Survival games are plentiful right now, and when Creepy Jar - the team behind the jungle survival game Green Hell - revealed StarRupture, their next survival adventure, I was ready!

My Sentence

In StarRupture, you play as a prisoner paying off your sentence on the planet Arcadia-7. You must repay your debt by gathering resources to send back to Earth for the greedy corporations at home. You’re treated as just a number in the vast, replaceable machinery of the corporate business model. You will die, but don’t worry - you’ll be back! Regenerated to continue working off your debt on this alien-infested planet.

You aren’t the first to inhabit Arcadia-7. Remnants of previous prisoners can be found throughout the planet, encouraging exploration and discovery about those who came before you and your friends. StarRupture doesn’t just sentence you to the planet - it also brings along three of your friends, if you all choose to help feed the greedy corporations back on Earth.

More is Better

During my early solo playthrough of StarRupture, it immediately felt like more is better. Playing solo, was enjoyable, however, I definitely missed the help that most survival games benefit from. The early stages of learning the lay of the land were simple and straightforward, with a barrier preventing you from venturing too far from home base. Learning the fundamentals of outer space survival and how to build a never-ending factory for resource management to send back home and expand your equipment was essential.

Arcadia-7 feels like a lost and empty planet best explored with friends. You’ll quickly realize that playing with friends is much more enjoyable. Although I wasn’t able to try co-op during my playthrough, it will be available at launch on January 6, when the game enters Early Access. Having others to explore the planet, help manage equipment, and fend off the alien creatures known as Vermin will be the best way to explore Star Rapture.

Feeding the Corporations

Your message board is the main source of information for new missions and expanding your base. The Cooperation Terminal provides contracts from various corporations requiring materials or production items such as titanium rods or sheets, and much more. By sending the requested materials, you’re rewarded with new gear to expand your base, new weapons, and more.

It’s the loop of gathering and expanding to new materials, resources, and equipment in StarRupture on the foreign planet of Arcadia-7 that begs for exploration. Each new vista is stunning, and just when you think you’ve extracted all the resources from one area, you find there’s so much more to explore. It appears to never end, with exploration that again screams to be played with friends.

The Rupture

As the title suggests, StarRupture features a Rupture event that briefly burns the planet to a crisp, overheating it and forcing you to find shelter before watching the world ignite in a fiery explosion. The Rupture leaves burning segments that should be gathered immediately before they transform into solid rock. During this brief cooldown period, the Vermin are eradicated from the planet, giving players a rare opportunity to explore worry-free, but the freedom won’t last long, and hordes of creatures will return!

This brings me to one of my few complaints: the hordes don’t stop! Run all you like, but they never seem to give up. They will continually chase you with relentless hunger. Running for your life across the map, only to have them keep chasing until you reach your base, seems to be the only way to survive. The hordes, which feel like thousands, can quickly become overwhelming.

With only a pistol to fend off the hordes, I gave in to my desire for exploration. The gunplay felt snappy and precise, though the animation for aiming down sights and returning to the normal stance needs improvement. There’s no in-between movement animation; instead, there’s a sudden, jerky motion back to the regular holding position, which is rather jarring.

The Early Stages

With StarRupture launching in Early Access, most players know this is just the beginning and can expect some issues from time to time. Early Access is meant to help shape the future of the game, as Creepy Jar will be looking for feedback to craft their game.

Is the current state of the game worth jumping into? During my time with the game, I never experienced anything that broke my experience. The game feels like a solid start to another great survival game from the team. When a survival game launches into Early Access, the fear of having nothing to do can be worrisome. However, that wasn’t the case with Star Rapture.

There needs to be a sense of learning, exploration, and progress. The game should always feel rewarding, with constant expansion and never the sense that there’s nothing left to do. If Creepy Jar can maintain this rewarding factory management, a sense of storytelling, and a gameplay loop that hits the survival genre’s core needs, Star Rapture will build upon the success of Green Hell as we leave the jungle and head to space. Are you ready to pay off your sentence? I am!