Astra is a ‘deeply personal’ MR adventure across space

), aims to turn your living room into a real spaceship. The “deeply emotional” story explores loss, grief, and the legacy of family. You are on a mission to travel across the galaxy in order to discover the mysteries of the life. Astra takes you on a journey to Jupiter, Titan and other planets and satellites based on the research of your mother’s astrobiologist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_UP5YO1HsSpheresTaking roughly 45 minutes to complete in our hands-on, Astra’s premise initially reminded me of

or other games, it still feels amazing to see these worlds in orbit. Astra begins her story with audio logs and a box containing your mother’s things. The story follows her as she investigates chemical elements that are needed to sustain life on another planet. It is a simple and straightforward tale. Hand-tracking is more intuitive, even though certain tasks can be a bit fiddly. A command console appears on the wall of your chosen boundary to select your next destination. To reach your destination, you must be teleported downwards and step into a circle while a light field surrounds you. This visually pleasing approach reminds me of Star Trek transporters. You’re then asked to analyze the local elements of each planet or moon. Scanning the elements is repetitive. It is not particularly exciting to make a “grabbing motion” when shapes are overlapping and reach out with your hand. Astra is a great educational game, but I liked how it becomes more interactive when you get back to your spaceship. Your cosmic laboratory details how each element affects these worlds, helped by a good user interface.Starship HomeThere’s not much else I can say without spoiling this brief experience but Atlas V and Albyon have delivered an enjoyable adventure across the stars. Astra can be repetitive in its gameplay, but it has an interesting personal story that is interwoven well with the mixed reality. Astra is now available on the platform Red Matter 2.