Review: Genesis Alpha One (PlayStation 4)

In a near future ravaged by wars, corrupt regimes, and devastating pollution, influential corporations have created the Genesis program in a last-ditch attempt to save humanity. As the Captain of a Genesis starship, your journey into uncharted space on the ultimate mission. Build and manage a space vessel, farm resources, deal with terrifying alien infestations, clone creatures and explore a vast, randomly generated universe.  Welcome to Genesis Alpha One.

Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• 7.37GB Download size.
• Opening tutorial and mission.
• Platinum trophy.
• Gameplay- You captain a ship of your making, Build yourself a crew from cloning and explore new worlds.
• Roguelike elements, When you die you lose that character and swap to another member of your team and p[romote them to Captain.
• Name your ship and yourself and each individual crew member!
• Old school UI using old Window/Terminal software.
• New game: Select Corporation, Crew, starting artifacts.
• Corporations- You start with a handful with 12 altogether, Each one grants different game buffs or unlocks.
• FPS shooter mixed with base building and resource management.
• Extensive shipbuilder- Uses a snap together system, You can flip the views to show different aspects of the build. You can build levels, Add air ducts and have total freedom. Easy hold to delete rooms/corridors.
• Can assign workers.
• Speed processes up option but has to be done manually/
• Land on planets and fight Aliens, Harvest resources and find a new tech.
• Fast loading times.
• On-screen button icons for quick reference.
• PDA- This is basically your main interface into the game. From here you can access tips/help/guides/missions/Bestiary etc.
• Starmap- Here you can see planets/traders/attacks and jump around the stars!
• So much fun!
• Collect samples from Aliens and use it to create clones of them with unique abilities.
• Cool moments like when the ship doors open on a new planet, Discovering new planets, jumping in Hyperjump, Ship falling apart, Your first invasion. So many to list.
• Aliens can actually attack your main ship/base and can also come aboard when you collect debris from Space. They also use the air ducts to travel around.
• Your ship can get malfunctions and rooms shut down or blow up as well as corridors.
• Difficult.
• Tons upon tons of replayability.

Cons:

• A lot to take in.
• So much going on.
• Loads of video tutorial pop-ups.
• Help is not always straightforward.
• Slow starter.
• Really dark in places.
• A lot of trial and error.
• RNG can have a strong influence on your run.
• System management is a pain to use.
• Never sure it saved.
• Can go wrong quickly and causes deadly domino effects.