Boy, once interstellar did that super accurate image of a blackhole, everyone never forgot it, did they? It's not quite the plague mask, but it's in the same vein of aesthetic people instantly loved borrowing.
To describe it, it's a third person sci fi base building and survival game with something most games in that vein lack: a strong narrative. In the scope of the demo I can't tell if the progression and exploration is linear but they hang a pretty tight deadline over you're head from the get-go that keeps you from dawdling too much.
The base building and survival are neat. It's all very time-oriented. Tasks take time and you have day/night cycles and (at least in the demo) you can't be out at night. Plus you get exhausted if you stay up too long, so time feels like a form of currency. In the course of the demo I spent 3 of the 5 days they told me I had, so I assume that deadline changes. You work on a mobile base in an ant farm style view, similar to XCOM, to install rooms and add functionality. You need to venture out to mine and collect resources to make that all happen, this includes materials for construction and food/fuel for yourself and the base. The base can move (it's a giant wheel) but that function isn't really shown off in the demo so I don't know how it works, really. If you can go back to previous locations or control where it goes or whatever. Collecting stuff also costs time to perform that task, as well as energy which you can freely recharge at your base. The mechanics of it are somewhat novel and I hope they expand on what's in the demo. But as a starting point, it seems promising. Movement and exploration are easy and not saddle with inconveniences like many of these games. When something costs time, it just speeds up and passes that time. It really does turn time into a commodity. So you're not sitting there smacking rocks for minutes on end in real-time.
The narrative, though, is the really novel part. If you want to go in blind to all of that or check it out in the demo for yourself, then I'll only say that it has a lot of potential and if done right will really set this game apart from other survival type games. It's single player, so I think they really want this to be a narrative experience rather than a sandbox. More below.
[taps mic] hi, hello, hello. Ok, hi. Everyone, thank you. I just wanted to say there's too many video games [loud booing] TOO MANY VIDEO GAMES AND I CAN'T-- [ducks large boot flying past head] THE OLD ONES GET UPDATES AND I DIDN'T EVEN FINISH THE NEW ONES, YOU GOTTA WAKE UP EVERYONE THIS CAN'T GO ON FOREV
[PA] Thank you. Please, ladies and gentlemen, you can find your Nendoroids near the back by the concessions, we'll get this show back on the road in just a moment. [loud generic music]