Exoplanet: First Contact

My first hour on K'Tharsis had me genuinely charmed, then genuinely frustrated, and then charmed again, which is probably the most honest summary of what Exoplanet: First Contact is right now. You play as Jack Sharp, a smuggler-turned-courier stranded on a dangerous alien planet where human colonists, native aborigines, and the ruthless Terraform corporation are all circling each other with guns drawn. The space-Western framing is not window dressing: the guitar-heavy soundtrack, the sun-bleached frontier aesthetic, and the faction tension between corporate mercenary work and siding with the oppressed locals give the world a real identity. Firefly, Dune, and a dash of Sergio Leone went into this blender, and the output is more coherent than that list suggests. The RPG systems are where this gets interesting for players like me who obsess over whether choices actually ripple outward. They do, at least in part. Faction alignment shapes quest outcomes, dialogue options can resolve situations that guns cannot, and your decisions can affect things as large as starting a war between factions or as small as whether a local shopkeeper stays in business. The quest design leans nonlinear, with multiple paths through many scenarios. The dialogue volume is surprisingly high for an indie of this scale, and the writing clearly had love put into it, even if it occasionally tips into awkward territory. Survival needs like hunger, thirst, and fatigue are layered on top without feeling punishing; the tuning keeps them in the background rather than making you micromanage every minute. Gun customization and loot-gathering add a light Borderlands-adjacent loop that fits the setting well. Here is where I have to put my RPG-lover hat down and pick up the honest hat. Combat is the game's weakest seam, and it shows. Real-time melee and ranged attacks work in principle but feel sluggish, enemy AI reads as blunt, and technical roughness has been a consistent complaint since launch. The camera took some getting used to for reviewers across the board, and while patches have improved stability over the years, this is still an Early Access title that entered that phase back in December 2016. The scope Alersteam set for themselves is ambitious beyond what a small indie team can sprint to the finish line on quickly. If you go in expecting BG3-level production polish, K'Tharsis will feel like a harsh planet in the wrong way. What keeps people coming back, though, is the world itself. The open world hides optional zones, secret loot, and handcrafted corners that did not need to exist but do. Reviewers who pushed past the combat friction found that exploration is where the game earns its goodwill. The roughly 10-20 hours of available content give you enough story to understand what Alersteam is building toward. Steam sentiment sits at Mostly Positive over several hundred reviews, which tracks: this is a game that wins over players who meet it on its own terms and loses those who need mechanical tightness first. If you have an appetite for atmospheric, story-driven open-world RPGs with real faction consequences, and you can tolerate Early Access roughness and combat that feels more like a placeholder than a feature, K'Tharsis has enough genuine character to justify the trip. Narrative-first players who liked the vibe of ELEX or The Technomancer will find familiar DNA here. Everyone else should watch a gameplay video before committing. Monika, Scout Team