Space Engineers 2 launches this month and promises a refined and expanded starcrafting experience
This is a quiet month for video game releases, as January tends to be, but there’s at least one approaching asteroid in the shape of Space Engineers 2. Announced over the winter, it’s a spruced-up reimagining of your scientifically determined 22nd favourite space game - the hectic Second Coming of a simulation we’ve devoted 14 whole-ass features to since 2013, including a seven-part diary series featuring many a starfaring Vengabus or Wild Wild Westerly giant robot spider.
It really is high time we gave the new game some attention, then. The very first alpha launches into Steam early access on January 27th. Here’s what’s in store.
As you may have cunningly deduced using your advanced simian brain, the sequel to Space Engineers is once again about engineering in space. It’s a first-person sandbox crafting and exploration game set in the mysterious Almagest star system, many centuries and lightyears from now.
Some trivia: the original Amalgest was a 2nd-century astronomical treatise on the motions of the stars and planets, written by Claudius Ptolemy. I have not read the Amalgest, but I do not believe it makes mention of "a 25cm unified grid building system", or indeed "magboots with camera stabilisation". You will encounter both of these things in the first alpha build of Space Engineers 2, which introduces a Creative mode together with refined building tools, including an undo/redo function and a new blueprint system with grid-snapping and partial copy-paste.
The new VRAGE3 engine promises "a visual revolution thanks to ray tracing, global illumination, tessellated terrain, parallax mapping, sleek armor edges, and enhanced lighting". Here's the announcement trailer so you can watch it all sparking and spurting away.
As per the Space Engineers 2 early access roadmap, the first update after the alpha launch will add a user-generated content workshop. After that, they’re planning an update that makes unspecified improvements and refinements to play mechanics and
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