In most survival games, safety is a place. In Hello Sunshine, it is a giant robot steadily walking away from you.
That mobile-base idea anchors Red Thread Games' post-apocalyptic survival RPG, which Insider Gaming's Grant Taylor-Hill played at Tokyo Game Show. Taylor-Hill called it his top pick from the event, praising its smooth movement, visual style and unusually purposeful day-night cycle.
Players control the Nomad, the final employee of Sunshine, a corporation whose promise of a brighter future ended with a scorched world patrolled by machines. The road leads toward a distant tower, but the immediate task is keeping pace with the enormous robot that makes the journey survivable.
A base that refuses to stay put
The sun makes daytime exploration dangerous, so the robot's shadow becomes a moving safe zone. Players can leave that shade to search ruined buildings and wreckage, gather resources and fight hostile sentinels, but the preview says they must manage exposure, inventory and equipment while doing it.
Night reverses the problem. The temperature drops, the robot stops to recharge and its heat becomes protection from the cold. Sunshine gas stations serve as camps with crafting benches, cooking facilities and 3D printers, giving players a chance to turn salvaged material into better gear before the next day's march.
The official game page describes the robot as more than shelter. Players can repair it, customize its appearance and install upgrades for sensing, defense and traversal. Those acts also build a relationship with a machine that initially seems indifferent to the Nomad. Taylor-Hill's demo offered a small example of its personality when the robot curiously removed an antenna from a gas station, then carefully set it down after failing to replace it.
Survival with a narrative destination
The longer journey adds helper bots that can gather resources, map terrain, hunt and defend against drones. Players also complete corporate tasks to gain ranks and unlock workplace "perks," extending the game's satire of a company whose automated systems continue operating after humanity's collapse.
Hello Sunshine can be played solo or in two-player co-op. Red Thread Games says partners can coordinate scavenging and trade resources, while the story can unfold from different perspectives. Insider Gaming also reports that the studio has fewer than 10 developers, a small team for the scale of the systems shown.
The game is coming to PC. Red Thread Games has not announced a release date, though it is taking wishlists and playtest registrations.
