Notrium

Notrium
N/A
Metacritic
98
Steam
66.75
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$0.99
Release date
7 December 2015
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
98 (55 votes)

You have crash-landed on Notrium. Your food supplies are running low, and a pack of predatory aliens have your scent. You're out of bullets for your pistol, your only weapon a handful of rocks. A freezing night is setting in, and you are desperately looking for firewood. Can you survive?

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Notrium system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP
  • Processor: 1000 MHz CPU
  • Memory: 64 MB RAM
  • DirectX: Version 8.0
  • Storage: 24 MB available space

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
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OmegaThanatos
OmegaThanatos

I remember playing this game non-stop when I was a kid. It is still an awesome game. Probably the first indie survival game.
Also....where is Notrium 2, Ville? You promised us you will make it 15 years ago. I am still waiting.

MySKoZ
MySKoZ

This is a hardcore crafting/survival game created in time before hardcore crafting/survival games were popular. I bought this mostly for nostalgia as I played this a lot as a kid and I really liked the game (this was a freeware game, and the freeware version is probably still available on the internet), But I think if you are OK with simple 2D graphics and ready to die a lot before you learn how to play this you may find it relevant even today especially if you are fan of the genre.

vaxquis
vaxquis

I'm not recommending this. It's an ambitious project, and I don't mind neither the nostalgia or lo-fi vibe here, but there's not enough to actually make this game bearable, not to mention playable. The graphics, sounds and music are, obviously, crap-tier, but that's not the issue here. The terrible UI design, run-of-the-mill story, uninspired worldbuilding effort and retarded craft system are. Inventory management is a chore, combat is laughable, turrets are useless, AI and enemies are retarded, there're basically three enemies with only minor variations, so IMVHO the game basically fails on all possible fronts utterly. I'll probably complete the cheevos just to see how bad it will get, but after just 5 hours it feels like a job, not a game, to me.

Don't believe the recommendations. Realize that all those "the game I used to play as a kid" reviews are from nostalgiacs, not actual gamers. The game should be ranked based on today's standards, not those from two decades ago. Starcraft or DN3D are still great games. This one aged really badly.

VidyaGamez
VidyaGamez

Notrium is a survival game from a time when survival games wern't really a thing.

You get multiple difficulties, multiple races(Each race has its own playstyle) and multiple ways to go about your survival adventure each time you play.

It's been many years since I've put a lot of time into this game so it's difficult for me to break down each element in the review but I'm sure someone else will do that later.

I just want to let you know that this is an upgraded version of an already quality game that I spent many hours enjoying in the past. It's also fully moddable with some impressive mods already existing.

α
α

Notrium is a game I played extensively 12 years ago. I played it for hours as a kid because it was quick fun, had exploration and crafting and a vibrant community with extensive mod support. I taught me the basics of modding which later got me interested in programing.

The game is still as fun as I remember, but the community is quite gone -- which is where Steam comes in. I can only imagine what kind of mods steam users would make. Until then the base game and original mods will keep you busy!

uberwaffe
uberwaffe

tl;dr
Small cost, lots of fun. No brainer,

!tl;dr

This is a great game, and for the price versus the amount of gameplay you're likely to get out of this is a great fun-to-cost ratio.

It feature 4 different 'races' to play with, that actually have vastly different playstyles (well perhaps two of the 4 are not vastly different, but still focus on very different items for scavanging).
Its maps are randomly generated to a large extent, meaning that even if you play through all 4 races you will not feel like you are simply trudging through the same world in a different set of shoes.

Disclaimer:
I originally played Notrium back in 2005, and it kept me entertained for quite a while. So I am probably wearing nostalgia glasses to some extent. But at the same time there aren't many games that caught my attention like this over the years.

Grom
Grom

Should've been more expensive compared to other games on Steamy (but a fine cost considering it began as a freeware), but sadly not many users do not know of it or find it eerie perhaps. Much more easier to play that Robinson's Requiem & Deus, concerning early survival games.

+Multiple species to play, each with their pros & cons. Each come with their own plot, journal & gameplay style
+Choices on which way to end the game (other than dying)
+RNG (cruel mistress)
+Tough as nails (one may want to test it out on Wimp difficulty first)

-May not be suitable for casuals
-Crafting & its recipes may be confusing

Adapt!

E_net4
E_net4

This classic game is definitely worth playing to any survival game enthusiast. In fact, when it comes to futuristic survival games, this one is a pioneer. It covers multiple races with distinct gameplay strategies, crafting, a nicely written back-story and loads of aliens to kill... or be killed by. It's also moddable to the point enabling the creation of expansions to the original game, or just something completely different.

Although its introduction to Steam and the improvements available in the Special Surprise Edition (™?) are a fresh breeze to the game, this version brings the same spirit of the freeware versions from 2003 and onwards. In fact, one of these earlier versions of Notrium is open-source. Hence, my greatest inclination of buying it here is to support the (very) nice developers behind it. It's still worth every cent.

Doctor Game
Doctor Game

A hidden gem of the early indie game scene, Notrium has finally come to Steam. This game was doing survival in a hostile world long before Minecraft popularized the genre. Crafting, alien landscapes, multiple playable races, solid modding community, the works. An incredible game, more so for the time it was released, it still holds up today. For the incredibly low asking price, this game is highly recommended.

Kingzaforce
Kingzaforce

Notrium.

I don't have words for this game. Probably one of my most favoured games of all time, I can't believe it's on Steam! I dropped the $1.99 in about a second!
Notrium is a survival game. You play as one of 4 characters from a crew that crashlands on an alien planet. Your goal is to survive, be it that you find a way offworld, or take presedence over the locals and become ze' ubermanche. There is the Human, Alien, Android and Psionic. I personally prefer the Human and Alien to the other two races, because of the amount of gameplay each presents. Notrium hits the "Survival" Part right on the money. You constantly have to moniter your temperature and hunger, as well as focusing on the whole NOT DYING part. I sincerely hope Ville releases workshop for this game, due to the huge amount of moddability. Someone modded this into a side scroller guys! How crazy is that? Insanity aside, $1.99 is a small price to pay for a game with this kind of content. Definitely worth the time you'll spend dying over and over again.

LunaticNeko
LunaticNeko

A very good game and a blast from the past.

Like many young boys back in early 2000s, I was one of the fans of "survive and craft" games when they were not widely available or polished like today.

Notrium was among the best. Now it's even better.

Pros:
- Moddable from ground up
- Very great support and community
- Awesome music
- Multiple choices, multiple endings

Cons:
- The battery is unfortunately Exclusive to Android(TM).

Fringe Point
Fringe Point

This is a nostalgia post.
I remember 12+ years ago when this game was still being updated. If this game had a counter for how many hours I spent playing the game and tinkering with the various mods of the days it would be at least 40+. I remember after playing it I searched for other games with the same kind of setup and did not really find any as these types were not that common back then.

Survival (eating, fighting, exploring)
Crafting
Multiple endings

It is highly moddable (Just go to the games Data folder, copy the Default to a new folder name, open any file with a text editor, everything is commented, however the syntax is different from most other games, and slightly confusing to relate 2 entries )
A built in level editor

There was not that many mods for this game as it was definitely an overlooked game of its time
http://www.indiedb.com/games/notrium/mods

4 different classes to play as (more with mods) that each have their distinct requirements to live and flourish
Human - The generic class
Android - Lives on batteries
Alien - Who wants an army of swarming mindless peons
Psion - Way different route then the rest

3 Difficulty levels
Wimp - Walk in the park status (no temp, no weather effects, needs drop slower)
Normal - Temperature and weather effect you
Hard - I've never really played on this so no opinion

This game was built on the same renderer (and maybe game engine) as the pre-steam Crimson Land
Low system requirements
I know it can run on XP, but it also runs on windows 7 / 8 with no modifications (in my experience)
I bought this out of pure nostalgia

ecdc
ecdc

Notrium was one of the first survival/ crafting games ever existed. Played it for days back in 2003. Was really surprised to see it on steam finally and already played 40 hours on steam too. All i can say is definitely buy it, great indie game for a cheap prize.

As for game, you are the sole survivor of a shot down ship, landing on planet notrium with last escape pod. You have to scavenge, find food, fight local aliens and marines and esentially reach one of the ending.

Game has four races that plays differently.

    • Humans are overall average, they can use pretty much every tech. and you have to manage your hunger and temperature.
    • Androids are stronger than humans, they can carry more, don't need food and become really strong endgame. Downsides are they lose energy constantly so you need constant supply(kinda like needing food) and they can't heal like other characters, you need repair units.
    • Alines can become really strong end game. Downsides are they have increased hunger and can't use tech. They differ from other races with their ability to evolve. Completing certain tasks evolves your alien so you get stuff like better night vision, different attacks etc.
    • Psionic has complete different play style from other races. They can't carry stuff and has tokens which you combine to make different skills.

Also each of them have their own storylines which you will read as days pass via their journeys.

Apart from 4 races you also have 6 different endings which i won't talk about so you won't get spoiled. But some of them are really fun and rewarding.

It has quite number of mods, one i will recommend is "werivar" mod which adds a lot of content.

With different races, endings and modding you can say game has a lot of replayability too.

Supreme Emperor Lord As Asriel
Supreme Empero…

I recommend this game to anybosy its a great rpg game that everyone will love.

Klautsche
Klautsche

I've played this game to completion at least 5 times already (not on Steam YET :P ) and i still think this is one of the greatest survival games out there! I definitely recommend playing it, dont look up anything and just let the world of Notrium suck you in :) theres hundreds of things to do and to explore, loads of items to find, create, combine and improve! If you like the concept of levelling up, download the expansion mod "werivar" which adds even more stuff.
Great game!

Valion
Valion

I remenber first playing this game back in 2007 my friend found an older build of the game and i mean OLD none of these fancy doors or new aliens we get in this build. This is the type of game i have to say is a must for anyone who wants to play a game that is open world survival horror game with crafting, and yes this game is horror wether it be seeing a queen for the first time or running from a large group of brown aliens it scared me to hell back in 07 and when i found the new aliens they added to this game on steam i was scared again.

Now lets talk about some of the other stuff like crafting it maybe because i to this day remenber 90% of all the things i could craft but the crafting is not the best while it's not bad (infact very easy to do) the only problem i ever had with the game is the inventory management ruffly half the time i could never tell what i had selected when i was crafting but that is just a little nitpick.

overall this is a game i brought out of nostalgia and i got a copy for my friend too and wether it is on a sale or just seeing it on steam by chance this is something worth getting after all in a genra that is now full of horrible games it's nice to just go back to a time when it was all better

Actual Spook
Actual Spook

Solid game, absolutely worth two bucks. Graphics are a bit dated but you could run this on your grandmother's toaster.

cookiesliyr
cookiesliyr

"You accidentally step on a red plant, its fluids splashing on your leg. Suddenly you see an old wound on your leg heal rapidly!"

man, this game still have its charm, if you like survival games this one might be old and doesn’t have some conventions of new survival games (including standard control, the first thing I believe that will kill you if you never played old games before), but its damn good, the theme is great, the choices and discovery is simply a joy, has lovely dialog and the playable characters are so diverse that you will feel like playing a different game foe each one of them, even though it is the same generated maps, the game has several surprises, different endings, and an interesting items diversity that will keep you guessing which one could be combined with which, the game will give you some hints but most items have different combinations, heck, just everytime you have tons of items go through them, but remember to save first XD

and yes, this game has kinda fixed maps and sometimes u will get some of those fix maps sometimes not, and each map has certain items in it, I mean if you want sand and you didn’t get a desert map, well good luck in finding some. and it is not that huge world, but the experience itself is huge, thanks for items diversity and different endings it doesn’t feel as random luck or the experience is lacking, instead it feels it gives you a good space to be creative and try new things everytime. The game is a bit hard, based on your style and which character you picked. For human I.e it is not easy to go out in the dark with extreme cold at the night or extreme hot at desert area without preparations, sometimes your death will be swift if you start without finding good supply and wondered in wrong maps without knowing! Sometimes you will venture long till you discover your character is starving and die with hunger, but in general the game because easier with each run, u discover how to use things in better ways, what expected from each map u visited, and what's ur character weakness and strength, all in the hard way.

as you can expected, i played the game when it was like version 1.2 or something and followed it till the dev. decided to focus more on his space starship game, he had like 3 models without textures at that time, so hopefully there is something new in this version, if it is small and insignificant i would still looking forward to see it. (edit: I found a weird thing that seems doesn’t belong to the theme, wonder if this is the secrete, but it was fun)

What only worries me in this game … why is it sold for 2 dollars? People might get confused and think it is a bad quality games, I enjoyed playing this game more than a lot of games that I bought for 10-25$

Daniel (dev)
Daniel (dev)

This game, in a way, changed my life, because it influenced how i perceive games in the first place. I became an indie dev and developed my own game based on the inspiration Notrium and few other games gave me.

So i really owe a lot to this game, and hope Ville is up to make many more great games!

Shacck
Shacck

9/10
Could do with some more alienz

Skullface
Skullface

First time, I played this years ago as the Freeware version, downloaded from somewhere on the net.

It was great, discovering it on Steam and fun beating the Game again.

It has a Crafting System, 4 playable Races (Human, Alien, Android, Psionic), multiple Endings and a randomized Enviroment (randomized, as in that the Map-Tiles are rotated per Game).

The Survival-Elements are the usual: Scavenge, Fight, Food, Weather and ESPECIALLY to the Android - Battery Lifetime. Not to forget: Escape.(or different Ending.)

Cant say anything toward the Modding-Department, as I never did that.

aw͠ô͗ͪͬo̥̲͓͖͎ga͝
aw͠ô͗ͪͬo̥̲͓͖͎ga͝

Such a classic game, I remember downloading this in like 2005 from tucows.
Top-down survival game that's hard as balls. Crafting is rare and the things you do craft change the game completely. Don't get mobbed in the first few areas until you have a decent weapon - you can also die from heat exhaustion pretty easily too. If you make a food generator you can have more food than usual, but the food supplies are only edible fungus otherwise, which is spread out all over the map and guarded by aliens.
Aliens will eat you, you will die from the environment, this game is really fun.
Highly recommend.

June
June

first of all, let's clear this out. DON'T READ REVIEWS, JUST BUY THE GAME! :) Believe me, it's worth it.
I can't believe that the game I played in 2006 will appear in 2016 on steam...
Enough of my story.

Notrium is a 2d-survival-highly moddable game, and its definetely one of a kind game.
I played it for a while (Both versions, non-steam& steam) on non-steam version, I managed to get all endings in 4 playthroughs, and my thoughts on it are great! :) If you're still reading this, I reccomend closing this review and buying the game. if you find it boring you can always mod it, there are many mods, but IMO the best are Werivar,Werivar Expansion mod,SOS: Secondary Objective, Survive.

Big thanks to developers of this game! You're all amazing. :)

denbor3
denbor3

Not a bad little game. Took me a little while to get the hang of but once I did I loved it. Worth every cent and can keep oneself entertained for hours. I havent checked out any of the mods yet myself but I plan to.

PeterosaurusRex
PeterosaurusRex

This game is great.

I remember playing it as a kid and it still has that spark of magic to it.

Prof. Lambda
Prof. Lambda

I was playing Wazzal 15 years ago and now I'm here writing this review

Geay Master
Geay Master

Playd this gem a long time ago.
Got it on steam just to suport the Dev.

Rambo
Rambo

Very solid indipendent game to sink a few hours into. It's well worth the asking price and is quite flushed out. Would recommend if you're looking for a smaller game to spend some time on and relax.

Finmide
Finmide

The video says it all lol. Very memorable for me. I didn't use a walkthrough to beat it I just heavily modded mine XD.

42nickd
42nickd

Ok I wont lie part of me is recomending this because of nastagia, I played this game all the time as a kid. Over all it is a little more simple then some survival games, but it never really needed to be anything more than it is. Its a fun title that provides enough challenge to not be completly boring without making you rip your hair out. Give it a try your gonna spend that 2 bucks on coffee anyway right?

Thunderdrake3
Thunderdrake3

A great game that almost no one knows about. Notrium is a sci-fi top-down survival and crafting game. It can be difficult at times and takes some gettting used to, but it delivers with some excellent crafting mechanics and a decent story. You can also play thorugh it as an android or Alien, both are more difficult but also more rewarding. I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good survival game.

Salva Stalkerian
Salva Stalkerian

This game is as good as it was in 2003, and it has aged really well. In fact, Instant Kingdom and the fan community has made a lot of improvements, including mods.

Sebine
Sebine

Awesome game, played a lot of the freeware version many years ago.

Onan the Barbarian
Onan the Barbarian

Notrium is, quite possibly, one of, if not the first modern survival game. It predates every other game in the genre that I know by a few years. Everything is here: You've got to eat, keep warm, or keep cool. You have to explore, and find resources to craft things with. The environment is hostile. There are different biomes with different challenges. Notrium does everything Don't Starve, The Forest, Subnautica etc. do. And it did it way before anyone else.

And it was free. This is just part of the reason why I don't understand why nobody ever seems to have heard of this game. How does one game predate the rise of an entire genre, do it this well, but is so obscure? Because if you're reading this, and you don't know what Notrium is, all I can tell you is that it does everything you expect from a survival craft-em-up. In fact, it does more. It has several wildly different classes to play, and it has multiple endings.

So yes, it's a little rough looking. It's been 15 years, and it was freeware from the start. And some of the alien sound effects sound like the creator purred into the microphone. But when you get down to it this game laid down a set of rules that has remained unchanged, and if you enjoy that particular set of rules, you will enjoy Notrium. And be honest, is 2 bucks really that high of a price for a fascinating glimpse into gaming history?

AnterW
AnterW

Gem from the past. Spent many hours on freeware version long before it was available Steam. Werivar mod or Werivar expansion mod (which added more content and larger world) are highly recommended, although for the first playthrough for e.g. human (and yes, you will most likely want to at least try other races - alien and psionic are played very differently from each other) you may want to stay with vanilla.

Uthael
Uthael

Played this game long before it got on Steam. It's a REALLY good survival experience. Each of the races you can play has their own story and they feel like a slightly different game.
Try surviving a couple of times with each. When you find your favorite, play a while. Find one of the several game endings, start over with another race and work towards a different goal.
For the price, it gives a lot to explore and many hours of fun.

Also... I recommend not looking for any sort of guidelines online until you find at least one ending (except dying).

arjunratnadev
arjunratnadev

I bought this because it brings back all the childhood memories from 2005 and the excitement of a sci-fi fantasy of being stranded in an alien planet, perhaps one of the earliest in games

Whiterabbit-uk
Whiterabbit-uk

Notrium is a top down survival game that was originally freeware (you can find the free version HERE. The developer Ville Mönkkönen re released this commercial version back in 2015 as a special edition on Steam.

I played the original Notrium for months when I first got a copy of the freeware version. I loved the variety of environments you could explore with Notrium and the challenge of surviving by scavenging for food and supplies as well as the crafting aspect and the day and night cycles. Another interesting aspect to the game was deciding which character to play because each has its own strengths and weaknesses, for example the captain relied heavily on weapons, partly because he was the weakest of the characters. The androids characters were really strong, but couldn't heal themselves until they found healing units that were scatted when the space ship crashed. The alien was an excellent hunter. This latest edition includes a new character that is psionic . Also, Notrium was the first randomly generated game I'd ever played; which at the time, I thought was ground breaking and absolutely loved the concept as no two games were the same. This gives the game a lot of replayability. Also, there was (and still is) an extensive fan based modding community involved with the game, which will extend the games life even more.

You can start this special edition of Notrium either via the tutorial, which is advisable, especially if you haven't played the original previously; or alternatively you can jump straight into a new game. Taking the tutorial gives you two choices Basic and Psionic training. Basic training as the name suggests gives your character the skills to survive after crashing on this inhospitable planet. I won't into detail about the tutorial, except to say it's basic, just introducing you to the various key bindings, using energy and describes the coloured bars located at the bottom of the game area that indicate your health, food, amount of energy etc. Your progress is kept in a Journal which can be accessed at any time by pressing the J key.

When you start the main game (after the tutorials), you find yourself plunging towards the planet , with you controlling your escape pod following the destruction of your space ship. You can use either the WASD or arrow keys to control your decent and avoid incoming missiles; if you're hit more than four times you die.

Once you land you need to find food and shelter. You can freeze or overheat depending on where you are on the planet and you will constantly be looking to replenish your various reserves of food and energy as well as searching for items to craft that will help towards your survival, such as a scanner to find other objects, which is made from a broken radio and other objects; it tells you how to make this in the tutorial). As you progress, you'll come across various environments such as Tundra, Jungle, Desert etc. The game starts when your ship is attacked while passing the planet Notrium and you crash land on the planet. you have a choice of several characters to play from an alien stowaway, the captain of the ship, an android medic or engineer; plus as mentioned above a new character that is psionic. Each character usually sees a different ending to the game, though there was some overlap between characters. Game play involves searching for materials to build suitable weapons and other items that will help in your survival.

Sadly, as yet, there is no Steam workshop, despite the availability of a level editor and access to a guide for modifying the game, however, you can add mods by installing them into the correct folder. Some of my favourite mods were Wazzal II: The Final Dawn, UberWaffe's Werivar Mod and the side scrolling mod Impalable eidolon, which you can find HERE. The main difference between the original freeware version and this Steam versioapart from the additional character is that it includes cloud and auto saves, which I find very useful as well as hints, that were definitely not included in the original. This makes the game more survivable; especially when beginning a new game before you have crafted any survival gear such as weapons, also the game includes Steam achievements which always help keep most of us interested; at least until we've got all of the achievements. For me though its the moddable aspect of the game that is important. This particular game although a top down survival game does have a side scrolling mod mentioned above available.

Deerp Yena
Deerp Yena

A classic little top down action survival game. the renders might be older then steam but the every thing works and the art fits the game

Kalajuttu
Kalajuttu

>Be me.
>Very bored.
>Suddenly remember notrium, the game from almost two decades back, you used to play as a kid and maybe even one of your very first pc games.
>Google it in hopes to play it again.
>See it's actually available in steam.
>Joyfully pay the 1.99€.
>Literal tears of nostalgic happiness.

Doomlord
Doomlord

Notrium is a game that's very dear to me. The very first version of it I played was 1.2, which I got off a CD that came with a gaming magazine back in 2004. I had no idea what I was doing, but it captivated me so much that I spent quite a few sleepless nights playing through it and figuring things out as I went (I still didn't have internet at that point so I was pretty much on my own).

I won't claim that Notrium is the first of its kind, but it's definitely one of the oldest survival games out there and I still consider it to be one of the absolute best, especially when you take into account that it was a freeware game made by more or less one dude called Ville Mönkkönen.

STORY

The gist of it is that your spaceship gets destroyed by missiles as it passes by the an alien planet and you're the only survivor. Your job is naturally to find a way to escape. The neat thing here is that you get 4 playable characters to choose from each with their own story that progresses via journal logs the longer you survive as well as 6 different endings. It's nothing phenomenal, but deep narrative isn't the focus here.

muh grafix

Honestly this is mostly nostalgia speaking, but Notrium looks timeless to me. I loved how it looked back in 2004 and I love how it looks today. I have no idea what this artstyle is called, it might be a Finnish thing, because Crimsonland looked almost the same back in the day and I loved how that game looked too.

MUSIC/SOUNDS

There isn't a whole lot when it comes to music. You have a track for the main menu and 3 ambient tracks that play during the game. The general ambiance is great. The weapons sound satisfying and so do the aliens you encounter.
The music can get repetitive, because none of the tracks are particularly long. Personally I'm fine with it, but Notrium is extremely easy to mod (I'll get more into that later) and adding new music to the playlist won't take you more than a few minutes.

GAMEPLAY

This is where Notrium truly shines. It's not filled to the brim with hundreds of "features" that mostly devolve into busy work. It's simple, to the point and highly replayable. You have 3 difficulties to choose from. On easy you only have to worry about finding food. on normal and hard you'll have to deal with your body temperature as well. I generally recommend starting on easy so you can get a feel for how things work, then moving on to higher difficulties.

As I said before you get 4 characters to choose from and they all play different. The human, the alien, the android and the psionic.
- The human has to worry about food and temperature as well as building different tools and weapons in order to survive. I recommend you start with him.
- The alien burns through food a lot faster and can't carry as much nor use a lot of tools and weapons, but is extremely deadly in close combat. Over time it evolves by either surviving long enough or killing other species and thus gains more abilities (you'll eventually be able to start your very own xenomorph hive).
- The android is very strong, can use the same tools the human can, doesn't eat and cares little for temperature, however his energy is constantly draining and you'll have to find ways to replenish it and extend your capacity.
- The psionic is the most unique character and I highly recommend you leave him for last. He barely needs to eat and his energy regenerates on its own. However he can't carry any items (there's a way to get around this MUCH later in the game) and combines different tokens to use his psionic abilities.

You'll be spending your time exploring the planet and scavenging for parts to build the things you need to survive and escape. Crafting is done on the fly from your inventory. You can also dismantle things you find into their parts and use them for something else.
You'll survive by eating mushrooms (keep an eye on the name as some of the big ones are rotten and will damage you), alien corpses and rations (which you can find or create). Your body temperature can be regulated by warming up near fires you find or start, hiding under trees, using thermal/ice packs or a certain armor.

A really neat feature Notrium has is that every time you start a new game the map locations are randomized. Map layouts and enemy/item spawns are completely random (with a few exceptions). There's also a day/night cycle and weather effects that affect your temperature and can damage or heal you.

Combat is similar to a twin stick shooter, keyboard/mouse controls only, though. You'll have to pick the right weapon for the job as some enemies are very resistant to bullets.

There's a ton of things to do and with different characters and the random elements the replay value is high.

Like I said, Notrium is very easy to mod. It comes from an era when most people didn't feel the need to encrypt the sh*t out of everything and it had a small, but very dedicated modding community. You can easily tweak things as you desire. All the data files can be opened with a text editor, are neatly arranged and are very easy to understand. There's an ingame map editor too. Once you're done with the main game I highly recommend going to Ville's website and grabbing UberWaffe's Werivar Mod. It adds a fifth playable character, a ton of new content and vastly expands what's already there. It's a genuine expansion pack.

FINAL WORDS (no TL;DR this time)

I adore this game and can't recommend it enough. For a single man project from 2003 it's incredible and it's still incredible nowadays.

I only have one personal gripe and that's with the Steam version. Now version 1.3.4.1 is the last freeware version of Notrium from 2005 and I consider that one to be the definitive experience. The Steam release removed an option or two, added a few small additions and made the game widescreen. However in the process the camera was broken. In 1.3.4.1 it would stop at the edge of the map as you approached it, but that is no longer the case. Now the camera will always be centered around your character so every time you reach the edge of the map you get to see the black abyss beyond it.

I guess it's not a big deal if you've never played Notrium before, but for me it's a HUGE immersion breaker hence why I've replaced the files in my Steam folder with 1.3.4.1. The game works perfectly, you just can't unlock achievements.

Now don't get me wrong, you should still give Ville 2 bucks because he absolutely deserves them (hell I'd say it's criminally cheap considering how good it is), but I generally recommend you go with 1.3.4.1 instead. You can easily find it online.

Zebulon
Zebulon

A game of my childhood. Nostalgia bomb!