First Impressions: Genesis Alpha One

What do you get when you mix farming, building, exploration, survival, science fiction, and horror?  You get Genesis Alpha One.  Today, I met with Team 17 to take my first look at Genesis Alpha One.  After 10 minutes, I didn’t hesitate to nominate them for GameOctane’s Best of E3 2017!

The synopsis of Genesis Alpha One is something you might see in science fiction novel.  In the near future, Earth is ravaged by wars, corrupt regimes, natural resource over-exploitation, and pollution devastating the planet.  It is up to you to find a suitable home for humans in the vast open galaxy.  As the Captain of a Genesis starship, you journey into uncharted space on the ultimate mission to save humanity.

Genesis Alpha One is a building and management type of game mixed with first person shooter and survival.  As captain, you must build and manage your ship.  Need food?  Better build a biodome to grow it.  Want to jump to hyperspace to explore?  Build engines.  Want to survive dangerous astroids in space?  Build shields.  Everything you build will help you survive your journey.  You will have the opportunity to build and upgrade many areas of the ship and build new and improved items.

Now each section of your ship needs to be manned by your crew.  You assign crew members to each section.  One of the coolest things I saw in Genesis was the clone lab.  You have the capability to clone crew members to serve your ship.  And that’s not all – you use DNA to change the way you clone!  In the demo I saw, a crew member was made using arachnid DNA.  This crew member had different stats and abilities.  And due to light sensitivity, everything looked brighter like an overexposed photo.

You might be asking how I know what the point of view from this crew member looked like.  In the playthrough, the captain we were controlling took a misstep and was lost in space.  You don’t get a retry – you get to play a crew member who gets promoted to captain.  This is why the clone lab is so important.  If you don’t make enough crew members, you will eventually run out of crew and it’s game over.

Everything in the game requires resources.  You send out ships and crew to mine planets for resources.  But be careful!  There is a chance that aliens can board and infest the ship.  This is not a gradual thing.  They infect areas immediately and quickly!  You have an arsenal of weapons to take out the aliens as well as turrets and other defenses.  If I learned anything from the demo, I learned that you need to make sure the infestation is completely taken care of.  We lost crew members because we didn’t completely take care of the infestation.

Genesis Alpha One is randomly generated each time you start a game, so the game can be very challenging (don’t worry – IDA, the ship AI is there to guide you if you need help).  However, it offers variety and tons of replay value.  Not only is it randomly generated, but you have the option to play one of three companies, each with different aesthetic features and items to build.  One company may have sleek, advanced tech while the other company offers a more rugged look.  You can change the color of several ship areas and name them whatever you want.  There are so many things you can customize!

There is some amazing potential in Genesis Alpha One.  The demo blew me away with the variety and challenge that it offers.  The team wants to launch in 2018 on PC and consoles.  Right now, it is planned as a single player experience.  I can’t wait to see more from Radiation Blue and Team 17.  We will definitely bring you more information as Genesis Alpha One is further developed.  For now, check out the E3 trailer and let us know what you think in the comments below!