Meeple Station Preview

Space: the final frontier. Are you brave enough to conquer it? Then come on! Meeple Station needs all the help it can get to make sure its inhabitants can survive the harsh world while branching out to explore and mine and you're just the person for the job.

If I had to describe Vox Games' second outing into the gaming world, their first being Regions of Ruin, in just a few words, I'd probably say like Oxygen Not Included but on a space station instead of a planet. You can play all on your own or with friends both locally and online. So if you're like me and most of your friends are elsewhere, you can still play and build with them!

For those who have never played a game like Meeple Station, the tutorial is exactly where to start. It explains everything to you quite clearly and doesn't quite hold your hand. If you want to rush on into the game and just Leeroy Jenkins it, that's an option to, which is kind of great. Some people don't want or need tutorials, and the fact that it's skip-able is something more games perhaps could look into.

Meeple Station isn't just a building game, though. Nope, you can trade with the wide world of aliens out there in the universe. You can also explore and mine for resources that you'll need. With all of these activities, I found myself losing track of how long I'd been playing. That is always a good sign with a game in my book. Anytime a game dev feels that the player is smart enough to make their own decisions and live with any consequences is kinda nice.

There are a ton of options for what to build, the tutorial suggesting starting with simple things: bulkheads, air locks, tables, beds. From there, just keep mining for resources, refining the resources into materials needed, and completely lose yourself in the zen that is surviving in space. Don't like it quite so zen? Don't worry, there's a mode for that. In fact, the difficulties go from "peaceful" to "masochistic", so you can choose your own survival space experience!

Currently, in the early access of this title, singleplayer is the only mode available, but down the road there will be a multiplayer mode as well. With a Lego look to it, this game is peaceful and fun, unless you decide to be masochistic about it of course. Like Don't Starve in space, otherwise known as Oxygen Not Included, this game is a perfect time filler that can be either calm and relaxing or stressful depending on your mood. And kind of like Sims games, if you want to see just how many ways you can kill your Meeples, go for it! Apparently there are tons of ways to die, and I know some of us kind of love finding all of those options, such as space pirates, meteors, and interestingly even space depression. Make sure you give your meeple plenty of things to do, in other words, or they'll just take themselves out.

Meeple Station will be available 7th February, 2019, so mark that date on your calendar. The design is lovely and the game is currently in pre-alpha. Remember you can do just about anything in a game like this! Build for good, build for evil... hell, someone even suggested building your own Death Star! Just remember to protect that one thermal exhaust port, though, or those blasted rebels might getcha.