Oxygen Not Included stands tall alongside the best colony sims on Steam, taking the base building and people management aspects of games like Rimworld and transferring it into the vastness of space. Already a huge winner on the Valve store, boasting an ‘overwhelmingly positive’ 96% user score from more than 113,000 reviews, another update has just landed that introduces additional buildings. Even better, you can try it out completely free on Steam right now, as developer Klei Entertainment teases its next paid DLC.
Coming from the makers of Don’t Starve, Oxygen Not Included is a charming but deep experience that will keep you busy for a long time. Experimenting to discover the rules of the world is a delight, and coming to learn its nuanced ins and outs is a supremely rewarding experience, placing it among the best colony management games out there.
In its latest update, two new buildings have been added. The Canister Drainer and Bottle Drainer can be used with gas canisters and bottled liquids respectively, allowing their contents to be released directly into connected pipes. Of course, you’ll need something on the other end – enter the Bottle Filler, which stores those piped liquids into other bottles.
Alongside this come some welcome quality-of-life upgrades. The Schedule screen has been given an overhaul and now supports multi-cycle schedules, along with quick ways to duplicate, rearrange, or swap entire schedules and schedule blocks at once. Your Duplicants will now spend less time idling after finishing jobs before they look for a new task to complete.
Klei has also upped both the drop rate and recycling yield rate on blueprints, used to unlock Oxygen Not Included’s cosmetic skins. That means you’ll have an easier time collecting all manner of new styles to make your colony feel truly yours. If you own the most recent ONI DLC, Frosty Planet, there’s also a new Regal Bammoth morph to discover, alongside tweaked diets for the creatures and a new mini asteroid cluster to explore.
Alongside this comes news of a new paid DLC on the way, titled The Bionic Booster Pack. This will introduce bionic Duplicants, which have internal oxygen stores meaning they can work safely in low-oxygen environments. Their skill sets can be customized, but you’ll need to build them special service stations. The expansion will also add portable power banks, pilotless rockets, and special buildings allowing your workers to operate machinery remotely.
If you’re eager to give the game a try, now’s the perfect time – you can play the base version for free on Steam over the coming weekend. If you like it, a Steam sale discount lets you grab the base game and all its existing DLC for cheap to keep.
Oxygen Not Included is free to play on Steam until Monday November 25. You can buy it for 66% off through Wednesday November 27, meaning you’ll pay just $8.49 / £6.45. The full bundle including both Spaced Out and Frosty Planet is 61% off, so expect to pay $17.68 / £14.02 if you want everything. Klei notes that a release date for Bionic Booster will be announced soon, but in the meantime head here to check the game out for yourself.
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