Most games have dynamic weather and sometimes seasons, but StarRupture has this periodic “kill” switch that allows players to appreciate the world of Arcadia-7 dying and reviving in real time.
Some people may find the Ruptura mechanic pretty tedious, but after some time, it’s not that deadly if you always have a few basic building materials in your inventory at all times. With that said, I still get caught by it, especially when exploring far away from my bases.
Some people may find the Ruptura mechanic pretty tedious, but after some time, it’s not that deadly if you always have a few basic building materials in your inventory at all times. With that said, I still get caught by it, especially when exploring far away from my bases.
Another concern players may have is that the Ruptura mechanic may disrupt the flow of the game by essentially halting any gathering or building gameplay involved for a time. That is partly true. While the Ruptura burns all plant life and wildlife, stopping players from gathering plants, water, and alien materials, Ruptura instead replaces materials to be gathered with inorganic materials expelled by the “sun” of Arcadia-7. Some of these materials can only be gathered after Rupturas, so they are pretty relevant to the game and are an actual part of the gathering gameplay loop of StarRupture.
Management Simulation
Last but not least is the management simulation. StarRupture is basically Factorio, where you build your own supply and manufacturing line with power sources, power lines, transport lines, and manufacturing buildings.
The challenge here does not stop at managing the resources gathered from extractor buildings in an efficient way, but also distributing them to different buildings and maintaining enough power to keep all buildings running.
There is also a base defense mechanic, so you can set up defensive structures, but that comes somewhere around the mid-game. Honestly, I am not a fan of this part of the game.
Overall, I think the management simulation in the game is pretty solid, if not buggy. The number of “checkpoints” that have to be cleared to unlock new kinds of materials and structures is fine, and the difficulty in reaching those numbers is as well. I actually think my 130 hours of gameplay are too short, as I don’t think the game should end in just a week or two; it took me around a week and a half to log those hours.
The bugs, however, are pretty egregious. Transport lines that split resources to different routes are not working as intended, and transport lines actually stop working for no reason after some time. Structures also do not cool down after overheating sometimes, and I have to restart the game to fix it. These are pretty annoying and I truly hope these are the first bugs they fix.
Is StarRupture A Good Game? Is StarRupture Worth it?
StarRupture is a good game and honestly pretty worth it considering its low price.
I know a lot of people are skeptical and pretty on the fence when it comes to Early Access games but I really had fun with this one despite not being the complete version yet.
Hardcore fans of survival and factory-management games may be disappointed, but those with pretty mild expectations should enjoy the game. I would like to believe that fans of Subnautica, The Forest, Factorio, and Satisfactory are keen to play the game, and so I advise them to actually watch gameplay videos before purchasing and trying out the game.
More StarRupture Screenshots
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