From its name alone, it's clear that Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is marching to the beat of its own drum. Rather than adopting a title like 'Astroneer 2', Starseeker makes it clear that this is a game that continues the legacy of Astroneer, while carving out a distinct identity that allows the System Era team to explore entirely new creative avenues. An implicit Astroneer sequel would naturally come with the expectation for another base-building survival and space exploration game, and that's certainly not the direction System Era pursued with this follow-up.
Instead, Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is a live-service game that draws inspiration from extraction shooters and co-op romps like Helldivers 2, dropping teams of titular Astroneers into cooperative missions where they must work together to achieve a variety of objectives before returning home to the Starseeker. The extraction shooter inspiration is largely limited to the overall gameplay structure; players won't be hot-dropping into bug-infested hostile planets to exterminate hordes of aliens, but will instead harvest resources and reshape the terrain to meet their objectives. This nonviolent approach aligns with System Era's broader focus on providing a wholesome, family-friendly game that nurtures a sense of community and camaraderie among its players.
In an interview with The Best War Games, System Era co-founder and Starseeker creative director Adam Bromell opened up about the distinction between Starseeker and a hypothetical 'Astroneer 2', and how the game leverages the freedom afforded to it by foregoing the direct sequel approach—all while preserving many of the memorable characteristics of Astroneer along the way.
Starseeker Isn't Astroneer 2
Mechanically, one of Starseeker's most significant callbacks to its predecessor is in the game's focus on terrain manipulation. Just like in Astroneer, players can freely mine the eminently malleable voxel terrain for resources or reshape it entirely for their own ends. Interacting with the terrain is so core to Starseeker's moment-to-moment gameplay that the terrain tool is mapped to players' primary action buttons. When asked about aspects of Astroneer that Starseeker sought to keep or leave behind, Bromell pointed to this mechanic and thanked us for highlighting the distinction between Starseeker and an 'Astroneer 2':
“Thank you for asking—that tells me you know Starseeker is not Astroneer 2. It’s not another base-building survival game, but we couldn’t do an Astroneer-universe game without some sort of terrain interaction. This being an action-oriented, controller-first game, interacting with terrain is mapped right onto your primary action.”
One area Starseeker has seen some evolution over its predecessor is in the team's approach to its control scheme: Bromell notes that Starseeker is designed with controller use at the forefront of the team's mind. Astroneer began its Early Access life on PC, and for the most part, community members (many of whom are PC gamers) tend to prefer and recommend playing with a mouse and keyboard. Since Starseeker will be launching on consoles like PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, it's crucial to make the game accessible and enjoyable for a wider variety of users.
Starseeker and Astroneer Exist In Harmony
Although Starseeker is forging its own path, it isn't leaving Astroneer behind, either. Bromell points out that the intention behind Astroneer is to 'cast a wider net' by presenting elements of Astroneer in a new light. Such a game might appeal to players who enjoyed certain aspects of Astroneer but wished for a different gameplay experience; meanwhile, Starseeker fans new to the franchise may discover that they'd get a kick out of Astroneer's base-building survival gameplay after having a taste of the former's similar terrain manipulation:
“Starseeker isn’t there to alienate Astroneer fans; it’s there to cast a wider net: ‘if you want that feeling in a different way with more agency, come here.’ We’re crafting ways so Astroneer players understand Starseeker, and Starseeker players understand Astroneer. We’ve got a Message of the Day in Astroneer, and we’re thinking of more compelling in-game references both ways, plus transmedia.”
It's a smart approach that keeps both Astroneer and Starseeker relevant, rather than having Astroneer essentially replaced by a direct sequel. With Astroneer and Starseeker working in harmony and building off each other, System Era has the opportunity to appeal to a broader range of tastes while enjoying the creative freedom that comes with a unique, standalone spinoff.
- Released
- 2026
- Developer(s)
- System Era Softworks
- Publisher(s)
- Devolver Digital
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
- Number of Players
- Single-player
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Sandbox, Exploration, Open-World
