Edge of Space tutorial and multiplayer hands-on

Do you love games like Terraria and Starbound? Then odds are you'll like Edge of Space. An Early Access game on Steam, Edge of Space is developed by Handyman Studios — a two-man development team consisting of Jacob Crane, Lead Developer, and Paul Ash, Lead Engineer. Edge of Space is a very ambitious game that features crafting, combat, building, terraforming, vehicles, and all in a 2D sandbox.

Last Friday, I was able to participate in a closed-invitation mulitplayer play session that showed off some of the new multiplayer features that are coming later this week in a content update. I also got a look at the new tutorial system.

Now, Edge of Space is a complex game. There's a lot to learn, and in an effort by Handyman Studios to not push people away with the complexity of the game, they developed a new tutorial system to help players. Serving as a linear part of character progression, Stations are tutorials that teach you a certain aspect of the game. In completing a station, you'll get an item, armor, piece of equipment, learn how to craft — stuff like that. After some brief explanations aboard a station, you teleport down to the surface of the planet, where you'll be tasked with gathering materials to make the teleportation device to get you to the next station.

This is mainly what our playtime consisted of — working together to advance through stations. We crafted weapons, got jetpacks, farmed jellies, experienced four stations and it culminated with us taking on the first boss in the game. Unfortunately, we each had to do it solo, and even with a really good gun and armor, Omegatron, the flying terminator head that shoots red orbs of death, got the best of me. Make no mistake, this boss is meant to be taken down with the help of others. Really, we just messed around while experiencing some of the new features, one of which were dynamic events. Randomly, blue circles would appear. In that circle was an enemy or object to attack that would send a horde of enemies our way.

The session was everything I thought it would be. Multiplayer will be fun way for friends to journey through the game together. While we didn't really build anything, there are forts and defenses you can build in Edge of Space. The play session wasn't without its bugs, but the Jacob and Paul are hard at work and constantly changing things. They need sleep, but they'd rather improve the update before it goes live. By the end of my time, I came away impressed with the Station tutorial system, as it was 10 times better than what they had when I last played the game at PAX East 2013.

You can purchase Edge of Space on Steam Early Access for $11.99.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com