Project 5: Sightseer is a cooperative multiplayer sandbox game set in a vast, procedurally generated world. You will start with nothing but a scanner and a mining laser in the location of your choosing, then venture forth to find resources, build outposts, research technologies and ultimately unravel the world's secrets.

It's important to know that in Sightseer, most of the resources are finite and not all of them can be found naturally. Fossil fuels won't last forever, and depleting the resource at one location will mean that you will need to either find another source or discover another way to obtain what you need. As an example, while Ammonia can sometimes be found in the world naturally, it can also be created from Water by applying a pair of chemical reactions. You merely need to know how.

The world of Sightseer is entirely persistent: outposts remember their founder, trade routes remember the player that discovered the fastest route, and even the world's artifacts remember the person that first discovered them -- so go out there and explore! Just be aware that logging out won't make your vehicle vanish. It will remain where you've left it, so having a safely defended outpost to call home will come in handy in the future.

Fortunately, when playing online, you can band together with your friends to form factions. Factions can own outposts that can automate the process of resource extraction and can have powerful defenses to keep them safe from both natural threats and opportunistic players alike. The same outposts can also perform scientific research, leading to new technologies, structures, vehicles, weapons, and a lot more. Care should be taken in how the outposts are powered, however. Burning fossil fuels will cause pollution that will need to be addressed.

When playing Sightseer, you can play offline, online, or host your own private worlds for your closed group of friends. Hosting a world (or playing offline) also offers the Creative Mode option where all resource costs will be ignored -- just in case you want to build cool things without any constraints.

Regardless of what appeals to you the most -- be it the exploration of a vast, untamed world and unraveling of its hidden secrets; the construction of impressive outposts designed to inspire awe of others; or simply the desire to dominate the world together with your friends, Sightseer's only limit is going to be your imagination.

Best of all -- with this being Early access -- it's all merely the beginning.