Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions hands-on – is the early access worth it?

Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is now in early access on Switch 2, and it marks a clear mechanical shift for the series. System Era Softworks is moving away from the open-ended survival sandbox that made Astroneer a gem and pivoting toward co-op extraction-style play.

The original Astroneer launched nearly a decade ago, built around colourful worlds, freeform exploration, and reshaping environments while hoovering up resources. Starseeker replaces that open structure with cooperative expeditions and extraction gameplay. In hands-on time with the early access build, bugs and progress-blocking issues cropped up — some requiring a full restart and costing progress. Patches are coming regularly, and the existing Astroneer fanbase should help the community grow quickly, which typically accelerates stability improvements.

For now, expectations need calibrating — this is early access, and it plays like it.