Earth From Another Sun space MMO is an amazing homage to Starfield and Halo
'When the mech-em-up action started, I was sold.'
Halo and Starfield makers take note: there's a new game entrant trying to send your fan base to another planet.
Sister publication PC Gamer had a warm review of the new trailer dropping yesterday (Sept. 28) for "Earth From Another Sun." This is what they had to say about the space-themed game.
"At the start of it I was just thinking, 'Wow, this has shown me more to get excited about than Starfield has,' and by halfway through when the mech-em-up action started, I was sold," PC Gamer's Rich Stanton wrote in the mini-review.
"Who knows how it will turn out, but this looks bombastic, fun, and has battles on an epic scale; it claims up to 1,000 participants in one conflict," Stanton added. If PC Gamer's initial assessment pans out, "Earth From Another Sun" could end up on our list of the best space exploration games when it drops.
More from PC Gamer: This space MMO looks like Halo and Starfield had a beautiful baby
The game, whose release date is not available, aims to offer "a galactic sandbox featuring an ever-expanding multiplayer galaxy with many unique locations to explore, NPCs [non-playable characters] to meet, quests, and loot to discover," the game's official page states.
"With our design tools, you'll be able to create new characters, quests, loot items, art assets, towns, and even new planets. There will be endless worlds to explore," adds the team.
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There's a lot to unpack in the trailer, which also seems to borrow from the best role-playing elements of the Mass Effect franchise; think spacecraft soaring over other worlds, a customizable array of weapons for battling armies of aliens, and a cool set of portable jets, tanks and other vehicles to get to where you need to go.
Related: The 'Mass Effect: Legendary Edition' has landed. Here's what space fans should know.
A word of caution, however: The franchise is backed by blockchain and one of its funders is Solana Ventures, a cryptocurrency provider. It is unclear whether their technology is going to be used for cryptocurrency purposes in-game, because if so, numerous critics have pointed out that likely only a few people will benefit from such digital currencies.
So far, the team says they plan to use non-fungible tokens "so players can exchange digital items with each other" (which proponents argue is key to establish true ownership of digital things.) These tokens will be exchanged in a marketplace for game players. More updates should be forthcoming about whether using blockchain is key to gameplay, but if it's more of a background element it might not be so big of a deal.
Nevertheless, Earth From Another Sun looks like a strong contender for good space game content after several strong releases from other providers, such as 2021's Halo Infinite (with continual releases; it's now in its second season of content) and 2022's The Callisto Protocol and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
If you're looking for more space game awesomeness, check out our picks for the best space horror games and best space mobile games. And if you're looking to save on the cosmic game experience, we've got 6 ways to save money on video games for space fans.
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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., was a staff writer in the spaceflight channel between 2022 and 2024 specializing in Canadian space news. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years from 2012 to 2024. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House, leading world coverage about a lost-and-found space tomato on the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?" (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams.