If you wish Satisfactory were an FPS, try new open world game StarRupture, out now in early access

As the Bob Dylan song goes, how many lush alien planets must a Man presumptuously land on and turn into poorly optimised Toyota plants before he finally decides he’s sick of being an extractivist piece of shit? Dylan was being rhetorical, but I studied at the school of Homer Simpson, and want you to give me an actual figure. I’m going to say: four and a half. If you’ve yet to hit your personal quota, well, here’s StarRupture out now in early access.

It’s Satisfactory with more of a four-player shoot-me-do element, and scenes from the battlements that recall Michael Ironside’s last stand in Starship Troopers. It’s from the developers of Green Hell, of which Nic (RPS in peace) wrote the following back in 2019: “most of what held my attention about Green Hell was how dazzlingly beautiful and technically impressive it was, but the more traditional survival elements are all solid enough that I look forward to playing more”. History is silent as to whether Nic did, in fact, play more. That’s the last thing RPS ever published about Green Hell, actually. Ominous.

The pitch for StarRupture: you and your scalliwag convict friends have been sent to a strange new world racked by violent changes of temperature. You owe intergalactic society a debt of exotic ore, and naturally, you have a feminine chatbot overseer who is given to snarky corporate slogans. And That’s The Approximately Satirical Sci-Fi Survival Base Builder Guarantee!

Local organisms include many, many skittering bug creatures, who swarm your outposts periodically to have a conversation with your turrets about where best to explode into goo. Fortress aside, you’ll be covering your surroundings with solar panels, conveyor belts and 3D printers. Deeper in, there are narrative mysteries to uncover by, one assumes, going into the caves or ruins or whatever and blasting more/larger insects.

The early access build includes “the majority of gameplay mechanics we’re planning for the full release to be polished and ready to enjoy,” devs Creepy Jar observe, including “an up-to-4-player co-operation mode in which you will be able to build, fight and explore a vast part of our rich open world”. The full release “is planned to contain more biomes, enemies, buildings and mechanics, along with a compelling endgame”.

I realise I sound vaguely like this game ran over my toe while riding one of those heavier, vintage tricycles – the kind with proper metal frames. Some sugar: within its carefully delimited and soulless horizons, this seems promising enough. It makes me want Arrowhead to put base-building in Helldivers 2. If you’d rather learn the ultimate fate of Green Hell, it’s 90% off on Steam at the time of writing.