The Solus Project Review

A survival experience like no other with an in-depth system and a gripping story to go alongside. The fate of the human race is in your hands as you unravel the mysteries of The Solus Project.

I feel that there are two main aspects of this game that the developers have really focused on – the story and the survival aspect. I am a big fan of both. The narrative starts when you leave your escape pod after it has crashed on what seems like an uninhabited planet. Your objective is to find a way to contact any remaining human life that may be able to help. This then leads you over, under and through the landscape discovering many different things about the planet and how you can escape. But above all else, you need to survive.

This is where the game really shines for me. There has clearly been a real attention to detail here to make the game seem as realistic as possible. Monitoring life signs is key to the art of survival here, even to the extent of keeping an eye on the calories that you intake as this will affect how you act in the game. The ability to craft specific items to suit your needs worked well too. Some of the things you end up collecting makes you really feel like you’re scavenging for any items you can find to aid survival and the options available to do this are varied.

Even with the extensive survival mechanic however, the controls are still fairly simple. You can move about, jump, interact with objects and access your inventory. Sounds very simple, but I thought this was a good thing. This was because it was easier to focus on the survival aspects of the game which is clearly the main focus here. It’s also the most complex part of the game and if there was also a large number of controls alongside this, I feel the game would become too complex and become off-putting for some players.

The gameplay mainly involves exploration and puzzle solving to progress. By doing this, you slowly discover different things about the planet which becomes very useful as you try to escape. The mystery of the planet was something that kept me hooked to progression. You really do know very little upon crashing so the strive of discovery really is something that kept me captivated to finding out as much as I could. This, of course, is balanced out with the constant need to survive as mentioned before.

I think one of the most impressive features of this game in my opinion has to be the environment. It really did surprise me how intricate the landscape is, and not just because of the way it looks. For example, this has to be the first game I have played where there is a tidal system that changes based on the position of the moon. In addition to this, the planet also has a lot of interesting scenery. On the surface, the planet is vibrant with alien plants growing around the area where as underground is far my sharp in the rock details.

My only issue I can really think of is the sense of direction. Personally after working things out for myself, I was happy and forgot about this problem. But thinking back to when I started, there really is no direction as to where to go or what to do. And some may see this suits the ‘stranded’ experience and in many ways I would agree. However, I think some players may be put off by the lack of direction.

Overall The Solus Project is a gripping exploration experience. Led by its story and backed up by survival mechanics, it’s a great purchase and one to really invest your time in to. I very much enjoyed playing it and if you enjoy exploration alongside intricate detail in story and mechanics then I can’t recommend this game enough to you.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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