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Squirrel's Pick Squirrel's PickThe best game on this page. If you only try one, try this. Budget Pick Budget PickThe best game here for the least money.
Base BuildingOpen World Survival CraftSurvival
$15.99 ~51.4 hr median co-op complexity: moderate 80.9% of 13k
The Squirrel's verdictStarRupture adds direct combat and co-op to the colonist-and-drone factory formula, and reviewers with 59-hour sessions call it a strong fit for the factory-management genre. Building friction is real: foundation rebuilds after demolition, belt snapping issues, and lag as bases scale all appear in reviews. Very Positive rating and 51.4 median hours indicate sustained engagement despite those rough edges.
Not for you if you want combat-free base building, or can't tolerate foundation-rebuild friction and performance lag at scale.
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Closest Match Closest MatchThe most similar game to the anchor, by what players say.
AutomationBase-BuildingSpace
$18.99 ~40.1 hr median co-op complexity: moderate 85.1% of 808
The Squirrel's verdictOutworld Station reached 1.0 with a Very Positive rating and centers on base-building with production chains, resource logistics, and drone management. It trades open-ended sandbox play for a fixed, objective-by-objective structure: each level has set maps and defined unlock sequences. Reviewers describe it as heavily guided, with little room for the experimentation-and-restart loop common to the genre.
Not for you if you want open-ended complexity or freeform difficulty — the structure is level-based with fixed maps and a scripted unlock sequence.
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Base-BuildingAutomationResource Management
$19.99 ~40.6 hr median co-op complexity: moderate 80.9% of 3k
The Squirrel's verdictBelts, production chains, and a tech tree gating new machines form the backbone here, as in The Crust. The setting is ship-mounted factories that dock to asteroids in space, with co-op support. Progression pacing is uneven — stairs require unlocking roughly half the tech tree — and cable runs lack L-shape shortcuts. Survival pressure is minimal; oxygen is the main threat.
Not for you if you want colonist management or meaningful survival stakes — threats are sparse and some find the late game too simple.
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Sci-fiSurvivalColony Sim
$9.99 ~37.2 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 78.5% of 316
The Squirrel's verdictPlayers who want underground colony base-building without patch churn are the target here. Mercury Fallen covers colonists, small robots, and production chains on an alien planet, and left early access in 2023. Content runs thin past the tutorial farm plot — late-game balancing gaps remain unresolved, and the developer moved to another project after June 2024 with no further updates.
Not for you if you need active post-launch support or a satisfying late-game progression curve.
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AutomationBase-BuildingResource Management
$29.99 ~44.8 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 65.8% of 3k
The Squirrel's verdictAutomation Empire shares The Crust's belt-and-factory production loop but drops the colonist and drone layer entirely — no starvation, no drone priority failures, just logistics and manufacturing chains. Reviews describe limited building placement and poor logistics tools. Median playtime sits at 44.8 hours, and each world plays out the same regardless of restart.
Not for you if you came for the colony-management side of The Crust rather than pure belt-based production, or need extensive building customization and in-game tutorials.
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The Pioneers: Surviving Desolation
PC
SurvivalBase-BuildingRPG
$29.99 ~10 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 66.6% of 440
The Squirrel's verdictSurvival-crisis tension over base-building depth is the draw here. The Pioneers drops large-scale factory construction for direct character control across story missions and combat encounters. Pathfinding bugs are documented — characters strand mid-task or climb geometry indefinitely — and uncontrolled characters do nothing autonomously. Mixed rating, 10.0 median hours, released 2023.
Not for you if you want automation systems you can trust to run unsupervised — characters left alone stop functioning and pathfinding bugs strand them mid-task.
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Colony SimSci-fi2.5D
$14.99 ~18.9 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 62.3% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictStarmancer puts you on a space station managing colonists, production chains, and resource priorities that break down under pressure — mechanics familiar to The Crust players. Its main pitch is an AI-overseer framing, but reviewers say that angle barely surfaces in play: actual control amounts to toggling machines and locking doors. Released 2021, Mixed rating, median playtime around 18.9 hours.
Not for you if you want the rogue-AI premise to meaningfully change gameplay — reviews consistently say it doesn't.
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AdventureCraftingAutomation
$15.99 ~22.9 hr median co-op complexity: moderate 62.3% of 681
The Squirrel's verdictCo-op is JUNKPUNK's clearest differentiator: it supports a partner throughout the cleanup-themed factory arc where you and another player build belt-and-machine production chains together. The endgame targets environmental restoration rather than The Crust's laser-defense objective. Reviewers with 45-hour sessions exist alongside others who found the controls a persistent frustration from the first session.
Not for you if you need tight, responsive controls — reviewers single out the control scheme as a consistent source of frustration.