STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions is a resource-gathering, timed extraction co-op game from the makers of ASTRONEER. Read our review of its early access build to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth trying.
Everything We Know About STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions
STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions Story
No longer carrying the solo survival story of the original ASTRONEER, STARSEEKER sees players join the crew of the illustrious ESS STARSEEKER as it explores the cosmos, surveying various planets, and cataloguing all findings. Players take the role of the Starseeker’s many new ensigns as they learn the ropes of exoplanetary exploration.
STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions Gameplay
STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions’ gameplay revolves around a timed extraction loop similar to games like PUBG, only their goal isn’t to loot everything and make it out alive, at least not under the same dangers. Players are tasked with various goals to complete over a massive planetary map, gathering resources and synthesizing new equipment while trying not to die to the hostile fauna.
Starseeker allows up to four players to team up and complete their objectives together, earning new planets, cosmetics, and questlines as they progress through their goals as ensigns.
STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions Release Date and Time
Releasing in 2026
Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is slated for release sometime in 2026 for PC via Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. We’ll be sure to update this article when information comes out!
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STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions Review [Early Access]: This Didn’t Need to Exist
Decidedly NOT Astroneer 2
Few games ever managed to be as cutesy and cutthroat as ASTRONEER. It wasn’t every day that a game would both let a humble little spaceman gather simple geometric shapes from the ground to build their open floor-plan base, while also threatening them with slow apshyxiation the moment they’re too far from their oxygen tether.
It was quite the experience, and many people wanted more, the present company included. Sadly, that’s not what STARSEEKER was, even as it was first announced. I was willing to give it a shot, though, since I’m not one to restrict creativity for the sake of legacy.
I’ve come to regret that decision greatly. STARSEEKER pretty much took out everything that made ASTRONEER great and replaced it with newer but inferior ideas, making the whole thing look like an identity crisis in zero-G. It really did try to make something new, but this did not need to exist.
Coming in Hot to Gather Rocks and Stuff
So, what’s STARSEEKER got that Astroneer didn’t? A lot of things, mostly in terms of gameplay, but these new things were not improvements. Eschewing the survival mechanics of the original, STARSEEKER is closer to a spinoff set within the same universe. You’re still trying to carve out an existence among the stars, but you’re no longer by yourself on some random planet.
You are now a crew member of the ESS STARSEEKER, an ensign among thousands sent out to exoplanets to gather resources and complete the tasks Captain Jupiter and his first mates assign you. Be it gathering specific materials, finding wrecks on the planet’s surface, or rounding up specimens, you and up to four of your closest cadets have free rein down there until you run out of oxygen, which takes around 30 minutes.
That’s the game’s timed extraction mechanic, and it’s the oddest thing I’ve seen in a while. Not odd in that it’s new and weird—games like Arena Breakout: Infinite’s been doing that since last year—I mean odd in that it doesn’t fit the Astroneer formula, at least in my opinion. You’re essentially playing the original Astroneer loop in 30-minute bursts, with the most minor of pushes toward getting out alive being the closest you come to any real danger.
These come in the form of hostile flora, fauna, and environs, all of which you need to navigate using the equipment you came in here with, or whatever you find out there. Fail to get to your drop ship in time, or outright die to nature, and you’re losing everything you had on you PERMANENTLY.
Apart from that, you’re still digging for resources with your vacuum-like digging tool and messing with the terrain to get to where you need to. Now, if it seems like a messy mix that doesn’t indicate its appeal right away, that’s because it is. The biggest problem STARSEEKER has is that it doesn’t convey the appeal of its premise clearly.
Existing Without Synergy and Lacking a Purpose
It’s hard to describe what makes this game fun because, instead of having a synergistic net of interacting mechanics that ultimately make up a solid gameplay loop, this game just has a bunch of tangentially related ideas operating in the same setting. It’s like a loose box of rocks in the place of a well-oiled engine.
For example, let’s talk about the timed extraction mechanic. As the main framing mechanic for your planetary missions, you’d think the timer running down would pressure you to be smart with your resource runs and get what you need. Unfortunately, since there’s no PvP here and PvE is easy to deal with at a base level, 30 minutes ends up being far too generous, and the whole time extraction thing becomes vestigial.
Does this at least interact with the co-op gameplay? More people mean more time needed, right? Surely the world ramps up the danger to make up for more ensigns working at the same time? Nope. If anything, it makes 30 minutes even more generous as you four spread out to do your thing all under the same time limit.
What about combat and survival? There’s combat, sure, if you can call chucking whatever you find at enemies until they pass out and/or die combat. Do you get any dedicated weaponry to loot while out and about to make exploration worthwhile and possibly make the timed extraction thing more of a risk? Nope.
Survival mechanics are out the window because you don’t need tethers for oxygen anymore. Funnily enough, that would’ve made the game more interesting with the whole 30 minutes to get home thing, since getting around that way takes so much time.
The way it’s looking, you’re limited only by your greed. Any of the early missions, as well as the subsequent story missions and daily goals, can be completed well before the time limit goes up. There’s no pressure in any way, shape, or form here, which would be fine if you could at least kick back and just build. As I said earlier, though, you simply cannot.
So, you aren’t pressured to be quick, but you can’t just relax either, because you’ll die. It’s looking like that 30-minute timer is more trouble than it’s worth, because the game would literally be much more fun without it.
It’d be No Man’s Sky lite if you could just explore, or it could be Deep Rock Galactic if there were more enemies and environmental pressures. As it is, it is simply all that, and yet nothing, at the same time.
Only Playable with Co-op, Not That the Game Makes That Easy
You can at least suffer with your friends through the game’s 1-4 player co-op. Playing with more people doesn’t accomplish much more than spreading the pain, because conversations and catch-ups are sure to be abundant with all the nothing going on, and you all have different goals to accomplish across a planet large enough that you won’t have to fight over it.
You’d think the game at least makes the co-op more accessible, but nope. Despite being the best thing about the game, it’s kneecapped by the devs not having a dedicated chat function. You’ll have to figure something else out, maybe use Discord, to coordinate properly, because otherwise, all you’ve got are map pings and emotes.
Flawed from the Get-go
What a disaster this game is, and I’m unwilling to chalk all of that up to the usual Early Access woes. See, EA being the cause begs the idea that it’s just unfinished, but has a solid foundation to work off of. Let me be frank when I say that it DOES NOT.
Starseeker is a flawed idea from conception to this early implementation. Not only does it fall short of fan expectations for Astroneer 2, or at least an Astroneer spin-off, but it also isn’t sure what it wants to be. Neither casual nor competitive, and lacking the staying power to be worth playing for very long, Starseeker is devoid of any reason to exist whatsoever. A cash grab would at least be plainly predatory; this game doesn’t have the presence or purpose to be that.
If a game cannot be what the players want or what its devs envisioned, then what is it?
Game8 Reviews
