The Crust Preview
In recent years, the genre of base building has been gaining momentum in game development. There are such games as Factorio, Surviving Mars, Frostpunk. The developers from VEOM Studio also decided to contribute to the piggy bank of this genre.
The Crust went into early access quite unnoticeably and immediately attracted the attention of quite a large number of gamers.
Let’s figure out what is good about this game and whether it is worth your attention.
The game offers to build a lunar colony – the last hope of mankind, if you can survive. You will have to build automated production chains on and under the surface of the Moon, manage scientific expeditions and make complex decisions to create a foothold. This is a description of the gameplay from the Steam page.
The development of the base takes place in the depths of the satellite and on its surface. On the surface, energy is being extracted, logistics centers are being built and equipment is being sent on expeditions.
But there is a real technical madness going on under the surface. Intertwining conveyor belts, flying drones, running colonists. There is a extraction of resources, their processing and the production of finished products. In fact, most operations can be carried out on the surface by moving resources through special elevators.
The game has 5 basic resources: silicon, iron, aluminum, titanium and ice. All resources, except ice, are extracted through regolith. Roughly speaking, this is an ore that needs to be cleaned and a clean resource is obtained from it, which is further processed into components, which, in turn, are processed into more complex components. They are needed for the production of machinery.
Technologies and research are presented for efficient extraction and processing of resources. The game features 3 branches of development, 3 types of resources for research. Each branch has useful technologies and, ultimately, we have to explore everything.
Trade plays a key role. Are there not enough resources to erect a building? Do you need to load a transporter urgently to send help to a falling station? Have you accumulated excess smart concrete? The active use of the trading system is the key to the successful development of the colony.
In addition to direct trading, there is a contract system. Various corporations can request help, offering money, reputation, and research points as a reward.
And here there is a reputation system. Reputation is needed to open new, more profitable contracts. And on the one hand, having several factions, it would be possible to arrange a “struggle” between them for resources. By fulfilling a contract, we gain reputation from the factions, and by refusing a fixed-term contract, we lose the reputation of these factions.
It should be noted that the developer sometimes puts the player in the position of choosing who to help. And when choosing one of the factions, the opportunity to help the other is closed.
The project is based on Unreal Engine 4. In general, it has a very decent and smooth picture. The visual is pleasant and does not cause discomfort.
Everything is moving, the light bulbs are on, the impression of a working factory is created. The interface is neat and does not cause dissonance with the overall style.
I must say that The Crust is one of the rather rare cases when Early Access does not mean that it is an early alpha, which has many errors and flaws. The game already has enough content at this stage, and the free mode adds replayability. In addition, it has a fairly diverse gameplay and a long storyline campaign.
Of course, many game mechanics are not polished, there are rare bugs. But there are no questions about this, because the game is still in development, and active.
Such a responsible approach to development on the part of VEOM Studio developers allows us to believe that in the end we will get a worthy representative of the strategic genre.
