ECO launched today into early access on Steam! My hopes were high and my expectations of what I’d actually get were low. A clunky game would have made sense given the premise of this being an early access game aimed at an educational market.
But guess what? It’s actually really polished.
I was also expecting a moderately complex game like Minecraft with a few more factors like pollution and animals. Nope, it’s like 100x more than even that. There’s so much to this game that you can practically map out the migratory patterns of a species and measure the growth of green beans on your plant.
Upon first logging in and being exposed to everything there is to do in the game, it was initially overwhelming. You’re basically dropped on a planet with a backpack and some tools and told that in 30 REAL days a meteor will strike the planet and wipe you all out. What do you do?
You pick some blueberries to keep your calories up (yep, there are calories you must maintain) and you get to work. Oh, and you have to balance your diet with carbs, proteins, vitamins, etc.
If you’re looking for an engrossing sandbox world with the ability to completely destroy a plent’s ecosystem, this game is for you. Although part of me wants to develop towards automation and tractors, I couldn’t help but suddenly feel like Hexxus from Ferngully as I chopped down trees to build a log cabin. All of my thoughts are now narrated by Tim Curry.
What a whirlwind of toxic love!
I’m happy to say that I’ll be playing a lot of ECO in the coming days.
Wait, so everything you work on will be wiped in thirty days? o.O Harsh….
Nope, we just have 30 days until a meteor hits. We have to advance far enough technologically to destroy the meteor.
New here – is it possible to join your server?
We’re currently discussing the process of adding new people to the server. We’re wanting to keep it tight so that people don’t mess up the world. I’ll post new info very soon!