Genesis Alpha One is an extremely rare beast. A confident marriage of FPS, space sim, roguelike and strategy elements, it is quite simply the first essential indie title of 2019.

Genesis Alpha One is one of the few survival titles that blends a real sense of high-stakes urgency while also juggling several gameplay styles in the process. Even though this may seem unwieldy on paper and fraught with challenges in gameplay structure and technical aspects, Radiation Blue have managed to marry together FPS, Management sim, RTS and roguelikes into a unique and compelling experience.

The universe of Genesis is vibrant, with distant systems lighting the ship with a beautiful sci-fi glow, and the aliens representing a full intriguing gamut from cockroach-like beasts through to humanoid aliens. This is the kind of game that people who dream of crafting their own space exploration stories, without being dragged through any particular forced narrative, will absolutely love.

Genesis Alpha One is an ambitious triple-I game that, even though it relies too much on continuously repetitive and similar-looking activities, provides a deep, engaging and challenging experience thanks to its great visuals, some surprises along the way and gameplay mechanics that quickly become natural and intuitive.

Not always fascinating.

Monotone missions and uninventive enemies, combined with bad AI, makes this game more of a chore than enjoyment.

Gathering the necessary resources to fulfill a Genesis mission can take a lot of time, especially if you end up getting pushed back by hostile invasions. There is a base sense of joy to be had from making the numbers go up, but I never completed a Genesis mission and I doubt whatever feeling or reward it gives was worth the effort to reach it. I think it is more than enough to say I have no interest in playing more of it just to confirm what I already know: it’s not great.