Developed and published by Creepy Jar, StarRupture is a brand-new first-person open-world survival game that combines factory-building into the mix as well. This is a tough segment to break into because the hardcore fans of this genre have some solid options currently available, like Satisfactory and Factorio, but it is not impregnable. While both titles are vastly different from each other, during my entire playthrough of StarRupture for this review, my mind kept going back to Stranded: Alien Dawn. Perhaps because both evoke a fantasy or sci-fi vibe. Anyway, StarRupture is the next ambitious project by the developer who gave us Green Hell, another Early Access title which went on to become a behemoth of a survival game with constant updates. This is our Early Access Review of StarRupture on PC via Steam, in which we try to survive an exploding star and alien hordes while ensuring to mine as many resources as possible.
Your journey in the game begins after selecting a character. There is no character customization in StarRupture. You are allowed to choose a character out of four options, and each one comes with its own background, personalities, and skills. These feel like generic options with no real value in the game. Even in co-op mode, all classes perform the same with nothing but a few notable changes between different characters. Choosing a character does not feel like a major change in the game because, as of now, the game only has a default difficulty setting, so if you are choosing the Biologist, she will suffer in combat unless you are playing in co-op and the other player is a soldier. There is no depth to these classes as well. The classes have no weaknesses. The Scientist has bad social skills; the soldier has no weakness, while the engineer’s weakness is her family. I am not sure how her family could be a weakness on an alien planet where she is setting up a mining operation.
StarRupture begins with an almost hour-long tutorial where you arrive on the alien planet of Arcadia-7. Unlike most open-world survival games that I have played, your arrival on Arcadia-7 is not a result of a crash landing, and you actively land on this planet without any incidents. You step out into the wilds with nothing but your harvester, which allows you to harvest the planet’s resources. You slowly start to build your base after choosing a spot, and from there, you start building your first set of refineries and ultimately start collecting different types of ore for supplying them back to the corporations that funded this whole expedition. The tutorial limits your exploration in the open world until you have learned the basics, and then unleashes you on the whole planet.
I spent around 45 minutes in the tutorial, and once it was over, I had a sweet little habitat, a few ore extractors, and an off-planet delivery system, which made no sense to me, but as long as it is delivering to the right corporation, who am I to complain? You are also introduced to how to power your base and connect each facility for sharing power. The tutorial also taught me how to use Rails as the primary means of transporting ore to different processing facilities, like the Smelter or the Fabricator, so I can deliver advanced orders. All of this is surely useful, but one thing the game completely skips in mentioning is that you need food and water to stay alive for the entire duration of the tutorial.
Now I am a video game journalist who plays video games for a living. I spent more time in virtual worlds than I do with my kids. If a game tells me to do this, I will first do that and come back to this. Exploration and curiosity are built into my system, so I will observe and interact with everything I see on the way to a story-related point. This curiosity saved my life in StarRupture because the moment I saw the water lily-type flowers in a lake, I knew these would help in quenching my thirst, and the ones found on solid ground would help with hunger. For a new player who has a life outside virtual worlds, will probably just focus on building ore refineries and a network of rails to deliver as many products as possible to corporations before the character says out of nowhere they are about to die of thirst and hunger.
This source of food and water is also wiped out after the first Ruptura’s meltdown, so the game does absolutely nothing to inform you about your own needs and how you should keep your thirst and hunger levels in check. This is also partly because of the fact that the game’s minimalistic UI does very little to highlight these important stats. You have to press a special key to access advanced stats for your character, and there, hiding in the mix of your character’s passive stats are your hunger and thirst. I am not sure if this is by design or just an oversight, but the active stats of your character need to be on the main UI of the game. This little design flaw has resulted in one too many deaths that could have been avoided easily.
Progression in StarRupture is measured by fulfilling different corporations’ orders, and each completion results in a brand-new diagram unlocking for you to craft and build for your base. These orders begin from simple raw materials to completely built and fabricated items, thus requiring additional production buildings in the mix. Some initial unlocks focus on basic needs like a Recipe Station, Fabricator, and base-building components, but as you progress further, you start unlocking advanced structures like habitat customization and defense turrets. Each corporation in the game has a focus, and if you need a particular type of building, you can complete their orders to unlock it. For example, if you need better food and health, you can complete orders for Fortune Health Solutions first, which gives you Food Station, Regeneration Chamber, and active stat augments. If you need guns, ammo, and turrets, you can start completing orders for Griffit Blue Corporation, which gives you better weapons, a Weapon Upgrade Station, and other offensive items. As soon as defense items become available, you have to prepare for incoming alien hordes as well. These relentless bugs stop at nothing, and you have to prepare and defend yourself against them.
While combat is not the main showstopper of gameplay in StarRupture, it is still an important element of the game and one that will have you running around, looking for supplies and crafting ammo before the next horde arrives. StarRupture is not just all about automation and factory-building, as you will often get attacked by hostile fauna on Arcadia-7, and you will need to prepare your defenses adequately. Apart from your own weapons, you also have turrets that you can build in the game for defense against these enemies. There is no fixed direction from which these enemies approach your base, and this gets a little annoying as you expand your base, because, naturally, you would put defenses on the outskirts of your base, but sometimes, the enemies will just spawn inside your base.
You have a limited selection of weapons and turrets in the current build, and that feels underwhelming considering how big the enemy hordes tend to get. The defense also lacks some important buildings, which could have added to it significantly, like defensive walls, traps, and similar structures. As you progress in the game and the enemies start to level up, you will die a lot as well, because unless you have built a fortress (not possible here), you cannot stop the incoming enemies. This becomes tough, especially if you are playing solo, because you can only damage enemies to a certain extent with the weapons and turrets you have placed around your base. The lack of verticality in building the base also makes this challenging more than it needs to be.
Probably the most prominent feature of StarRupture is the constant threat of Arcadia-7’s exploding star Ruptura. Ruptura is an unstable star, and it explodes regularly, increasing temperatures on the planet to an insane level and sending powerful shockwaves across the entire map. When it happens, you cannot survive outside, so you need to run back inside your habitat before the cataclysm begins. The game informs you of this beforehand so that you can head inside. If you are caught outside, you will burn to your death. During these moments, the entire planet completely changes its atmosphere. The plants are burned, water evaporates, and the land becomes black. Even after the rupture is over, you have to wait for the temperature to cool down, and your machines need to cool down as well before they can start operating again.
Coming to the game’s visuals, the game features some great moments and some dull moments. Arcadia-7 is a beautiful planet, but certain textures do not appeal up close. These include rock formations, grassy plains, or the insides of caves. Even on the highest fidelity settings, the textures sometimes appear like they are still loading. Other than these hiccups, I am overall a fan of StarRapture’s visual design and approach. I like how the bugs look in the game, and their variety is decent. There is no wildlife on the planet, so it feels a little empty. The plants look generic and nothing special. Special effects are also not that many, but the animations are crisp. Watching the entire process of Ruptura’s explosion, the planet turning black with dense smoke, and then it coming back to life slowly gives an alien experience.
StarRupture may feel unpolished or low on content when compared to similar games like Satisfactory or Factorio, but it does have the Early Access tag with it, and with a detailed roadmap already in works, tons of additional content are already coming to StarRupture in the future. This has been the case with Creepy Jar’s previous title, Green Hell, which started as a shell of what it is today. Creepy Jar is known for a slow-paced development, but they have always delivered in the past, so I have very high hopes about StarRupture and its 1.0 release.
In its current state, the game is still enjoyable; there is a lot to build, a lot to unlock, a lot to explore, and a lot to fight. If you are used to playing Early Access titles that require much polishing and optimization, StarRupture should be right up your alley in its current state. If you demand a more stable and satisfying experience, you should steer clear of it as of now. I still believe that good things are on the horizon for the game, and if everything goes according to the roadmap revealed, we will have a solid release for the 1.0 version.
Related News:
- Creepy Jar’s Ambitious Project StarRupture Launches on PC in Early Access, Roadmap Detailed
- Green Hell Developer Gives a Detailed Co-op Gameplay Look into its Upcoming Sci-Fi Title StarRupture
- Creepy Jar Gives Us a First Glimpse at Combat in First StarRupture Gameplay Teaser
Final Verdict:
StarRupture features an amazing world, and it is a strong start with a clear development plan in mind. Creepy Jar did a miracle with their previous title, so I am optimistic that StarRupture will get the same dedication from the developer, which will lead it to become an excellent game for its 1.0 release. At this moment, the game certainly requires more work, optimization, and content. At certain times, the game does tend to start feeling empty because of the lack of content. If you want to jump into StarRupture right now, it offers hours of factory-building, automation, and access to a gorgeous planet for you to explore. If you want to wait for additional content, you can give it some time and dive into it a little bit later when a few updates have landed, because the developer has already shared a detailed roadmap.
Final Score: 8.0/10
Disclaimer: An Early Access PC Steam review code for StarRupture was provided by Terminals.io on behalf of Creepy Jar for this review. Read our Review Policy.
