I’m a sucker for the wonder of discovery that comes from exploring uncharted planets. Whether it’s waking up aboard your damaged ship in No Man’s Sky, or cruising across alien worlds in your Mako in Mass Effect. Of all the games we saw at PAX West 2025, none may have elicited this feeling more than Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, developed by System Era Softworks.
Our thirty hands-on demo of this upcoming Astroneer spinoff had us climbing mountains, digging caves, dodging strange monsters, and even throwing the occasional sentient carrot. If that doesn’t create a sense of wonder, I don’t know what does.
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Lost (with friends) in space!
Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions is not an Astroneer game, though it is set in that universe. The focus is on adventure, rather than coop, as you and up to three other friends deploy on expeditions of research and exploration in deep space. Instead of base building and survival, you will deploy with objectives to complete in service before extracting and collecting rewards. Our demo began with me and a partner landing on an alien world to begin one such expedition.
As my partner and I touchdown on the alien planet we can see colorful hills and spires stretching to the horizon. A few small carrot-like creatures approach. Those are carrotlings, I’m told, cannibalistic little monsters, though not a big threat to us. Still, to be on the safe side I pick it up and throw it, and, not to brag, but my guy must have an arm like Josh Allen, because that little sucker flew.
The worlds you explore in Starseeker are full of alien flora and fauna, though unlike a lot of other scifi games, it’s not all actively trying to kill you. As a part of the Astroneer series, it’s a more optimistic Sci-Fi, and as an explorer you are there to study, not conquer worlds. A push of a button brings up a scanner, and I’m able to quickly scan the remaining carrotlings for some research progress.
A few larger creatures, like a sort of space… rhino… thing, we ran into are a little more dangerous and require a bit more caution. This isn’t a combat focused game, each of the up to four astroneers that join an expedition is equipped with gadgets, not guns.
My partner’s water sprayer didn’t do much to the creature, though my vacuum-like terrain sucker let me drop it in a hole long enough for us to run away. Other options include a wind-blowing turbine, or an electrical zapper that, among other things, can at least stun creatures when you need to make a getaway.
Starseeker: Shared Space
The ESS Starseeker itself is a massive ship that functions as the home base for your team, and many others, ala the Starship Enterprise. As you explore and complete objectives you will not only work on upgrades for yourself, but also contribute incremental to the shared missions of the Starseeker. Think Helldivers, but with less dismemberments.
Our goal on this expedition was to carry a relay up to the highest peak in the area. I wondered if we had the Turbine whether we might have been able to force some gusts downward to propel us up, but in our case we were going to have to make due with me digging a corkscrewing tunnel upwards using my terrain vacuum. We’d encounter occasional pockets of a sticky organic goop, which I left to my partner to clear with their sprayer as I kept digging. The teamwork makes the dream w
We made steady progress until we came to an open cave with some raised cliffs leading up. I could easily jump across them, but by buddy, who outside of pressure washing took responsibility for carrying the heavy relay, didn’t could leap the same distance. Our plan, we decided, was for me to go ahead, and for them to throw the relay to me. With a well aimed toss (and a perfectly timed press of the catch button on my end), we were across and zooming up.
Eventually we broke through to the top of our rocky mesa and planted our relay. With a job well done into the books it was time to back to our ships for extraction. We could have climbed back down the tunnels I dug, but this is the future, and we have gliders dammit! We took a running leap and a double tap of the jump button, small hang gliders unfurled on our backs.
Unlike Breath of the Wild, where your glider has a fixed rate of descent, these ones let you control your pitch for fast dives or slow glides. After quickly panicking and almost nose diving directly into a cliff thrusting out of the hill, I adjusted, and floated directly down to my ship for extraction, ready to report our successful science-ing aboard the ESS Starseeker.
Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions will begin its voyage on Steam in 2026.
