Hi there and welcome to another edition of DGA’s Early Access Corner, a place where I take a quick look at what I’ve been playing as of late. Like my previous article, all of the games featured here were both gifted to me by their respective developers and are currently in an Alpha or Beta state. As such, the below content does not serve as any sort of review…though I do provide my personal thoughts as to whether or not they are worth buying into in their present state. Happy gaming!
RimWorld – Take “Prison Architect“, mix it with “Spacebase DF-9“, and you’ll get “RimWorld”. You’ll assume control of three survivors who have crash-landed on a planet and must help them thrive. The setting reminds me of “Factorio” a bit, but the gameplay resembles the two aforementioned games. I played for about four hours the first time I booted it up and honestly didn’t want to stop playing. It can be unforgiving at times and my makeshift “home zone” caught fire at least once a day, but it was enjoyable fending off bandits with gun turrets and watching my survivors go about their daily tasks with reckless abandon. You can buy into the Alpha for $30.00 through the official website and also receive a Steam key if/when the game appears there. Worth it? I think so, but some may want to wait for more features to be added before dropping $30.00.
Infectonator: Survivors – “Infectonator Survivors” is an interesting tower-defense, RTS, and zombie survival mix. Each day you’ll be allowed to explore a location for supplies while fending off waves of zombies. Alternatively, you can keep a few people behind to research new technologies. Each survivor has their own loadout and stats (both of which can be customized to a degree) and has a persistent leveling system. You can try the Alpha for free over at Armor Games, or you can buy into it via Steam’s Early Access program for $12.99. There are some insane difficulty spikes, but the game is still a lot of fun and I come back to it every now and again. They’ve recently redone the controls to allow for selection boxes and the like, making the game much more playable than before. I recommend playing it for free via the above link before buying it.
Fight The Dragon – The final boss (the dragon) is available almost right from the start…good luck beating him though. If you want to stand any sort of chance of defeating this beast, you’ll need to level up your hero by playing various maps. This game was developed by the same folks who created “Cubemen“, so there’s a similar feel when it comes to gameplay mechanics. The best part is that the game comes with an Adventure Construction Kit that allows players to create and share their own levels. It’s currently available for $14.99 via Steam’s Early Access program. It’s not the best hack-n-slash I’ve played, but I do appreciate that most levels take less than ten minutes to beat. Overall, I think it’s worth the price it’s currently asking for.
Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars – “Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space” was/is an interesting diversion when you have a few minutes to explore the galaxy. The third installment in the series, “Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars”, is very similar in that you’ll be trying to accrue points by exploring and acquiring technology before the time limit expires. This edition adds 3D maps to the mix (among other things), though I’d wait a bit to see what else the game will offer before dropping the ten bucks needed to buy it. It’s playable in its current state, but not finished enough for me to recommend it. Still, if you’re set on being Captain Kirk and going off to fight alien species, then you can buy into the Alpha via Steam’s Early Access program.
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Gameplay Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBBEauhXetA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQv_6PNy9lw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YXSRQqGt6o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlaOPoCrq7A