I’ve spent a couple of hours (2.2, to be precise) with the “Outposts Unknown” demo since it was released on Steam, and I thought I’d share my thoughts on what I’ve played so far.

First off, I’m a longtime fan of citybuilders, and so I came into this with high hopes. From what I’ve played so far, my hopes are…not as high as they were, but I think there’s still promise.

It’s also worth noting that despite being marketed as a demo, it feels more like an open beta, with the game begging you to leave them feedback every time you play. I hope that this means there’s room for improvement before the game launches.

I was a little surprised that you don’t quite get the “SimCity” experience of simply plopping down the buildings you want to build - instead, you get an initial away team on the surface of a planet, and you dispatch them to gather resources, conduct research, and stuff like that. Once you’ve gathered enough resources, you can build your various buildings and structures.

It plays…fine, though it’s a little unintuitive. I had to work out on my own how to gather minerals effectively (and to be honest, I’m not sure I’ve fully worked it out). The game offers objectives to build certain structures, but the guidance on how to do it is minimal, and I’m actually currently stuck on one of them, because I’m not sure how to accomplish it. A more robust tutorial, or at least some ToolTips, would be welcome.

The game looks and sounds…also fine. The buildings at least resemble the SNW aesthetic, though I think they could do better on that front. Everything looks a little too polished, in my opinion. The graphics seem good, but not great - it almost looks like it could run on an iPad or something. The music sounds appropriately Trekkie, but is also pretty forgettable (so, 90s Trekkie).

The small amount of story that I’ve covered is bare-bones, but I really haven’t progressed very far. I’m in a system with a weird anomaly in it, the planet is radioactive, stuff like that. I’m not sure how deep it’s going to go, since this type of game isn’t exactly known for storytelling.

Overall, it hasn’t grabbed my attention in the way I’d hope it would, but I remain hopeful for its development. I’d like to hear your thoughts, if you’ve given it a go.