Genesis Alpha One is out now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It appears there's a lot going on in this sci-fi survival-shooter from new developer Radiation Blue. First thing of note is that, along with yesterday's news that Metro Exodus is to be an Epic Store exclusive, Genesis Alpha One has signed on for a one-year exclusivity deal with the Epic Store. It will launch on Steam sometime after January 2020. Unlike with Metro Exodus, however, Valve did not post the "unfair" notice on Genesis Alpha One's Steam page. It's uncertain whether this notice didn't go up because there was a lengthier notice regarding the exclusivity deal, since it was announced in December of last year that the deal would be happening. Or if the game had fewer pre-orders already placed on Steam, making the loss sting less for Valve. Perhaps Valve is saying nothing in this case since the Epic exclusivity will only last one year. This is all rampant speculation on my part. Either way, this is just one more small bloody nose for Steam coming from the house that Fortnite built. It's doubtful it will be the last.
Genesis Alpha One looks cool, though. There's a featureless alien monolith. There's MS-DOS fonts. And there's modular ship construction with seemingly no rhyme or reason to its 1990's NASA aesthetic. The ship connects farming, crew, life systems, and defense modules. There are over 300 planets to minecraft to your heart's content. And if you run into any uncooperative xeno lifeforms? Well, you know what to do. Pistols, lasers, flamethrowers, rifles, "X-Ray Casters," "Iron Throwers," machine guns, and "MiniFlaks" will handle negotiations. Don't forget your ship's defenses and robots, too. Looks like this is where the first-person shooter meets the desktop defense portion of the game.
Doesn't look like there's a whole lot of storytelling going on. You're a ship captain. You have a crew. You explore, farm, build, and fight. That's the story.
Again, Genesis Alpha One is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and on the Epic Store for PC—see you in 2020, Steam.
