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0 Horizon Journey is a mars colonization survival simulator. It is being developed and published by Redivided Studios (Survive The Hill) and is now available in Early Access. You can pick it up only on Steam.
Mars on the Horizon
With my recent time in StarRupture, I was looking forward to checking out another exploration type simulator. Horizon Journey looked like it would be a fun one, with less focus on harvesting for profits. Games come to Early Access in all states though. Check out my thoughts on the current state of this one below.
Gameplay
Horizon Journey is a simulation sandbox game set on Mars during the colonization period. A few pre-existing structures are strewn about, but for the most part you’re on an empty slate. The objective is as clear as with any survival game – gather, expand, and advance. There doesn’t seem like a whole lot going on apart from that currently, as progression through the early quests has been slow. The current build is designed to have more focus on the story, rather than open sandbox.
The first thing that was painfully different in Horizon Journey was the way of immediate resources. You’ll notice in the screenshot above, rock-looking objects appear everywhere on the planet’s surface. Or at least by my first base. This would be cool and all, but the resources are very hard to distinguish from one another from a distance, although up close you can see different colour bands across the rock which distinguish ores. Also, each one only rewards you one ore item of that resource type. Within a first few quests you need gather aluminium ore to make ingots to turn into sheets – two ore per ingot, two ingots per sheet. This combination of factors made it hard to easily locate aluminium, making the experience tedious and obnoxious.
In addition to the issue with resources, I am also finding it extremely frustrating to be dying from lack of food and water consistently at the very start of Horizon Journey. I don’t expect every game to hold my hand, but there’s no indication whatsoever on how to fill the food meter that I recall. Putting an essential game mechanic in, without guiding the player on how to fulfil that mechanic the first time is painful. I did find I could make a nutrient processor. But building this requires aluminium sheets. So I spent time dying from starvation whilst gathering those.
Graphics & Audio
I like to give Early Access games the benefit of the doubt. Lately TC has been spoiling me with some really great EA games loaded with content and polish. Unfortunately, Horizon Journey just isn’t one of those games. It is only available on PC, so that’s where I’ve been playing. I’m finding occasional graphical bugs such as overlapping models and clipping through the environment while doing so. The UI itself also seems to glitch out at times when trying to click or interact with buttons, and you have to be perfectly precise to activate. Icons for items also randomly disappear after using and don’t seem to return.
Another major issue I found with Horizon Journey was the direct comparison of what the UI and models look like in-game and the trailers and screenshots. They are simply not the same and in my opinion, for the worse rather than better. Because there is such a drastic difference, I did go looking for some kind of reason (like turnover or change in publisher) and found that the developers posted an update in mid-December explaining. Basically, they did not feel that they would be able to deliver on a fully open sandbox at Early Access launch, but rather the focus on story. As part of this shift, they also felt the need to overhaul the UI and systems to be more simplistic.
The audio in Horizon Journey has some quirks too. The main one that stands out, I believe, is the absence of sound in the rover. Like I get it, you’re in space and technically there’s no sound. But it’s just awkward to suddenly have the game be completely silent for a bit. Not even hearing the sands whipping against the windshield.
Longevity
At this point Horizon Journey doesn’t have much longevity. It is just the beginning of Early Access, so there is time. I really hope the developers can follow through on expanding and allowing for a more open sandbox experience like they originally hoped. Some quality of life improvements will help those along, like myself, becoming frustrated with the starting tasks. Until then I won’t be spending more time with it.
Final Thoughts
Horizon Journey isn’t quite what I was hoping and looking forward to. The most glaring issues probably being the resource acquisition method and the stark difference between what’s shown on the store page and other media and what the game actually looks like currently. I understand wanting to simplify things down to reduce the workload on your team. But cutting things back to the point of not looking anything like the same game, even just in Early Access, is rough. With the decision to make such a large overhaul within a short time of making it available, it would have served better to have held off in my opinion. Let it cook before taking this ride.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
If you enjoy this review, be sure to check out my other reviews here.
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