Osiris: New Dawn just went early access and after playing it now for a few hours thats exactly what I have to consider it.
Right now its way too early to make any judgement about the game.
I started a singleplayer game and meanwhile have discovered everything that there is in the game atm.
Is that enough to give a review?
Probably not.
Therefore I decided to compare it with the only other sci-fi game that has a similar background and gameplay -> Subnautica.
Both games are Sci-fi survival adventure games where the player crashed on a distant planet trying not to die and trying to build up a station that helps to get back into space.
Thats pretty much the only thing these games have in common.
In Subnautica the player is standed on a water planet and has to survive below the ocean surface while in Osiris the player is stranded on the Mars-like desert planet.
While Subnautica is in early access for a pretty long time alreary and close to the official release data (in 4-6 months) Osiris still has a very long way to go.
The current state of Osiris is very limited.
For a survival game there is pretty much no survival part in it yet. That might change but right now you dont need to drink water or eat. All that could happen to you is that your spacesuit gets damaged after and attack of an alien animal which results in loss of O2. But by default you have a bit duck tape that seems to be enough to repair whatever is broken.
Peformance wise Osiris runs very stable and also with good frame rates on my PC. Subnautica also runs stable but during endgame the framerates break together. Subnautica really needs some performance optimizations prior its final release. But I think thats something that happens anyways.
Osiris has the big advantage of a working multiplayer mode. So teaming up and plaiyng together is possible. The way I understand it you can even build bigger colonies out of different player bases.
I have not tried the MP yet so I cant really tell how that is supposed to work. MP tests will be next.
Orisis multiplayer might be the biggest advantage over Subnautica on the long run.
Depending on how its done it might motivate players to cooperate and play the game longer than a singleplayer game would allow.
However, Osiris also has many weaknesses from my point of view.
Technically its has its flaws.
I can into so many bugs and problems during the past hours of gameplay that I think the game development still needs years.
One of the biggest issues I have with Osiris is the base building.
You may only build 10 base modules. Thats the limit.
While Subnautica motivated the players to freely construct their bases and be absolutely creative, Osiris is limiting the players on one of the most important aspects of the game.
I dont really like that.
What happens if I have constructed all allowed base modules? What do I do next?
In Subnautica the answer the answer would be pretty simple: Build more! Try crazy stuff.
From the MP point of view the limitations on the base construction in Osiris makes even sense because you are playing together with other players and thats a way to keep players and their power in the game balances. It also prevents that players with less good PCs to suffer serious frame drops once they visit an area of the planet where a MEGA base is located.
The limitation makes sense... but well... its a limitation that also could limit the whole gameplay.
Another thing that is limiting Osiris seems to be the planet itself.
Subnautica completely happened in a 3d environment while Osiris happens on the surface... a 2d environment. Thus the game appears to feel smaller eventhough you practically have the entire planet to visit.
But what does "the entire planet" actually mean?
I did some exploration 20km away from the initial spawn location and there is nothing. Its a desert. No animals, no plants, no rock formations... nothing.
Only 4km² around the spawn location are real gameplay terrain with living creatures, craters, rocks, floating rocks, plants and resources.
Thats not much.
But maybe it is that way be design.
Maybe multiplayer is working similar.
Every player gets a spawn location and around that 4km² terrain gets created and so the surface of the planets gets filled with content, depending on how many players are playing together.
For me its a bit early to judge about that but its probably the reason why there is such a limitation. For multiplayer it would makes sense so players have equal start conditions.
Why that limitation exists in singleplayer is not known to me.
Generally can be said that Osiris with its Mars-like surface clearly looks amazing... and you feel a bit like Matt Damon in the Martian but this setting also turns a bit dull after some time.
There are creatures spawning at fixed locations... always the same creatures (only one per spawn point) all all creatures are hostile. There is no friendly cute mars mammal that follows you out of interest. Just weird predators that try to kill you if you get close. And every time they try doing so the same stupid battle music starts playing ... which really started to piss me off because it breaks the immersion. Eventually I turned off the music because of that.
In Subnautica you can see the complete opposite.
The ocean is full of life.
Fishes swim around you peacefully and predators are hunting their prey while in the distance you can hear the big ones that you probably dont even want to meet.
Subnautica is alot more diversive.
Unlike just one Mars-like environment you have many different and interesting biomes. The Blood Kelp Zone, Crash Zone, Dunes, Floater Island, Grand Reef, Grassy Plateaus, Kelp Forest, Koosh Zone, Mountain Island, Mountains, Mushroom Forest, Safe Shallows, Sea Treader's Path, Sparse Reef, Underwater Islands, Jelly Shroom Caves, Active Lava Zone, Inactive Lava Zone, Lost River, Twisty Bridges,... etc.
After weeks of gameplay you still find stuff you have never seen before.
But at this point we also should keep in mind that Osiris is very early in development.
Maybe you can get access to different kinds of environment later.
You can construct a space ship and launch into space. I asume you do that for a reason and given the fact that you are starting on a moon (yes its a moon orbiting a gas giant) and that there are more moons in range might mean that you can at some point visit them. One of the other moons had a greenish look. Maybe there you can find more stuff.
The biggest problem in Osiris right now is that after just a few hours of gameplay you are done. There isnt more to see, not more to be done. I constructed my base with ease.
All resources exists in abundance in close range to the spawn location. I never had any problems getting any resources to construct buildings, weapons, vehicles or interiors.
Ive build everything that exists in the game within just a few gameplay hours.
I hope that this is going to change and I really hope that for the multiplayer part bases and colonies play a much bigger role.
Of course do both games have their technical problems.
Like mentioned earlier Subnautica has a few performance problems later during the game. There probably are memory leaks or collider problems.
Osiris has its own problems.
The animations appear to be very twitchy... animals move weird and also the player animations are partly aweful. I have no idea why everything has to bounce in such a weird way. I also got stuck in terrain multiple times and walking up starts on some of the base buildings is a nightmare.
Its raining right through the glass of the biodome. Its not possible to connect multiple habitats.
Creatures can walk through the walls of corridors and attack you while you are inside.
It started raining while I was flying with my spaceship on the surface and when I launched into space the rain didnt stop. A space shower.
Everything you look at gets highlighted for no obvious reason. I dont like that.
Another thing that bothers me a bit on Osiris is that resource nodes respawn (thats the default setting which you can change). I think in a survival game such an option should not exist except for biologial resources (fruits, etc.). It should not happen that 10mins after you mined iron the iron respawns.
In subnautica most resources dont respawn once collected. That forces you to explore and reach other into different areas of the game. Limited resources are something good and its good if some resources are rare to find.
I am not sure in which direction Osiris will develop from here but I really hope that the developers take a closer look at how stuff is done in Subnautica because there alot is done in a very clever and interesting way.
The multiplayer part of osiris still makes it a promising game if they dont fuck up something with the long term motivation.
I guess I simply have to try the MP part now and see how it does work.
At least I have learned that you need more than a towel in space. Duck tape... that fixes everything.
