Video Game / From Earth

From Earth is a community-made mod based off of the Half-Life 2 Source engine.

The game takes place close to the year 3,000 when one woman and one man, Zenaida and Anthony, are sent to a remote alien planet. After fifty years in cold sleep, they find themselves on a recently industrialized world being hunted by an alien government. They have only their wits, athleticism and the remains of their equipment to keep them alive.

In this first person singleplayer experience, the player takes control of Zenaida Liu upon arriving on the planet. From Earth's gameplay is very much about your relationship to this world and its technology, requiring you to figure out how it all works and encouraging cooperation with the local population. Nothing about the alien technology is explained to players. It's about experimentation and learning what's what and how things on this planet work. The player has to make a choice of fighting the alien government that is after her, or finding a way to communicate with the alien population.

The beta was made available to the public for free on March 10, 2016 and it can be found here. It was announced two years later that further development of the game is unlikely since it was too ambitious. As such, it will only be updated to fix crashes and game-breaking bugs. A sequel, named Entrulia, is stated to be in development and the story will allegedly continue from where From Earth left off.

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Tropes:

• Aborted Arc: When talking to Anthony at the beginning, he mentions that they need to locate something called the Artifact. This plot line doesn't go anywhere since he and Zenaida are hunted down soon after they land on the planet.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Your attacks will only affect guards, scientists, aggressive citizens, and soldiers. Any NPC in general that refuse to fight you are immune from being killed and you can only threaten them at worst. This is to prevent the game from becoming unwinnable as some doors cannot be opened without an alien's (un)willing assistance.
  • During Chapter 3, if you're on the Notorious route, Anthony and Kra will only fall unconscious instead of being killed should their health get too low.
• Bad Boss: Frank is a downplayed version of this. While he's never seen berating his employees or abusing them, he orders Zenaida to keep her mouth shut about Anthony forcefully kissing her or invading her privacy. He coldly tells her that if word gets out about it, the launch will be canceled, the investigations and hearings will start, and Zenaida will never get out into space.
• Fantastic Racism: After Anthony is rescued in the Pacifist/Fighter route, he developed some very negative opinions on the aliens. This line sums it up:
  Anthony: DEMON!
• First Contact: Zenaida and Anthony land on an alien planet and attract the attention of their government.
• Forceful Kiss: Anthony will forcefully kiss Zenaida in Chapter 3's flashback if his relationship value is high enough. Depending on the ending route, she'll either aggressively push him away or she won't do anything. Either way, she's not happy and tells him to get out.
• Language Barrier: It's an alien planet, what did you expect? Ultimately zig-zagged as, while some of the aliens can understand you in your language, others can not. For the latter, you need to learn enough words of their language so you can form sentences in order to communicate.
• Multiple Endings: The game technically has 6 endings, but it really only has 4, with one major variant being whether or not Kra is with you by the end.
  • Pacifist / Fighter: Obey the Commander's orders and surrender. Zenaida will be taken to a cell where she will be forced onto an examination table. The Queen will be informed of this and Zenaida will be left alone for a bit, giving her the opportunity to escape and continue tracking down Anthony. If Kra was captured, Zenaida manages to rescue her, but not before her horns get cut off, branding her as a "Panasunyss." When Zenaida eventually finds Anthony, he'll try to strangle Kra (or Zenaida if Kra went home) before getting into a fight with Zenaida. He then runs off and leaves a trail of bodies in his path while she pursues after him. After she catches up to him at the Commander's office, she gets into an argument with him and he'll dare her to shoot him with a gun if she really thinks him killing the aliens was wrong. Zenaida will refuse.
    • If Kra is present, then she'll take the gun from him and aim it at him. If you're a pacifist, then Kra refuses to shoot him. Zenaida and Kra will then walk away and leave Anthony, while he begs her to come back. If you're on the fighter route, then Kra fires at Anthony, but she misses.
  • Notorious: Kill a lot of aliens to earn the Notorious status. Alternatively, attack the Commander and the soldiers when they order you to surrender to become notorious. There will be a lot more soldiers for her to deal with as she (and possibly Kra) rushes to save Anthony. When she eventually frees him, he won't attack her (or Kra) and becomes a follower. They work together to escape, killing any hostile that crosses their path. When they reach the Commander's office, they realize that one of them has to stay behind in order to keep a door open, since it's on a timer. Zenaida (and Kra) volunteers to stay behind while Anthony attempts to make his escape, as more reinforcements arrive on the scene.
  • The subsequent flashback remains the same regardless of your actions.
• Player Punch: Kra getting her horns cut off if she is captured along with Zenaida, becoming "Panasunyss" in the process.
• Prop Recycling: It's a freeware game and it certainly shows in some areas. The most blatant example comes from the very end of the game, where Frank's model will be none other than Doctor Breen. This is especially egregious since the models for Zenaida and Anthony are unique, to say nothing about the aliens themselves.
• Reality Has No Subtitles: Zig-Zagged. At the beginning of the game, turning on closed captions won't help you at all, as it won't translate the language. With enough knowledge of the language, though the captions will insert your words in place of the alien words. However, the game won't correct you if your translation is wrong. The only way to get actual translations to what they're saying is to use the 'Mind Meld' option and even that is limited.
• Roaring Rampageof Revenge: Anthony in the Pacifist/Fighter path, big time.
• Schmuck Bait: Hey, a scientist in the hospital wants you to lie down on an examination table! What could possibly go wrong?
• Undying Loyalty: After Zenaida gives Kra's sick husband a drink to help him recover, Kra will become a loyal follower. Not even learning that the Commander is interested in capturing Zenaida is enough to deter her. In fact, the only way to get her to stop following Zenaida is to threaten her and tell her to go home. In Chapter 3, as upset as she may be, being branded "Panasunyss" doesn't convince her to stop following Zenaida either.
  • This is, however, subverted if the player has the Notorious status. While Kra is grateful for your help, she'll decide to stay at home with Kro instead of following you.
• Video Game Caring Potential: You can go through the game while doing your best not to harm anybody and can restrain a number of guards without killing them.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: On the other hand, you can be a complete bastard to the aliens, using violence to get your way and killing anybody that so much as looks at you funny. The Notorious status exists for a reason, after all. In the pacifist/fighter route, you can choose to let Anthony kill Kra, but as of the time of writing, the ending cutscene in this instance is bugged and won't progress.