If I had to name my favorite video games, they would likely all have a space theme to them. Add in survival elements, realism, and a good story? You’ve got my dream game (looking at you Starfield.) Well, Tin Can is a new game launching April 27th on Xbox Series X|S and even One. What all do we know about it? Well, it’s a “true-to-life space disaster experience that will test even the most experienced survival game players,” and this has me very intrigued.
Can you survive space in a Tin Can?
The marketing manager from Kalbater, the studio behind Tin Can, recently took to the Xbox Wire (Microsoft’s gaming blog) to talk about the upcoming title launching later this week. Tin Can is described as having “micro-management gameplay” in a space setting, where you’ll have to cannibalize, swap, and fix parts from various systems of your escape pod. In doing so, you’ll work to maintain vital resources, like oxygen and power, to stay alive. There are realistic system simulations and organic failures in the game, so every decision you make counts and you have to learn to prioritize what’s most important to survive.
“The smallest malfunction can have disastrous consequences” Justyna Urbanska, the marketing manager for Kalbater said. You’ll be focusing on dismantling, swapping, and fixing individual components of your pod, as well as dealing with realistic medical symptoms the whole time. Justyna described Tin Can essentially as the video game version of the movies Gravity, Armageddon, and Apollo 13. “This is as close as it gets” to being in space fixing your own pod while trying to survive.
The organic failure aspect of the game, that is, your persona in Tin Can getting sick, is what makes this such a unique title. You’ll have to really figure out what’s going wrong, tracing errors back to the source to stay alive.
There’s also cosmic events being simulated the whole time, like flying near the surface of a star or navigating asteroid fields, which can have different impacts on the escape pod’s systems. There are defective buttons that won’t trigger properly when pressed, faulty electrical connectors that don’t deliver enough power, ,and even an onboard manual to get detailed information about how to fix it all…if you can keep the lights on. There are over a dozen different components each with its own specific function as well, which can cause various problems to occur when damaged.
Tin Can has a lot more to bring to the table too, and is launching on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on April 27th for $19.99. The game already exists on PC though, so if you can’t wait to get started and have a gaming desktop, then head over to Steam and give it a go before you load it up on your Xbox console.
9to5Toys’ Take
Until now, I had never heard of Tin Can. I no longer have consoles around the house, as I am a PC-only gamer (just easier to keep track of one system,) but I’ll be checking into the Steam version of the game for sure. I love the aspect of survival that Tin Can looks to bring, having to manage so many different systems, worry about various failures, and, on top of it all, stay alive in the process. The micro-management style here feels like there would be lots of replayability as well, as the game can make various functions fail the first time, then shake it up the next.
Tin Can has made its way to my wishlist for sure, what about you?
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