Chris InglisFarworld Pioneers is a 2D sci-fi survival sandbox developed by Igloosoft and published by tinyBuild. It released on May 30, 2023, on Steam and Xbox, with the PlayStation version on hold while bugs and stability are sorted on the first two platforms. The game allows players to explore, build, and manage colonies on alien planets. With an aesthetic like Starbound and Terraria, we are able to build a base, recruit colonists, collect resources and explore 2D alien landscapes.
The game’s tutorial does a decent enough job to get you started but with bare minimums. It would have been useful to extend just a little bit more, perhaps about making food and preparing for cold temperatures. I figured it all out, but it was a lot of trial and error. Along with my trusty sidekick Buddy, I scrapped our initial drop pod for scrap metal and essentials like a pistol and ammo, and then you are pretty much left to your own devices.
The game’s graphics are pixelated with a charm similar to Starbound/Terraria. The mining and weapon sounds are ample and there is a variety of ambient sounds and music that helps to create an inquisitive atmosphere as we explore these unknown alien landscapes. When there is a snowstorm above ground, the sound can be a bit overbearing compared to other ambient sounds, but these don’t last long anyway. I also liked how the sound turned echoey when in underground caves.
I had read some tips from players starting out and I chose to create an underground cave as opposed to an above-ground village. This was due to the fact we would get raided regularly and I had set up concealed metal doors above my ladders as well as small walls either side and I didn’t have an issue, until later on when I was exploring a factory. I set about building a stockpile so that resources could be stored there, but more importantly accessed by colonists.
Aside from buddy, we will meet an increasing number of other survivors who are found randomly about the place. These AI colonists each have unique stats, perks and flaws that will contribute to your base. Completing tasks with them will level up your colonists, and you can give them specific tasks and prioritise them as your requirements change. You can do things like have them harvest a large area by selecting a box over the trees or ground and they will harvest that area automatically, depositing resources into the stockpile.
Opening the simple map by pressing O, we can see icons for us the player and recruited colonists in green, potential recruits and other npcs in blue, and hostile npcs in red. The first red name I saw pop up on the map turned out to possibly be bugged because he just stood there while I stabbed him to death and looted his stuff. Shortly after that I came across a bandit camp. I stood outside their door, and they did nothing. The door was locked so I bashed it down with my pickaxe. Once the door was down, the bandit then proceeded to shoot the crap out of me. I died and respawned back at the base, but I had dropped everything I was carrying so went back for it.
When you are mining, you can hit rocks that are several tiles away from you, like in Minecraft. But when you’re fighting melee combat, you must be one square away. Ranged weapons work against baddies but the AI tended to use melee first. They also aren’t as intuitive at jumping across cavern entrances, rather than will go down into the cavern and this could mean meeting their death against monsters. I did have a time where one of my colonists died in a frozen section, so, leaving no man behind, I grabbed his corpse and carried him home. The other colonists revived and healed him up without me doing anything which was cool.
At this point I had a nice cavern-village set up with enough beds for everyone and had built an armory, butcher table, furnace, research table, campfire and a steam , so they were self sufficient for food and shelter. While I was off exploring, I was constantly pinged that colonists were out of work. So long as they weren’t dying, I could handle the pinging. Pressing F1 gives you a small menu of talking points with Buddy, and as you discover new materials or unknown items, you can research them to find out more.
One point about researching is that we cannot progress research on our own, it can only be done by a colonist. If your colonists die, then you need to hope another colonist pops up in your world. Buddy will give you some additional prompts as the game progresses with hints of what to do next. I researched a particular item and Buddy said there was an underground transport factory somewhere nearby, and that we should search it for a way off this planet. I took a solo run out there and there were heaps of crates to loot, new tech, and items I hadn’t seen before.
There was so much to loot that I quickly filled my pack, so it is at this point you can tell some of the colonists to follow you, equip them in some better gear and give them a melee weapon or a gun. Melee weapons were more prolific, but they were troublesome when going against flying monsters. There was a boss at the bottom of the factory that I didn’t realise was a boss as it looks like a computer. Only when it started to shoot electric balls at me which hurt that I learned I could shoot it. A data recorder is dropped from it that we need to research. While fighting this boss, raiders had decimated the remaining colonists back at base.
Eventually we get to build our own dropship and then exploration becomes one of the strong points of Farworld Pioneers. We can set off and explore a variety of different planets where each one has its own unique environments, biomes, and challenges, so I can see longevity in the game here. But really, you could just spend your time developing a great base and defending bigger raids as time goes on just on the starting planet. It will be up to how you like playing these types of games or rolling a new seed and starting from scratch but more efficiently.
In reading the Steam forums, the game is copping a heap of negative reviews for bugs such as AI pathing issues, falling through the floor, crashes and losing game progress. I didn’t experience any of these things other than the AI not able to jump across big gaps, but it wasn’t game breaking. I haven’t tried multiplayer yet and I hear there are issues with connectivity. The developers have released a couple of patches and had to roll the most recent back which isn’t ideal. Perhaps the game could have used some more time in development, but I was very lucky not to hit any bugs in my time with the game.
Overall, Farworld Pioneers is a solid 2D sci-fi sandbox game with challenging gameplay and rewarding exploration. Like Starbound and similar games, it’s really up to the player to make their own story with the tools and resources provided. I really enjoyed the art style and the music set a great tone as I explored. If you can manage to avoid the bugs like I did, there’s a lot of fun to be had here.
This review utilised a Steam key provided by Stride PR and Farworld Pioneers is out now on PC and Xbox, with a PlayStation version in development.
#roundtablecoop
