Genesis Alpha One
A roguelike simulation of managing a colony ship for humanity.
Genesis Alpha One is a roguelike simulation video game developed by Radiation Blue and published by Team17, released on January 29, 2019 for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It tasks the player with managing a colony ship in search of a new home for humanity, combining ship management with first-person action segments on planets. The game is notable for its premise of customizing ship design, crew members, and creating human-alien hybrids to colonize inhospitable worlds, though it received mixed reception from critics who found its execution lackluster.
- Developer
- Radiation Blue
- Publisher
- Team17
- Release date
- January 29, 2019
- Platforms
- Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Genre
- Roguelike simulation
Lore & Background
The game was developed in Germany using Unreal Engine 4. Ship-building with modules was part of the initial gameplay concept, inspired by the International Space Station. Attacks on the ship by insectoid aliens were inspired by the Alien series. The alien AI was heavily tested to ensure it could traverse levels built by players. Adding automatically closing doors between modules reduced demand for system resources. To decrease the game's scope, the development team did not include manual piloting of the ship, only letting the player hyperjump to a new planetary system. Planetary landings on inhospitable planets were restricted to a small landing zone around the dropship.
Reader's Guide
The game received mixed reviews on all platforms. Critics enjoyed its premise but believed its execution was lackluster, citing tedious gameplay and generic crew members who were bland and boring in both personality and design. Robert Zak of PC Gamer stated that 'the constituent parts for something interesting are here,' calling its ship-building system a 'logical and varied loop' of activities, but noted it was either too easy to defend against aliens or they would end the player's run quickly. He said the ship's clone crew had 'so little character it's hard to care,' summing the game up as 'bland tasks alongside bland colleagues.' Jordan Helm of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a poor rating, commenting on 'the considerable lack of polish, indecisively wonky aesthetic and utterly dismal implementation of random events.' Allesandro Barbosa of GameSpot rated the game poorly on Xbox One, stating that 'it isn't that all of these systems buckle under the weight of their interconnectivity - it's that none of them are that engaging to interact with in the first place.' While describing 'building out your vessel' as 'generally satisfying,' he noted tasks quickly got tedious and decried the lack of a centralized interface, also describing the crew's AI as 'largely useless without your input.'
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