

If you fail to report your findings, it's likely game over for the rest of us. The ship gets shot down by a strange blast from the far-flung candidate planet below, and you may be the only survivor. Our world is dead already, and the male or female protagonist you choose is a member of a key reconnaissance team searching for a new habitat for humanity.

That’s the feeling The Solus Project replicates in its best moments, and that, combined with the pressure of holding the fate of the human race in my hands, kept me glued to it long after I grew disenchanted with its weak puzzles and crafting, or the way its survival elements quickly take a back seat to survival horror.

With a force of a gut punch, the scene reminds us that few things are more terrifying and hopeless than the prospect of surviving on an alien world alone. It's no accident that one of the most effective scenes in The Martian sees Matt Damon lose almost the entirety of his food supply in an instant.
