Comunidade Steam :: Environmental Station Alpha

mayonnaise on an escalator

Guia

Alien Language Cypher

Quick and easy cypher for English > Alien Language, and vice versa. Includes some basic words, too.

73 avaliações

7

Guia

Environmental Station Alpha Quick+Full Guide

This is a full guide Environmental Station Alpha, including a Quick-Reference section for those who don’t want spoilers!

132 avaliações

50

Oymon

Possible New Content?

28x02 & 29x02 In the room with the gold teleporter there are these 8 pillars next to the statue holding the scales. The pillars have cypher language on them. I don't think these were here before this patch. The letters on the pillars are: R G AN W MC E YO S The pillars also have circles that really seem like something should appear in them. The file I'm on has 203%, I've spent the last 4 hours staring at this and I've got nothing. Anyone else find this?...

13

SilentAzaelet

24 nov. 2024 às 17:30

Discussões gerais

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48

4

Environmental boy!

YAKUMO

Native Linux port borked

The Native linux port, even with sentry-native/libsentry.so, runs indefinitely but doesn't open any window. Running the game in the terminal doesn't appear to provide any useful information: sentry_init: 0 Backend name: SteamAPI_Init(): Loaded '/home/muck/.local/share/Steam/linux64/steamclient.so' OK. Could not initialize Steam API Opening audio device Audio: pulseaudio 44100 33056 2 1024 Preload audio took 0.0000035960000000015424 Sound bank took 0.699365648 Set window Create window: 160 ...

5

muck

16 dez. 2024 às 11:39

Discussões gerais

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37

3

Robot in Jungle Sector

Flaw

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35

2

Curious Lava Boss

Adamz0r

Captura de Ecrã

34

0

200%! たぶんまだあるけど…

nekojita

Vídeo

Environmental Station Alpha PC Gameplay [60FPS]

seph.au

Vídeo

Environmental Station Alpha - Supercharge Module

nekojita

Achievements (SOLVED)

Can someone who already got all the achievements help me? I already got everything done before achievements were even a thing, now im doing it all over again. Im still missing a few, but they are pretty easy to do in like a couple hours maybe… Tho im confused about 2 achievements… WHAT is the “Watcher” achievement? i got no clue… AND for the “ Thought you could escape?” I just wonder, is it just beat the game WITH the ghost following you? Since it says “get outrun by a ghost”....

11

mp4gabxd

16 out. 2024 às 8:02

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15

0

A Japanese font for ESA

No Money No Honey

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15

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"...Perhaps your life has become too easy."

Matten

Guia

The 4 Keys

A guide to deciphering the hints and the locations of the 4 keys, part of a larger side quest.

1

Xolcin

2 pessoas acharam esta análise útil

Recomendado

10.4 hrs em registo

Publicada: 15 de Janeiro

Sights & Sounds

You know where you are?

Some games just wear their influences on their sleeves, I guess. There's been a flood of indie search action/metroidvania games over the past 15 years, but few try to look so similar to Metroid. The Axiom Verge series comes to mind, but even those games do a few things with backgrounds and sprites that would make a NES explode
Just look at all those (mostly) featureless black backgrounds, bright foreground sprites, and the block-based construction motif for architecture and platforms. Other than the character sprite looking maybe a little smaller than Samus, the resemblance is undeniable
Due to the old-school aesthetics, animations are fairly limited. Unlike some newer platformers that try to polish up pixel art and animations to look better than what the NES could muster, Enviornmental Station Alpha seems to play it straight. I'm sure there are some parts of this game's audiovisuals that wouldn't be era-appropriate, but I don't know enough about game development to hazard a guess beyond map size
While the OST does borrow some notes from the game that inspired it, it does feel tonally distinct. The synth here, while still mysterious, sounds far less haunting. It still has that unmistakable austere air about it, but it sounds less like you're playing a horror game
The sound design is excellent. The blaster, hookshot, explosion, jumping, swimming, and footstep sounds are all wonderful in their own way, helping distinguish the actions that the tiny, barely identifiable stack of pixels you control is taking

Story & Vibes

You're in the jungle, baby

Like the games of the era Environmental Station Alpha invokes, the story is very simple. The titular space station had been used as a home for protected and dangerous species for many years before a mysterious disaster occurred, resulting in the base's abandonment. You control the little automaton (Robot? Cyborg? Android? It's unclear) that's been sent to check it out and get to the bottom of things
That's about all you're told at the outset. Figuring out the rest is up to the player. Along the way, you'll discover computer terminals containing notes from the station's former occupants that help to fill in some gaps, but there's some room for interpretation and gaps to fill in with your own theories
Without getting too spoiler-y, you'll learn what caused the disaster, the fates of the some of the crew, and figure out how to destroy the evil lurking at the space station's heart. There's even an only somewhat telegraphed twist at the end after beating the final boss
Vibewise, the game uses into high difficulty to make the whole affair feel as ominous and claustrophobic as Metroid did (though that title is much less difficult)

Playability & Replayability

You're gonna die

I'm a stubborn man. It takes either a lot of boredom or a lot of frustration to make me adjust the difficulty in a game. Environmental Station is one of the rare times I've quit and restarted due to the default difficulty becoming too much of a chore
The intro doesn't do a great job foreshadowing the trials to come. After you dock at the space station, you blast a few spiky blobs and obliterate the easiest possible boss on your way in. The difficulty curve then rockets upward. This game is a challenge even on the "easy" setting
Regardless of how full your health is or which powerups you've found (at least if you don't sequence break), the trek between any two save/checkpoints is usually an arduous journey filled with creatures and hazards that can kill you pretty quickly
It's not just the monsters and defense systems that are trying to end you. The platforming in this game requires a lot of precision and timing to get right, so things like spikes, lava, and poison gas can obliterate your poor little robot man without much trouble as well
The map is one of the best I've encountered in the genre. Exploration is extremely fun, and some of the connections between areas (often faster than finding a teleporter) are surprising
Most of the powerups can be divided into defense, mobility, and blaster upgrades. Defense upgrades can help to shield you from environmental hazards and enemies, mobility upgrades help you swing across the ceiling or dash in various directions, and the blaster upgrades modify the functionality of your gun
Remember how I mentioned sequence breaking earlier? With how difficult as the game is, I recommend being thorough in your exploration and maybe take some time trying to make jumps that seem like you shouldn't be able to make them. Dash + Hookshot is a powerful combo, and you'll be retreading your steps quite a bit given what genre this game falls into
For example, I was able to get the X Dash (permitting unlimited dashing with no cooldown) and triple shot (exactly what it sounds like) much earlier than I was supposed to, which helped keep the game manageable
In fact, the X Dash is meant to be a reward for finding all of the game's collectible diskettes. However, when I stumbled upon the room the first time, I noticed that the exit behind the locked door containing the powerup looked accessible. Turns out that with some precise platforming and the correct combo of powerups in hand, you can sneak in there. It completely trivializes one of the late-game bosses, so it's worth looking into
Boss fights are varied, distinct (except for the three different defense system drone fights), and incredibly challenging. Be prepared to use your most recently acquired powerup to its fullest potential if you want to see victory
Even on the lowest difficulty, I wasn't willing to delve into the massive amount of postgame content. That first ending? Yeah, that's not the real one. If you find all the collectibles and delve into all of the optional areas, however, you just may see the real one, unlike me
What convinced me to give up was indeed one of those optional areas. In the particular one I visited, you die if you use any of those powerups you spent so much time and effort tracking down. That section boils down to a sequence of precision platforming that would make Super Meat Boy blush. I got trapped at a checkpoint midway through and couldn't struggle my way out. Suffice it to say, I don't think a replay/revisit is in the cards unless I suddenly become much better at platformers

Overall Impressions & Performance

It's gonna bring you down

This is only the second Hempuli game I've tried, but I think it's safe to say that they're devs who set out to challenge their players. Like their later title Baba is You, Environmental Station Alpha is not for the faint of heart. They make games for lovers of its specific genres who are looking to test their limits
I died so many times that began to question my platforming chops
Although the game is over a decade old, the devs decided to go back and add Steam Deck compatibility, full controller support, and achievements in late 2024. I'm grateful for the addition of all three, and I'm happy to report that this is an excellent game for the Steam Deck owing to its tiny file size and simple graphics

Final Verdict

7.0/10. Environmental Station Alpha is a fascinating little game made for fans of the genre who are seeking a challenge. As such, it's a little hard to recommend to most people. However, if you're a Metroid superfan looking for a difficult game to try, the quality of the exploration makes this well worth looking into

duhnuhnuh_duhnuhnuh

1,891 produtos na conta

0

Guia

ESA achievement guide

Guide detailing every achievement in Environmental Station Alpha

2

JayJay

Captura de Ecrã

6

0

everything save for the speedrun

FlashStep

Captura de Ecrã

5

0

and the speedrun!

FlashStep

Captura de Ecrã

4

0

Thanks a lot. :) It's fully playable, now.

Kakhi

Captura de Ecrã

3

0

Jylx

Vídeo

Environmental Station Alpha - Robed Statue no damage

zero hope >:(

Vídeo

Environmental Station Alpha - The Virus (Challenge mode)

ProtoShel

Vídeo

Environmental Station Alpha diskette 07 in the temple

No Money No Honey