Genesis Alpha One

Genesis Alpha One knows how to mix different genres to find its own identity. The Result: a fun and addictive game.

Genesis Alpha One, once it grabs you, is a hard one to put down. Dripping in atmosphere, exploring and building your own space-ship and then visiting strange new planets has all the wonder you could hope for. The added tension of wondering if your crew has been infected by some sort of alien parasite – and then watching as your ship slowly becomes a scene from sci-fi horror film, is exhilarating.

Whilst initial moments are slow to take hold – and your first few runs will end in confusion and disaster – should you be prepared to throw everything you have at it, and are ready to take a good few hits in the process, then you will easily be rewarded by a mammoth game that delivers ship building elements, gunplay options and exploration in spades.

Genesis Alpha One is a great idea and a very interesting and entertaining option in the genre of space exploration.

An interesting way to mix exploration, the addition of new parts to our starship and shooter sections with fast encounters. This game really pushes us to save the human DNA...

This is a very interesting mix of space exploration and crafting, with some roguelike and shooter mechanics, although its complexity and its confusing menu system makes it only recommendable for big fans of the genre.

It’s a testament to the game’s staying power that, even when your ship has been destroyed, you’ll come back for more. Just don’t go sticking your face in any oversized eggs.

A very successful blend of management, base building and FPS mechanics, partly ruined by an unbalanced and frustrating rogue-like component.

Genesis Alpha One is an interesting experiment that works in all its components despite it needs some more refinements that need to came from the developer support.

The game works within its microverse but it has a tendency to get locked up in its gameplay loop. When nothing is happening apart from routinely harvesting ore, it takes persistence to keep the expedition going on. I can imagine a real space travel Genesis Alpha One portrays in its video game terms being rather uneventful. Heck, you wouldn’t even want anything unexpected happening but being safe and sound even at the risk of getting bored. So, as odd as it may sound, uneventfulness is the game’s biggest virtue. Otherwise, you’d be desperately running and gunning around corridors until you run out of ammunition and crew members and start your trek all over again.

Genesis Alpha One has some really cool ideas going for it, unfortunately they’re outweighed by repetitive busywork that you easily get bogged down in. Sure, it’s an interesting strategy game at times, but the grind is just too damn much!

By trying to be all things to all people Genesis Alpha One loses any sense of identity. There is some really interesting ideas at work, and cool aesthetic in one portion of the game, but other areas feel underdeveloped.

Genesis Alpha One is a game with some good ideas but no elegant way to execute them all. The merging of ship building and exploration is quite good once you understand how to do it. DNA splicing is also a neat little touch, but it doesn't fix the fact that the clones are as dumb as bricks and about half as useful. Planetary exploration feels fine, but the gunplay is undercooked. All in all, there's a decent title here if you're able to overcome all of its issues.

In conclusion, Genesis Alpha One is a decent way to spend a weekend, but it will wear out its welcome not long afterwards. Building, upgrading, and defending a starship is compelling enough. There are also those times when a large-scale invasion generates some real excitement. However, a lot of time is going to be spent performing mundane tasks. Although this does an admirable job of streamlining most of them, boredom will eventually set in. Still, the unique premise might be reason enough to check it out.