Population Zero Just Entered Early Access

So according to the official Steam page, Population Zero is a “Massively Multiplayer Action Adventure RPG.” That sounds pretty cool, right? I’ve never done a dedicated video on the game before but I recall featuring it in the odd News video or two. So what is Population Zero?
An amalgamation of genres, perhaps too many for its own good. See, the game just launched into a paid Early Access. The game has several different packs available, ranging from $30 to $50.
They state that the game is “near the finishing line” but they’ve opted to roll out into Early Access first to gauge “player feedback” prior to an official launch.
This probably ended up being a better idea than they’d originally planned as they’re sitting at a pretty low 40% like ratio in terms of reviews.

That’s not how you want the launch of your game to go but at the same time, it’s definitely possible for a game to turn things around – to take the negative initial player reception and do something with it.
This Early Access in question, even though the game is “near the finishing line” is planned to last a minimum of 9 months. That’s…. questionable.
The game takes place on an alien planet. You’re one of several survivors from Earth, with no way of ever returning. You have a total of 168 hours left before facing extinction.
Your goal is to work together with the other survivors in an attempt to restart your hibernation pod all the while gathering resources, building up your base and trying not to die to the creatures that wander the planet.
While the game lists itself as an MMO, from what I can tell it’s much more of your typical survival game than anything.
While the core game is focused on PvE: cutting down trees, killing monsters, building your base, it’s also a PvP game that allows you to fight other players and lose everything you work towards. Pretty much like Rust or ARK or really any other survival game of its kind.

Population Zero is attempting to compete with Last Oasis and Conan Exiles, and from the reception thus far, it isn’t going well.
Player feedback has suggested that the game is incredibly buggy – which in all honesty is guaranteed with an Early Access game. You guys should have already anticipated this going into it.
But not a single person has praised its combat – most people claiming it’s actually worse than other games, most of the other games in the genre. However what it does right is the PvE, providing a large, open world that is stunning, beautiful to look at.
However the questing system – which yes there’s an actual questing system present in-game, is pretty much restricted to “fetch” and “kill” quests. Which – since we’re MMO players – isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It’s more so the fact that quests are taken and completed in the “hub” area which means it could have you running all over the map attempting to complete, only to have you run all the way back to turn in.

From what I could tell, the majority of the “negative” Steam reviews came from players that expected more out of the game. NPCs, deeper skill trees, more impactful choices, when what they got was kind of a bare-bones game lacking depth and diversity.
And that’s okay – this game is, while technically “near the finishing line,” still nowhere near being in a complete state. While I’d advise against buying the game right now, I do think it could, eventually turn out to be a solid title.. if they can successfully turn this around.