Ostranauts is a roguelike survival simulation video game with some role-playing and adventure game elements that is set in the same universe as NEO Scavenger. It is a companion game where you play as a disaffected shipbreaker and must scrape a living by sifting through countless wrecks of partially dead spacecraft and bringing back whatever valuables you can carry to be sold for currency.
This game contains examples of:
- After the End: Due to setting in the same universe as NEO Scavenger, the setting is set after an apocalypse on Earth that left the colonies in Solar System on their own.
- The Alleged Car: Your Ryokka Tu-77a won't get you very far but it has sufficient fuel, speed, and space to handle your first few scavenging jobs.
- Colonized Solar System: You're one among countless inhabitants living in the colonies of the Jupiter system that are trying to survive the hard and uncertain era of darkness which was brought about by the collapse of civilization on Earth.
- Crapsack World: While the colonies still had relatively advanced technology and life compared to Earth after an unexplained catastrophe, life in space is still harsh with many colonies being built for raw material extraction that only a few of them were self-sufficient enough to produce food for the now isolated colonies. Most of the inhabitants are impoverished and worked in low-paying and hazardous work. Furthermore, the player will have ailments due to being born and raised in a zero-gravity and sterile environment.
- Early Game Hell: You start the game as an unlicensed shipbreaker with little more than a battery-powered salvage pod and some bare essentials to your name. In order to make a stable income, you'll have to maximize your efficiency with each trip by figuring out which goods are worthwhile from those that will just take up valuable space and end up wasting your time, oxygen, and fuel. Plus you'll have to find a replacement spacecraft that won't cost you a lot of time and resources to bring back into running condition as your salvage pod is only an interim solution. And make sure that you don't get caught by the police without a salvage license or else you'll be in for a bad time.
- Game-Breaking Bug: As it's still in early access, anyone who wishes to play Ostranauts must do so at their own risk as a volunteer bug-tester.
- Starting the game may result in your character suffocating for no reason.
- Save frequently as the game may crash back to desktop without warning.
- Gameplay Randomization: Every spacecraft that is adrift in the endless void is procedurally generated.
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Nintendo Hard: The game has a lot of complex features that will reduce your chances of survival if you don't fully grasp them.- Docking with a station or spacecraft is a very delicate procedure. You have to manage your speed very carefully and then set proper alignment with the docking clamps to latch onto the intended destination.
- Keep a close eye on your fuel gauge. If that runs out while you're in space, you're pretty much dead.
- Oxygen is your most important need when you're out in space as you'll obviously die without it.
- You'll need some food and water for every day to manage your hunger and thirst.
- Physical and Mental Health can be affected by pre-existing conditions, interactions, and by how long you're out in space.
- Press X to Die: It is possible to suffocate yourself by opening the airlock to a breached vessel without wearing a environmental suit beforehand.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The reason why your character has gone rouge is because the yardmasters and various other higher-ups in the colonies have adapted to the catastrophic loss of Earth's infrastructure and resources, as well as the violent and bloody militia wars around Jupiter, by becoming corrupt and abusive in an attempt to become self-sufficient: They're intent on bleeding every available worker they have through an exorbitant "salvage tax" if it guarantees public order and profits over the long-term. Likewise, the colonists have not taken lightly to this drastic, totalitarian change in society which has only spurred an increase in black market activities. Further underlining this motivation for illegal activity is the fact that a Salvage Permit costs 5000$ and is only good for 24-hours.
- Survival Sandbox: The interstellar void is an endless expanse that rewards the daring and claims the unfortunate.
- Tempting Fate: If you board a spacecraft and find evidence that someone else has been there (such as objects having already been packed up or taken away and preparations for repairs about to be or already made), it may be possible that the craft has already been claimed by someone else which means that they won't be happy to find out that it was you who is stealing from them.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Although there are no restrictions on where you can go in space, your travel range is very restricted by the limited mobility of your starter craft.
