It’s like Stardew Valley...in SPAAAAAACE - One Lonely Outpost Quick First Impressions

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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it, but take note of some minor issues in the early access version. One Lonely Outpost is a beautiful and engaging colony-building RPG inspired by popular life sim titles like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon. It’s much more than just a clone, though; One Lonely Outpost brings its own twist to the genre by adding sci-fi elements to the mix. The result is an immersive and relaxing experience, even in its current early access form, but to reach its maximum potential, some guidance and progression issues will need to be addressed.

TIME PLAYED

I played One Lonely Outpost for four hours. I spent around two hours exploring and grinding resources and the rest completing tasks and interacting with characters. I’ve managed to reach day twenty-eight of the preseason and finish roughly a dozen tasks so far. Since landing on this lonely planet, four other characters have joined my colony as well.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Creating a colony. Exploring the concept of landing on an uninhabited planet all alone and building a colony from the ground up charmed me. It was rewarding to see the environment change and become more hospitable as I continued to terraform my surroundings. As this environment evolved, I met new people and forged deeper relationships in this colony—and seeing this world that I spent hours cultivating come to life because of my own actions was deeply gratifying.

• Exploration. I spent around two hours just exploring the world in One Lonely Outpost. The planet serving as my new home was decently sized, and I was able to explore the edges of five areas in the game, with five more that I didn’t yet manage to unlock. There was always something new to find while playing, and there seemed to be no end to the resources I could collect which really excited me.

• Farming. God, I love farming in games, and One Lonely Outpost delivered exactly what I crave from life sims like this. There’s a variety of plants to grow, which all require care and a keen eye to properly bring to maturity. The thrill of simply cultivating a field of different vegetables and fruits made me so happy.

• Building stuff. Although One Lonely Outpost’s slow progression hindered me more than I would have liked from building, I still had the tools to create a little village of my own—a process that I found wholesome and relaxing. I had to acquire blueprints over time and work my way toward new buildings like metal forges, electrical generators, and all the whatnots that were needed to survive on an alien planet.

• An appealing look. One Lonely Outpost takes on a sci-fi theme and features beautiful pixelated SNES-style visuals throughout the game. The game has a lot of vibrant colors that brighten and dull from day to night. The result is a mesmerizing and unique look that really pulled me in.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT

• Not enough guidance. I definitely know my way around colony-building sims like One Lonely Outpost. But it was only because of my knowledge of the genre that the quests and mechanics were somewhat understandable. The game didn’t thoroughly explain where to go and what to do in a way that any average player could understand. I had to figure out what materials I needed and where to find them—and although exploring was always fun to me, even a seasoned life sim player like myself got frustrated by the lack of guidance at times.

• Slow progression. It could be partially due to the game being in early access that some of the content was stretched pretty far, but boy, does One Lonely Outpost ever move slooooow. I spent hours in the game just shoveling dirt, mining ore, and exploring my surroundings before the game really started providing me with a lot of quests and objectives to work towards. Some freedom is welcome, but I definitely hit the point of getting a little bored with the repetition before things picked up.

• Font style. Part of the reason I had trouble parsing early missions and mechanics in One Lonely Outpost was the game’s messy font choice. Letters are spaced too closely together, and overused bold and italic formatting makes the dialogue and task descriptions an eyesore.

• No character customization. I don’t mind the design of the main character in One Lonely Outpost, but I think character customization is such a huge missed opportunity. Hopefully this is an element that gets added and expanded upon as the game moves through early access.

💬 Are you going to play One Lonely Outpost or will you pass on it? Let me know in the comments!