Your Place in the Proven Lands
By Julie Morley
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Explore the environment and you just may stumble upon parts of your broken ship.
We must have been struck sudden by debris. There was no way to avoid it; didn’t even get to send an emergency signal. I barely made it and I don’t even know the name of this stupid planet.
Ah, I love the smell of fear and desperation for survival in the morning. Well, at least I fancy it in my games, which is why I am very excited about the recent Kickstarter campaign for Proven Lands. It is a sandbox, science-fiction survival game with quite a bit to bring to the table, which was a little mind blowing. It’s one of the most anticipated Kickstarter games for 2014 and it is easy to see why.
Pick at the rocks and use the material for your crafting needs.
Proven Lands is designed with you in mind. Yeah, you, and the pizza guy, and your mom, and your dog, well, remove that last part, but you get what I mean. It’s all about the user experience and giving them plenty of options, which also welcomes plenty of mods (hooray!).
Onward with the game details!
You’re stuck on a unnamed planet without any idea what to do. The eco-system is seemingly inhabitable at first and there are strange aliens everywhere you turn. It’s a nightmare, especially for your beginning character, who’s only objective in life up at that point was to be an excellent Fork-lifter that never caused any trouble.
Battle with aliens – a source of meat to help your character live just a wee bit longer.
You’re hungry, exhausted, and you would pay a thousand dollars for a cup of lemonade.
That’s right, your character has feelings (FEELINGS!) and many moodlets that you must pay very close attention to. Other problems will arise if you do not tend to these emotional and physical issues. Wounds untreated will lead to infections. Without replenishing his thirst, he’ll die of dehydration.
You’re motivated to do every imaginable thing to keep him going. Please, make sure he doesn’t go insane.
Collect materials to craft together muchly needed equipment or resources.
Teach him, nurture him, and guide him along. You only have an axe when you begin, so use it, and as often as possible. A skill-tree and crafting system are implemented into the game for this purpose. In time, you’ll nail down crafting recipes and miscellaneous items can be produced.
Wait, crafting? Does that mean more than farming needs? Improving tools? You bet your fanny they will! Each item has multiple modules for upgrading routes. Vehicles, drones, and miscellaneous devices are no exception to this.
Moody, moody, moody! The moodlets will tell you how your character is feeling.
Grow crops, establish a source of oxygen, and construct an outpost; in no time you’ll have a small settlement on this planet. Go exploring and follow the AI-based storyline and you just may locate any of the missing characters. Even level up to a different class, such as scientist or medic. In time, you’ll learn about the three alien races that reside on this planet with your character. Eventually, you’ll explore other planets too.
At the moment, the alpha is available via link on the Proven Lands Kickstarter page for anyone interested in giving it a go. The team has raised just over £14,000 and their funding period is scheduled to end April 12th.
[divider]Game Info
Game : Proven Lands
Platforms : Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android
You can learn even more about Proven Lands by reading our previous coverage of the game, including Julie’s recent “Another View” column she devoted to it titled “Space Loves Me“
