Under A New Sun

About

Under A New Sun is a single player and multiplayer open world simulation game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by New Horizon Games and was released on November 13, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

The plan was simple - the ship would wake you from your cryocapsule before you arrived at a potential new home. A planet for humanity to start a new life on. But when you awaken, you are already on the ground amongst the wreckage of your ship with no one else in sight. Stranded and surrounded only by debris, you start your journey under an unfamiliar sky. The planet has a breathable atmosphere, w…

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77%

Audience ScoreBased on 192 reviews

gameplay7 positive mentions

grinding6 negative mentions

Beautiful and immersive graphics with impressive day/night cycles and water effects, providing a relaxing and atmospheric survival experience.
Engaging core mechanics including realistic crafting and building systems with physical item interaction, and a sci-fi twist that adds uniqueness.
Developer is active and responsive, frequently updating the game and listening to player feedback, showing promising potential for future content and improvements.

Inventory management is limited and frustrating due to small capacity, cumbersome UI, and lack of stacking/splitting features, impeding gameplay flow.
Game progression and crafting systems lack clarity and tutorials, making it difficult to understand what to do next or how to advance.
Grind-heavy gameplay with scarce resources, slow boat travel, and repetitive tasks causing frustration and boredom over extended play sessions.

gameplay
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
63%
11%
The gameplay offers a solid core survival and crafting experience with enjoyable exploration and base building, though some mechanics like inventory management and resource demands feel clunky or limited. The game encourages player discovery without excessive hand-holding, but certain features and polish are still missing, reflecting its early access status. Overall, the mechanics show great potential and players are optimistic about future improvements and added content.
- “Learning the mechanics, figuring out how to progress, find new items -> get new blueprints.”
- “Great base building, crafting, upgrades and exploring with some unique mechanics.”
- “The learning mechanics, the visuals, the music, the building and exploring are awesome!”
- “I feel the game has a lot of potential but the building mechanics could use some work; the amount of materials everything takes and the limited resources make it difficult to do any kind of real building.”
- “It is also early access, so inventory needs work, drag mechanics are quite clumsy, and I'm sure there are lots of little things that might irritate a player until they are fixed.”
- “The mechanics and very low inventory slots are a pain.”
graphics
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
83%
4%
13%
The game's graphics are widely praised for their beauty, realism, and immersive quality, notably enhancing the overall experience with stunning environments, lighting effects, and detailed creatures. While a few users mention occasional blurriness or UI issues, the visuals are generally regarded as a major strength that surpasses similar games in the genre.
- “I've really been enjoying this game; the graphics are great. Sailing across water feels immersive, and playing with some friends has been super fun so far!”
- “The graphics are a huge improvement. Considering Stranded Deep was always a pretty game, this is better and looks more modern.”
- “The graphics are amazing; it reminds me of Ark with the brilliance of the sunrises, sunsets, planets, and palm beaches.”
- “Graphics are blurry.”
- “What I did experience was just a clunkier Stranded Deep with worse graphics and poorly responsive controls.”
- “The graphics are a huge improvement, which is saying a lot when you consider Stranded Deep was always a pretty game; this is better and looks more modern.”
story
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The story is currently minimal and underdeveloped, with limited content and few interactive elements, reflecting its early access status. While the environment and exploration aspects are praised, the narrative lacks depth and NPC interaction, making the game feel more like a time-waster until further story content is added. Developers are reportedly working on expanding the storyline to enhance engagement.
- “Under a New Sun works much better, and it has the promise of an extremely interesting story.”
- “Content wise, I could probably get another 10 more hours out of it, so roughly 25 hours of content if you like taking things steady. The islands are well done and interesting to explore but it does need more content and story (which is currently in the works).”
- “I do find that there are some glitches going on, but again, early access... it is all in all a good game. If you find the notes left on some islands, it leads to a fairly good storyline as well as solo play.”
- “Needs a lot more content with the story and a much bigger map.”
- “I'm a sucker for space, so the idea of planetary sceneries is appealing to me, but this is early access, so there is a lack of storylines and definitely not much to do yet.”
- “I would classify this game as a time waster for now since the story doesn't seem to be fully developed.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users generally find the grinding in the game to be excessive and sometimes tedious, exacerbated by sparse resources and a hidden tech tree that makes progression unclear. However, some note that grinding becomes less burdensome as skills improve over time.
- “It was boring, grindy and resources were incredibly sparse.”
- “I know open-world survival craft games are grindy but the tech tree is hidden so you don't even know what you're working towards.”
- “Like other survival games I've played, it's super grindy at first, but the grindiness decreases as your skills level up.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The music in the game is generally praised for enhancing the atmosphere and bringing life to the experience, with some users expressing a desire for a soundtrack release. However, a few players find it distracting and prefer to turn it off to maintain immersion. The variety of music, including radio options, adds to the peaceful and engaging gameplay.
- “The learning mechanics, the visuals, the music, the building and exploring are awesome!”
- “The music brings life to the game and I would love to have the soundtrack in my library (maybe as DLC).”
- “The radio has a variety of music and you can put it next to your house while you work to concentrate more.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The game shows decent performance on high-end hardware like the RTX 4070, but suffers from poor optimization on lower-spec systems, leading to slow resource respawn times and long building processes that negatively impact gameplay.
- “It also runs well on my 4070, with no performance issues at all as yet.”
- “So it has the same issues as Stranded Deep: waiting a long time for resources to respawn, bad performance, and it also takes forever to build something.”
- “So it has the same issues as Stranded Deep: waiting a long time for resources to respawn, bad performance, and it also takes forever to build something.”
- “This game has one downside: if you don't have a good gaming computer or try to play it on a mediocre laptop, it is so badly optimized that you will quickly give up on it.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is generally stable with few glitches, especially considering it's still in early access and likely developed by a small team. Users appreciate ongoing updates and find the current stability acceptable for solo play and exploration.
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its peaceful and visually appealing environments, enhanced by a beautiful day/night cycle and striking meteorite rain effects. While the mechanics support the ambiance well, some users feel that adding more atmospheric music could further enrich the experience.
- “I love the day/night cycle, the variety of colors is very beautiful and gives a very good atmosphere, not to mention how wonderful the meteorite rain looks and when it gets dark you can see a planet very similar to Jupiter which is beautiful.”
- “Actually a very nice game, the mechanics work well and it is very peaceful in places. A bit more atmospheric music would be nice.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features humor that many players find enjoyable and entertaining, contributing positively to the overall experience.