GameLight - Edge of Space

Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/238240/ Source: Youtube Channel gamezplay

There are plenty of things to wait for this month: Steam Summer Sales, Terraria Update, the release of "Dynasty Warriors 8" and "Time and Eternity".  For the Sandbox game players, Terraria is the big thing everyone's waiting for until Starbound is released.  Unknown to me, another game similar to Starbound was being developed call "Edge of Space" and has passed Steam Greenlight and is undergoing Early Access Beta phase.  At a reduced price of $11.99 from it final price of $14.99, I felt tempted to try it out.  Even if I didn't particularly like it, I thought my contribution would help the developers out a little for those who will enjoy it.

Edge of Space is a Sandbox, Action-Adventure RPG experience where gameplay is non-linear and has no set goals in mind for the player.  It is much like Terraria in that it's a 2D exploration game that allows players to gather materials, build structures, and craft items to further explore more dangerous parts of the world.  Worlds are randomly generated and so will have a different experience with each world created.  The game simply provides the tools for the player to use with no real goals in mind and lets the player set their own objectives.

I was aware of having to be logged in to their servers and not having multiplayer when I bought the game, so I didn't think too much of it when I started up the game.  After an hour of playing, I was able to build a wall around me with no backwall and doors for a house.  Other than that, I created two weapons to help me fight enemies.  In other words, I was completely lost and confused.  The user-interface isn't as simple compared to Terraria, but I do have to say that it's more organized with a window menu system rather than having one long list.  The exploration is a lot more massive with huge elevations and long drops throughout the world.  The player gets a jet pack at the start of the game, but easily runs out of energy when making contact with space jellyfishes or when using it up.  Overall, I think I can eventually enjoy the game to an extent and I believe the developers will continually improve the game, but I think Starbound will provide a better affordance in terms of user-interface and tools for playing the game.

Edge of Space has a confusing crafting system despite having a better organization in the menu system and the graphics of the tiles blend in too well together and make it look muddled.  The graphics do look more realistic, but they don't work well with the rest of the game's mechanics.  But the game is still in its beta and one that can continue to improve even after an official release much like Terraria did.  If you would like to help the developers make Edge of Space a better experience and one step closer to an official release, you can purchase access to the beta and get the full release with it on Steam at the link on top.  By playing the game and giving feedback to the developers, bugs can be fixed and aspects of the game can be added and improved.  At the moment, multiplayer has been disabled and will be available again in the future.  The early access beta phase is requiring players to be online and logged into their servers in order to play.  So keep these in mind before you purchase the game.