Although it’s a genre that has plenty of fans who I massively respect, I had never played a factory automation game until now. I’ll admit I’ve always been a bit worried that setting up productive systems to create resources would go over my head a bit, and I’d end up more frustrated than entertained. This meant I missed out on the Factorio boom, and countless other wonderful games. Well no more, I say. This stops now, because after playing the early access release of Outworld Station I want to automate everything.
When you load in to your first game of Outworld Station you’ll have nothing but your space station hub sat amongst the stars. With tutorial messages turned on though I knew that I needed to build an Atomizer first, and easily clipped one onto my base. The Atomizer is how you generate all basic resources (at least initially) by flying your drone around to grab asteroids and plopping them into it. Some asteroids contain different elements, but no matter what you’ll be dragging them around with your tractor beams and taking them home. It’s a slightly mindless but incredibly satisfying task, which is fortunate as you’ll be doing it a lot.
Once you’ve got those precious raw resources you’ll want to turn them into something more impressive, and that’s where the smelter comes in. Each of these you build can be used to create a single new advanced resource, but only if you’ve got the basic bit of carbon or metal flowing into it. You get resources to where they need to be with the link system, which at the push of a button lets you choose which of your modules a smelter can draw resources from and where they’ll send what they create. By drawing these magic lines from place to place you can create the perfect system to create all sorts of new materials, and don’t have to worry about the layout of your space station at all.
There’s more to manage than just links and resources though, because your space station also needs power to run. You can gather this using solar grids, which like everything else just clip to your base. They do need manually aligning to best capture the sun’s energy though, which is another regular task to keep on top of. As you grow your space station into a more impressive and productive little satellite you’ll have to add more solar grids too, which as you might expect will cost you resources to create.
If I knew all that creating a space base would entail in Outworld Station I’d have likely been scared away from playing, but thanks to the helpful tutorials and missions that guide you in the right direction I found the experience quite welcoming. Completing missions will also grant you access to new modules that can create more advanced materials, which will add to the complexity significantly.
Creating these materials that take multiple steps is much more of a challenge, but with the link skills I had acquired I knew I could manage it. By linking smelters to the new modules I was able to feed everything I needed in to make what I needed for my next mission, but I noticed I was running out of other materials far too quickly for my other objectives. This is where priority comes in, which you can adjust for each module to ensure that the ones you want get the most resources do so. It’s actually a really simple way to ensure your station’s output is what you’re looking for, and is another important piece in the productivity puzzle.
With a bit of practice you’ll be able to create all the materials you need to advance further into the game, at least while things are peaceful. You aren’t alone in space though, and before long will encounter drones that shoot your dinky scout ship on sight. Switching to combat mode and blasting them with lasers is the only way to counter this, and will occasionally grant you bonus loot from the wreckage too. Other hazards appear as you progress alongside aggressive drones, like meteors heading straight towards the station. Defending the base from these is just another part of the overall balancing act of Outworld Station, and one which some upgrades might help you manage.
If you want to upgrade your scout ship you’ll need alien artefacts, which are scattered across the map. You’ll likely start finding these as you’re flying around looking for asteroids, but eventually you’ll need to leave the station for longer and face more danger to grab them. It’s worth collecting these artefacts though as they can be used to upgrade your drone’s firepower, speed, defences and much more, all of which will ensure your space station is untouchable.
Although Outworld Station is launching in early access, it has hours and hours of content for you to dig into. There are multiple locations with different resources to master, and it also features full four player co-op where you can grab some friends to help you build the perfect space base. Nothing about the game feels like an early access game, but there’s still plenty of new planets and modules promised for the next year of development.
Outworld Station is a fantastic automation game, with wonderful onboarding, satisfying productivity management, and a hell of a lot of content. The little additions like combat and gathering asteroids keep the game fresh too, and ensures you’re always busy doing something while your resources are being crafted. Even though it’s in early access now it’s still a great time to jump into Outworld Station, whether you’re an automation veteran or a new convert like me.
Outworld Station is coming to early access on PC via Steam on April 22nd.