You're alone on the surface of Mars, and you're running out of oxygen. What happened? How did you get here? How can you stay alive? And what mysteries lay hidden upon the Red Planet?
Those are the questions at the heart of Lacuna Passage, an in-development exploration game from Random Seed games. We've been following it for a little while, and I've now spent some time with an early build of the game. It's fascinating. Clearly inspired by Dear Esther and hard sci-fi like Moon and 2001, Lacuna Passage puts you in the boots of a scientist named Jessica Rainer, sole survivor of a Mars exploration mission gone wrong.
Here's the official hook, if you weren't convinced:
There are 25 square miles of open terrain around the crash site for you to explore, and in order to find the missing crew of the Hermes you won’t want to explore blindly. You must carefully manage your vital resources or you will find yourself stranded in the great red wasteland with no food, water, or oxygen. Will you simply survive and wait for rescue, or will you risk your own life to find the truth? Time and nature are your enemies in Lacuna Passage.
I'll have more detailed thoughts on Lacuna Passage soon. It's worth noting that it's not another "walk forward and hear the story" game like Dear Esther; it borrows that game's vibe, not its design philosophy. Even with only a bit of gametime under my belt, I'm already interested enough to point you guys to their Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight pages, where you can learn a lot more.