Background information
Through the park with the insect battle tank: I played "Grounded 2"
by Debora Pape
"Space Engineers 2": my spectacularly failed attempt at survival mode
16.12.2025
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Debora Pape
In the early access game "Space Engineers 2", I build space bases and spaceships to my liking. At least in theory. In practice, I fail because of the physics and the ship controls.
That's where it goes wrong: A spaceship with sleeping colonists sets off on a long journey to colonise a new solar system. After several millennia, it finally arrives in the Almagest system ... and suddenly crashes head on into an asteroid. The beautiful ship is stranded on a boulder in space and I agree to search for resources to repair the ship on the planet Verdure.
This is how the story of the new survival mode of «Space Engineers 2» begins. The game was released in Early Access in January 2025, but so far only offered a sandbox mode: without any tutorial. If you know the first part of the game, you might find your way around it. Not me, however. After wandering around a space station for a few minutes and accidentally destroying parts of the station structure, I put the game back in the virtual files.
But now there is a planet to explore and space stations to build in addition to a short series of quests. I'm hoping this will make the game more accessible. I strap on my tool belt: Off I go on my second attempt as a space engineer.
Collect ores, repair spaceships
After landing with a capsule on Verdure, I first have to find a new vehicle to leave the planet again. Strangely enough, there are enough abandoned spaceships on the planet that I just have to repair them. I don't know where they come from. I thought I was the first person to set foot on this world. Maybe that will be clarified in the course of the story.
First, I mine ore from the rock faces and use it to repair a small «Grasshopper»-class aircraft. I can then fly to the next mining area to collect more raw materials. But then the hopper doesn't want to take off any more, instead bobbing around just a few centimetres above the ground. What's going on? Am I too heavy? The 2000 kilograms (!) of rock in my rucksack don't cause me any problems, but perhaps they do for the plane? As a newcomer to the engineering business, I don't recognise exactly where the problem lies on the interface.
While I try to persuade my ship to take off, I get too close to the edge of the landing pad. The «Grasshopper» falls down, overturns on the mountainside and explodes spectacularly. «You died in an industrial accident» - industrial accident, yeah right.
I spawn ten kilometres away - where I first set foot on the planet. The surroundings are pretty with their colourful flower meadows, but not pretty enough for me to make the journey on foot. Gritting my teeth, I activate the jetpack on my back and fly at 72 kilometres per hour to the place of my demise.
On arrival, I pick up my lost rucksack and carry on where I left off: repairing a «Sledge»-class spaceship. I can use it to leave the planet.
Physics that works
Before taking off into space, the game takes me to a larger crashed spaceship that has milled into a mountainside. I have to enter and explore it. I simply sweep away any junk lying around in the ship.
A loud crash suddenly sounds behind me. I turn round and run to where the large cockpit module had just been. Apparently, I've overdone the flexing and accidentally destroyed load-bearing parts. I watch as the Cockpit rumbles down the mountainside and comes to rest further down. Joah, the physics engine works.
I realise this later when I leave the planet with the «Sledge» and try to get to grips with the controls in the vacuum of space. The damn sledge quickly picks up speed and is then almost impossible to slow down again due to its inertia. All too soon I arrive where I want to go: at an unknown signal «» in the middle of nowhere. It's marked on my radar and turns out to be space debris.
I don't have time to take a closer look because I thunder into the obstacle at almost a thousand speeds and am thrown out of the «Sledge». Strangely enough, I survive the crash and watch my ship disappear into the vastness of space, smoking. Bye bye, that's probably it. I'm stranded again. And this time I don't have a replacement ship. I load the previous savegame and I'm lucky: it hasn't been overwritten yet and I'm saved.
From abandoned station to abandoned station
Now I fly to the automatically operated, abandoned space station «Vallation», which hovers in orbit above Verdure. There I find a vending machine where I can get quests.
These turn out to be boring and are only of limited use as a tutorial: I'm usually told to fly to an abandoned station and set up a few elements there, such as solar panels and first aid stations. These are already placed there as projections, a kind of blueprint, and all I have to do is procure the resources needed to complete them. One of the rewards is «Colonisation progress», even though there isn't a soul in the system apart from me. At least that's what I think.
I do this a few times and still don't know how best to build a functioning base myself. Or even better: a functioning ship. With the number of «industrial accidents» it's probably worth having one up your sleeve. But I don't know which elements are necessary, how to connect them and what to look out for.
While I fly back and forth (and suffer another «work accident» ), I realise how incredibly good «Space Engineers 2» looks. The nearby planet presents me with unbelievably beautiful sunsets: the main star Almagest disappears behind the horizon and its light shines red through the volumetric clouds. Breathtaking. My screenshot camera is glowing.
Another unfortunate accident
A quest finally takes me back to the planet. I'm supposed to clean up an abandoned station there. How surprising. The station is on Verdure's current night side. Because it's a long way away, I save before taking off - in case I have another accident at work - and then speed through the atmosphere at 1080 kilometres an hour just above the mountain peaks. At the day-night border, I marvel again at the beauty of the game and risk my ship for a few screenshots in the clouds.
Then I'm suddenly in the dark, my destination just 1.5 kilometres away. I can see: Nothing. Not the mountains, not my height above the ground and I can only guess my flight position from the slightly brighter night sky. And I'm still speeding along at 400 kilometres per hour. I quickly save - a crash in the near future doesn't seem unlikely .... and crash into some invisible mountainside just seconds later.
Super! So I'm going to spend the next half hour making several attempts to free myself from this modest flying position immediately after loading. The goal: to rescue my «Sledge». But I don't get that far. Before the loading screen, I stupidly answer the question «Save current score?» with «Yes».
My «Sledge» is gone. Forever.
The end of too short a trip
I spawn on one of the barely functional asteroid stations. I no longer have a ship and haven't the slightest idea how to build one. I watch a few YouTube videos, somewhat listlessly. Listlessly, because I'm frustrated. About the loss of my ship and about the fact that I still don't know the basics despite having spent almost seven hours in the game.
With the welding machine, I try my hand at a first ship construction. I place a landing leg (probably upside down, but I'm not sure), a transport crate above it, a Cockpit at the front and two atmospheric engines next to each. I'm not fooling myself: I don't think there's going to be a phoenix-from-the-ashes story where I build a new «Sledge» out of nothing.
The error message «Unauthorised Action» puts a spanner in the works when I'm welding together my not-yet-flying box. I give up and watch another sunset (so beautiful!). Goodbye «Space Engineers 2». A campaign mode with multiplayer is due at some point. Then I'll try again. And then it will work - because I think there's a great sandbox game behind the beautiful graphics. It just requires a lot of time to learn the basics.
Conclusion: All beginnings are difficult
The graphics and game atmosphere of «Space Engineers 2» are stunning. I like the fact that the entire environment can be destroyed and that I have enormous freedom when building. I can see that from the number of possible building blocks in construction mode. Through my «colonisation progress» I unlock more sectors in the Almagest system, including more planets. Unfortunately, I don't make it that far.
The problem: It's difficult to get started. Almost a year after the Early Access release, there are hardly any explanations in the game. The quests don't help me either. I would like a small series of quests to introduce me to the building system shortly after landing and guide me through the construction of my first base so that I learn the basics of what to look out for.
«Space Engineers 2» could be a really great game - somewhere between «No Man's Sky», «Elite: Dangerous» and perhaps «Star Citizen». Only on a smaller scale and focussing on the building system.
«Space Engineers 2» has been available in Early Access on Steam (Windows) since 27 January 2025. The game was provided to me by Keen Software House for testing purposes.
Header image: Keen Software House
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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