The Solus Project
A single player exploration driven adventure with survival elements, set on a mysterious and seemingly uninhabited alien planet. Survive through exploration, and unlock the mysteries of Gliese-6143-C. From the creators of "Unmechanical" and successor to "The Ball". Earth has been destroyed and mankind lingers on in a small fleet of ships near Pluto. As humanity's last hope, you are sent to scout a distant planet as a potential location for a colony. After years of space travel disaster strikes however, and your ship is destroyed when approaching the planet… With your team members dead and your equipment gone you have no way of communicating or receiving help from anyone… you are completely and utterly alone… Desperately you look for a way of phoning home, but as you explore the seemingly desolate planet, you uncover the dark secrets buried within the depths. In this otherworldly odyssey you uncover mystery upon mystery as you try to survive the harsh climate.
Game Discussion
Steam User 5
Finally got around to playing this through in 2024. Still holds up well, it's a very solid exploration/survival game, with major emphasis on exploration. Survival elements are mainly there to spice things up somewhat.
Rather strong Myst vibes, except the game isn't as puzzle-centric, and the few puzzles which are there are nowhere near as convoluted as the ones in Myst games or Obduction. Solus is mainly about finding a way to navigate from A to B, collecting things and trying to learn as much about the story as you can. Speaking of story, a few of the reviewers here mentioned that they were underwhelmed by the ending, but I honestly have to say I found it quite fitting.
Great setting and immersion, a few genuinely creepy moments (kind of happy I didn't play this in VR). Not much replayability, since the game is linear, but I enjoyed the few evenings it took me to play this through.
Steam User 10
A decent game. Excellent game for people who like to explore.
Steam User 2
Really good and gets better and better the farther you go into it.
A bit rough on the edges but the weather effects and the ocean is great and the atmosphere is awesome.
Bought it years ago but didn't play much for some reason, happy i re-discovered it now!
Amazing that its from 2016.
Steam User 2
I'd give this a neutral review if it were possible. The TL:DR is that this is a well made, atmospheric game with a real sense of exploration, that is let down and marred by poor story telling and an underestimation of the average players intelligence.
Graphically, this game is not going to be winning any awards in 2024 but it's decent enough to look at. Most importantly in this title, is the lighting, which they nail pretty well. The underground depths are pitch black and the darkness beyond your torch is suitably oppressive. Creepy lighting and emotive flashes during midnight storms, all work well to build tension and set the atmospheric stage. The sound and music also do some heavy lifting here too, really setting the mood of the game at any given time. Equally, the story telling paints a sinister mystery that you want to and feel drawn to unlock and if you are like me and enjoy checking every nook and cranny, you'll be well entertained for an average 30-50hrs. Money well spent.
Unfortunately, the narrative falls down halfway through, as the devs have your character make periodic "logs" of his/her findings. These don't always match your own progress in terms of uncovering the mysteries of this planet. So you find your character not grasping the plot as well as you have and this can be quite jarring. The ending is also notably predictable and I feel that they could have done a better job with the ending in this respect. Ultimately it felt a poor finish to an otherwise well told story. This is largely due to the same aforementioned habit of portraying your character as having only a partial understanding of events on this world, whilst you as the player likely know and understand much more of what is going on. You can see the trap your character is walking into but are powerless to affect the outcome because ultimately, you aren't the driving will in this story, you are just a passenger in the head of the character you are playing. It really robs you of the sense of achievement in uncovering the mysteries of the Solus Project.
Steam User 2
I loved exploring an otherworldly place, I loved how truly alien and alone it all felt... the weather anomalies terrified me, especially the double tornado... something about the way my console warned me and the weather itself... it was just really horrifying.
Steam User 1
It's like a blend of Subnautica and Outer Wilds with a sprinkling of unsettling. It's got a good story and the graphics still hold up after all this time. Pretty good for a survival story teller.
Steam User 3
This "Robinson Crusoe in Space" sim puts all chips on realism, which entails everything good and bad about the concept.
Pros: high fidelity visuals, immersive world-building and loads of environmental narrative, staggering amounts of land to cover on foot.
Cons: snail-crawling pace, bulky maneuverability and everything hurts like hеll.
Most of your time you'll spend on salvaging consumables from your shipwreck and surveying your "Interstellar"-inspired giant exoarchipelago.
I should probably hate this thinly veiled walking sim for how much it likes to take it slow - it's like a hundred Dear Esthers stitched together - and it begins to get a bit stale halfway through, but having to constantly deal with survival hazards, drastically changing weather (the alien planet really feels like a living, breathing space boulder), searching for key items, hunting for secrets and incremental equipment upgrades somehow keeps you busy enough to sell the ominous setting of a desolate planet that looks habitable enough to set up the colony for the dying mankind, yet keeps raising red flag after red flag to second-guess the only available option for survival.
* * *
TL;DR very slow and very immersing. Make sure to pack a playlist of your favourite angry podcast to binge on while trudging through the murky caves & celestial meadows of Gliese-6143-C.