Is Astroneer fun? Yes. Astroneer scores 8/10 for fun. Carving up tiny planets, building a messy base and launching to the next world feels great, once you get past controls that fight you early on.
Where this score comes from: Steam player reviews, last checked against the 200 most recent English reviews in October 2026. Astroneer on Steam
Astroneer is a bright, low-poly space sandbox from System Era. You land with a backpack and a terrain tool, and everything you build sits out in the world. It left Early Access in 2019 and still gets updates.
Astroneer scores 8/10 on immediate fun. Most players under 20 hours were positive, and the ones who bounced name the same two problems: awkward controls and a game that barely explains itself. Past that, the loop of dig, print, explore and launch is hard to put down.
Shaping the ground is the star. You suck up soil, raise ramps and tunnel straight down, and the sounds make it oddly satisfying. One pair of friends dug out a whole mountain, built a staircase into the sky, then slid off the top and got flung around the planet three times.
It is calm. There is no timer, the plant enemies stay put, and oxygen is the main thing to watch. Players keep calling it relaxing. The pull is sneaky too: one fan said you stop thinking it is boring, come back a month later and lose 19 hours.
Progress feels steady. Each blueprint opens a vehicle, a power setup or a trip to another planet, and automation is optional.
The controls are the big one, mostly on keyboard and mouse. Several new players quit inside the first hour after fighting the camera, the cursor and the left-click-does-everything design. One player tried over several years and said it never got better. A controller helps some, though not all.
The start is vague. After landing, some players had no idea what to do and went looking for a video guide. A long-time fan said it took plenty of deaths before it clicked. The tip: learn the terrain tool’s extra modes and keep laying tethers behind you.
The late game is thinner. Players past 40 hours mention grindy megastructures, an abrupt ending and buggies that flip on rough ground. That comes after the hours this score is built on, so it costs little.
Solo: It works. Plenty of players finished it alone and loved it, though a few found it dull without company.
With friends: This is where most of the love comes from. Couples, siblings and small groups say it gets better together, and joining a friend is easier now through Steam. Bugs are the catch: desyncs, sudden deaths, and more crashes with three players than with two.
Yes, especially with a friend and a controller. Give it an hour or two to learn the controls, and grab it on sale if you can, since several players felt full price is steep for a game you might finish in about 50 hours. If you want a bigger galaxy with the same calm, No Man’s Sky scored 8/10 too.
For comparison, we rated Palworld 9/10 and Terraria 9/10 on the same fun-only scale.
See where it lands in the most fun co-op games.
Astroneer scores 8/10 on immediate fun. Dig, build and launch to the next planet. Calm, sneakily addictive and great with friends. The controls fight you early.
Clunky controls. Vague start.
One question: did it deliver immediate fun? Graphics, story depth, difficulty and critical acclaim are ignored. Pick-up-and-play accessibility is rewarded; anything that makes you wait for the fun to start is penalized.
How we score: We don't care about graphics, story depth, or critical acclaim. One question — did it deliver immediate fun? We reward pick-up-and-play accessibility and penalize anything that makes you wait for the fun to start.