Open-world survival-crafting games continue to dominate Steam, but every so often one comes along that feels like it is pulling ideas from several fan favorites at once. That’s exactly the case with a newly announced sci-fi survival game that blends open-world exploration, automation, and base building in a way that should immediately catch the attention of Steam players who enjoy games like Satisfactory and The Planet Crafter (with a little bit of Subnautica‘s resource management thrown in for good measure).
The open-world survival-crafting game genre has exploded over the last few years, with games increasingly pushing players to do more than simply stay alive. Building sprawling factories, automating production lines, and slowly transforming hostile environments have become some of the genre’s biggest draws, helping titles like Satisfactory and The Planet Crafter build dedicated communities. An upcoming Early access release on Steam shows that the trend is far from slowing down.
Sol One Releases in Early Access on July 30
One of the newest games aiming for that audience is Sol One, an open-world survival-crafting game that drops players alone on Mars after a catastrophic crash, and it releases on Steam in Early Access on July 30. The goal is familiar and simple on paper but far more challenging in practice: survive, build, automate, and eventually construct a rocket capable of escaping the Red Planet. Along the way, players will gather resources, expand their base, unlock new technologies, and gradually turn a lonely outpost into a self-sustaining operation, all the features someone would expect from a game like Satisfactory.
- Open-world survival set on Mars.
- Gather resources to stay alive and expand your operation.
- Build and customize a growing planetary base.
- Research and unlock new technologies.
- Automate resource gathering and production systems.
- Explore the Martian landscape for new materials.
- Progress toward constructing a rocket capable of leaving the planet.
- Balance survival with long-term expansion and automation.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)
Sol One also places a heavy emphasis on progression. Players begin with basic survival, but eventually unlock increasingly advanced machinery, automated production systems, and larger construction projects as they expand across Mars. Exploration also plays a major role, with the planet hiding valuable resources and new opportunities beyond the safety of the player’s growing base. Again, this is all textbook for the genre, but the idea of Mars gives Sol One at least a little bit of a unique take. Plus, it’s more grounded than The Planet Crafter (recently added to Xbox Game Pass) with a more refined goal, but its DNA can easily be seen throughout Sol One‘s exploration and progression features.
While Sol One clearly shares DNA with games like Satisfactory and The Planet Crafter, it ultimately carves out its own identity by focusing on humanity’s struggle to survive on Mars from the moment players touch down to the moment they finally blast back into space. For Steam players always looking for the next best survival game, this is one worth keeping an eye on. Early Access progress is expected to be slow because it’s made by a solo developer, but that makes it even more special—sometimes one solid idea is all it takes.
