ROKH Preview for PC on Steam Early Access

ROKH is a survival game by Darewise Entertainment and Nvizzio Creations currently in Steam Early Access. I would like to include two disclaimers. One, this is from the point of view of someone who does not usually play survival games. The closest I’ve come to playing a survival game regularly is Minecraft. If that bothers you, then I would recommend using another preview of the game to judge whether or not you want to get it. Two, this game is in early access, meaning what you see is not the final product. For those of you thinking, “well, duh, of course its not finished, it’s called Early Access,” a lot of people seem to forget this.

The game takes place on Mars. It is supposed to be simulating what colonizing Mars would be like. As such, there are many nuances to deal with. For example, unlike most survival games which only have hunger, health, and thirst; this game has oxygen, hunger, thirst, suit power, and radiation levels. Radiation levels and suit power were easy enough to manage (radiation remained low and there was a suit charger near the start point) but I found managing oxygen, hunger, and thirst to be difficult. I suppose it makes sense considering the game’s setting, but I remember dying of oxygen deprivation at least once. To get oxygen, you either need to find it in an emergency drop (there are containers called ‘emergency drops’ that have a glowing light on top of them, contain basic materials, and will refill after a few minutes) or craft it from water using a portable electrolyzer. As for dealing with thirst, simply collecting water isn’t enough. You need to put it through the portable electrolyzer to turn it into a fluid that is safe to drink. This wouldn’t be a problem were it not for the fact that I had to spend at least 30 minutes gathering everything I needed to assemble the thing, 30 minutes which were being run against 4 of the 5 meters (hunger, thirst, oxygen, and suit power).

I have very mixed feelings about the crafting system. On one hand, I find it needlessly complex by needing to gather materials to form components (for example, a rod and a spike for a screwdriver) and then crafting the item from the components (or in some cases, crafting a component from materials, crafting another component from the components you already have, and THEN crafting the item). On the other hand, from what little I could see of mid/end-game crafting, it has the possibility to allow for some truly great building opportunities. For example, I found that, like Minecraft, the game has a wire system. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it is a system of wires and switches that can be used to accomplish various things—for example, using a switch to open a door or turn on a light. And those are just the simple ideas.

When crafting items you place in the world—such as floor/wall tiles and doors—you can set permissions as to who is able to interact with them. The downside to this is that if you die and respawns aren’t enabled, you will need to make a new character that isn’t on the permission list.

Overall, this game seems best suited for co-op play (one person crafts, another finds materials). Since I don’t normally play survival games (and since I was playing on my own) I found myself getting frustrated multiple times while playing; either at how complex the crafting system was or at the fact that I never found a way to cure hunger (supposedly there are food packets in the emergency drops, but I never found any). While I didn’t enjoy my time with the game, from what I could see, this game looks like it could have a lot of potential in the future.

Here is the New ROKH Backstory Trailer:

ROKH is available on Steam Early Access for $24.99.