What do you get when you cross Minecraft’s modifiable world with Mirror’s Edge’s free running mechanic and Portal’s physic-based puzzles, throwing some Mass Effect aesthetics for flavor? Presumably something that looks like Eden Star, billed by developer Flix Interactive as a first person survival creation game with physics based combat, destructible environments, and freeform constructive powered by the Unreal 3 engine.
In the somewhat distant future, discovery of a rare mineral leads to a feasible system for interstellar travel and spawns a rush of interplanetary colonization. At the forefront of this effort, players are part of a second expeditionary team sent to the mystifying planet of Pharus 7, where all contact with the initial colonization effort mysteriously ceased. Flix Interactive hasn’t been particularly forthcoming with further plot details but really; the player is the protagonist of a sci-fi action-adventure, there wouldn’t be much of a game if something hasn’t gone horribly wrong.
Speaking of the player… players step into the boots of a cybernetically augmented frontiersman, part of a group of colonization specialists known simply as the “Pioneers.” Each Pioneer is issued a glove-like gadget called the Remote Manipulation Device, or “Tool” as it’s also referred to in promotional material. The RMD is a sci-fi multitool in the same omni-functional vein as Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver. Projecting a beam of bluish-white light, the RMD digs holes in rock, materializes simple objects like metal blocks, and levitates enemies and blocks for players to telekinetically throw around like a toddler with a temper tantrum. Beyond this, not much is known about Pharus 7 or what happened to the original colonists. Gameplay videos hint at a barren wasteland with the occasional urban area inhabited by the alien Ika. Whether the Ika are the flying three-armed drones shown in the debut trailer or are merely part of a larger entity has yet to be revealed at the time of writing.
Eden Star is currently in Pre-Alpha with a tech demo to be released soon. As of the time of writing, it has been recently greenlit on Steam and there is talk of a Kickstarter campaign. More details on this and other questions as they become available. In the meantime, be sure to visit the official Eden Star website here.
