Klei are back with their great space colony sim with the Oxygen Not Included - Spaced Out! expansion now available in Early Access with Linux support. Easily one of my favourite games from 2019, and now you're telling me it's even bigger? I didn't need much of a push to get back into Oxygen Not Included as Klei had already crafted a fantastic game.
Spaced Out is a big one, adding in some pretty huge new features! What to expect from Spaced Out? Here's a quick overview of what Klei say is already available:
- New Multi-World Gameplay! The Starmap and space program have been completely redesigned to allow you to span your Duplicant civilization across multiple planetoids, each with their own resources to contribute.
- Brand New Starting World! The Swamp start, along with its supporting biomes, provides a new, different mixture of resources to exploit as you nurture your fledgling colony.
- Mid-Game Rocketry! The rocket mechanics have been completely redesigned to make rocketry part of your colony's core infrastructure, rather than just an end-game goal.
- Rocket tech is easier to research and is more integrated with the rest of the tech tree.
- The surface of the starting planetoid is a lot less hostile, and new early-game tech is being added to ease the transition into space.
- Multi-Colony UI Improvements! The Diagnostics side panel and redesigned Resources screen have been expanded to manage your attention across planetoids.
A lot more is planned too, since it's Early Access and not quite finished. Klei mentioned how they've now got a solid foundation so it's ready for players to buy, test and hopefully enjoy it but they're going to push it further. Their ideas coming to the DLC include a Radiation / Nuclear System, Late-Game Planetoids and Rocketry, Rare Resources and Global Sustainability and eventually modding support for it hooked up properly again as it's disabled for it while it's not finished.
Check out the new trailer:
Direct Link
As for how long to expect it to be in Early Access? That's not clear. Klei said they don't want to rush it, so they will develop this DLC just like they did with the base game - out in the open in Early Access, pulling in plenty of feedback. Once they get together the initial feedback they will be sorting out a more official roadmap of what's to come. The price is likely to go up as more features go live too.
You can buy Oxygen Not Included on Steam. The Spaced Out DLC is here.
See more from me