Horizon Journey is an upcoming survival adventure game that feels a little like a cross between No Man’s Sky and The Forest. The two latter indie-developed games, both available on Steam, experienced unexpected yet well-deserved success and attracted similar fan bases despite their very different settings. Hello Games’ immense space-faring adventure leans heavily into procedurally generated worlds and creating a sense of the vast expanses of space. Players explore planets, scanning flora and fauna, building bases, and surviving in sometimes incredibly hostile environments.
Endnight Games’ 2018 survival horror title is about the lone survivor of an airplane crash who winds up in a forest filled with cannibals. Similarly to No Man’s Sky, the gameplay loop of The Forest involves crafting a base and weapons to ensure the protagonist can outwit and outlive the unfriendly inhabitants. The game grounds its survival elements in resource scarcity, the constant threat of attack, and tense life-or-death encounters.
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Upcoming Sci-Fi Survival Game Is Reminiscent of No Man’s Sky and The Forest
On January 30, developer Redivided Studios will be releasing its own survival game into early access on Steam, giving fans a new adventure to dive into. Like No Man’s Sky, Horizon Journey takes place in a sci-fi setting, this time based on Mars, where players will become part of the Endeavor-17 mission in the year 2053. The goal will be to establish a new home for humanity by establishing a colony, gathering resources, crafting tools and modifications, terraforming, and erecting structures using the game’s modular building system.
During the narrative-driven adventure, whether solo or multiplayer, the new colonists will initially be able to explore a 4 km² region of the red planet while keeping an eye on their oxygen, health, hunger, and thirst. Along the way, Horizon Journey players will investigate the remains of past missions and scavenge them for materials. There will also be hazards to overcome like dust storms and radiation, as well as unanticipated dangers lurking beneath the surface.
The Mars setting of Horizon Journey has been carefully recreated for authenticity using real NASA imagery and environmental data. Even the lighting attempts to reflect real conditions on the inhospitable planet. The game will feature dynamic threats and circumstances to make the dusty red setting feel like more than just an empty backdrop.
The early access version of the game will launch with a focus on the campaign and story. Players will familiarize themselves with Horizon Journey’s mechanics, building their colony, creating tools, and meeting the dangers that await them on the planet. As the early access period progresses, the developer intends to open up exploration beyond the initial 4 km² zone, eventually creating an open-ended sandbox for exploration and even deeper colony systems.
Horizon Journey may provide somewhat of a precursor of what fans of The Forest series have to look forward to. During The Game Awards 2025 in December, Endnight Games revealed that the upcoming Forest 3 will take place on an alien planet filled with mutants. The shift in setting from an isolated forest presents an exciting new entry in the popular survival horror franchise. In the meantime, fans who are impatient for the next game to release at an as yet undetermined date may satisfy their itch, at least a little, by hopping into Redivided Studios’ early access offering in January.
