One Lonely Outpost by developer and publisher Freedom Games—PC (Steam) review written by Susan N. with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Introduction
Freedom Games has a new farming sim titled One Lonely Outpost which has all the makings of a fantastic game but needs some work before standing up to other similar games. Unlike other colony sims where you start and maintain a farm on an earth-like planet, this one happens on an alien world where the climate is different. After your ship malfunctions and you land on this alien planet, you must grow crops to survive. Then, when you least expect it, things get weird.
Gameplay
We crash land on Calypso, a planet in the galaxy but it is not our original target. Our communications fail and we need repairs. The problem is that the planet doesn't have supplies. Your companion robot Qwerty helps to fix the electronics while you plant seeds to grow food. Thankfully, you have some nutrient paste to keep going in the meantime.
After communications have been re-established, the PGP - which stands for Pan-Galactic Parliament - reminds you that you must share any profits made on the alien planet. Because of course they do. Anyways, it's not long before you discover that One Lonely Outpost has a story to follow. Now this is interesting, at least for a bit.
We learn that we must make the planet inhabitable by terraforming it. Introducing different seeds to the environment has a visible and positive effect on the planet. Having played colony sims before, I can say that many of them seem to fail in good story telling because it isn't the focal point. Simulation games tend to have freedom, like Stardew Valley does. One Lonely Outpost has the illusion of freedom, but is incredibly linear and slow to progress.
Another point we learn is the planet has a sentient alien entity that communicates to you through your robot companion QWERTY. Initially, this hook is fantastic and flips the genre on its head. But, while I was drawn to the story, I found myself passing time until the next story beat.
The story progression wasn't the only aspect of the game that bothered me, though. Its graphics had some good aspects and bad.
Graphics
One Lonely Outpost is a pixel art game, a common graphic style in the genre - and by no means is this a negative. As such, it has polished aspects though, others fall into a black hole. For example, the overall scenery of each area is unique. I could easily distinguish the items that are mined, swept away, or picked up. The areas that I explored were all detailed enough to make me feel like an alien planet. And as I affected the planet's ecosystem with planting seeds, the areas began to bloom with life and color.
There are some downsides to the graphics in One Lonely Outpost. Notably, the 2D images of the character models did not animate properly. Putting these 3D images on top of 2D landscapes looked like a photoshop job gone wrong. In contrast, when speaking to the NPC's that aid in the planets' terraforming, the character images are much better illustrated. They look like decent anime characters, contrasting the pixel graphics throughout the rest of the game. It's like the animators didn't have a clear graphics style in mind, which is unfortunate.
As for the UI, it has a decent visual design but the game features were lacking. The tablet consulted throughout your playthrough has an inbox, resource information, and details on the other colonists. However, interacting with popup boxes is not seamless. Moving items from your inventory to a storage box is tedious. You can only drag and drop stacks of items. While there is an option to split a stack, it isn't refined like other games. There is no way to take two or three items on their own, you must split the stack multiple times to get your desired amount. Doing this takes up more space than it needs to.
Pros and Cons
One Lonely Outpost has some good aspects to offer design-wise. Unlike other farming or colony sims that overload players with dozens of NPC introductions, each person you meet in this game travels to Calypso. Together, you and the NPCs establish a new evolving colony.
Another good aspect of the game is the story which keeps players engaged. Every couple of days something different happens like scouting the area, finding specific objects to repair equipment, or receiving new blueprints to expand the colony. Because NPC's find their way to Calypso, it is easier to set the pacing without overloading players.
The flipside of the story keeping players engaged is also its detriment. While it is fine that every couple of days players get new items or tasks, it takes too long. And the reason it feels that way is because your character is slow moving. There's no sprint or fast travel button or mount. Plus, there isn't enough to do because each area is quite barren. The story pacing is not great for keeping people interested for long.
Another minor point that contributes to why I believe this game is just another entry in the genre is not being able to craft multiple objects at once. If you need ten boxes for deliveries, you need to press the craft button ten times. You cannot right click to move one stack onto an existing stack. It's small issues like these that players might not enjoy.
Summary
One Lonely Outpost has potential to be a great entry in the simulation space, but falls flat. The place is too lonely and barren of objectives and interest to keep players invested for long periods of time. While I applaud the concept of stepping outside of the norm when it comes to colony sim conventions, One Lonely Outpost isn't memorable. And while I liked the game, I became bored with it.
Hopefully, the developers work on the missing QOL features and revise the pacing to attract players by the time it leaves early access. Otherwise, the game might not survive for long.
