Alone And Full Of Hope in Proven Lands

All alone in a harsh landscape with death waiting to take you away at a moment’s notice; you’ve only one goal, and it’s to survive.  No, it’s not winter in New York, its Proven Lands.

Proven Lands is a sci-fi sandbox roguelike just hit Kickstarter and it’s got a lot of people intrigued not just by its lovely graphics, but its unique gameplay concepts.  You play an astronaut stranded on a planet comprised of procedurally generated landscape that must survive harsh environments, alien creatures, and potential mental problems.  To help you get by the developers promise in-depth crafting, a variety of character skills that match your chosen class, alien artifacts, and vehicles.  It’s essentially an alien world sandbox survival sim RPG, which sounds like the kind of thing I would use a week’s worth of vacation to play.

Aside from being an intriguing survival sim, Proven Lands also features a unique approach to its story.  On one hand you’ll be able to play through an open ended AI meta game that’s different every time you play.  On the other there’s a main story that focuses on a variety of philosophical topics.  The history buff in me is interested in the fact that the character you play in Proven Lands’ main story is inspired by Teruo Nakamura, a soldier in the Japanese military that was the last of numerous hold-outs after WW2; a war that did not end until 1974 for him.  It’s interesting that the developers didn’t choose the recently deceased Hiroo Onoda to base the character on.  Hiroo’s time in hiding was very close to that of Teruo’s, but the experiences they had after their time in hiding were dramatically different.  One welcomed as a hero, the other largely ignored for various reason.  It makes me wonder what this means for our character in Proven Lands.  Is surviving the games’ alien landscape lead to anything other than disappointment, rejection, and untimely death?  We’ll have to wait and see.

 The Proven Lands Kickstarter campaign is running until April 12^th and has an aggressive goal of £299,000.