Usually the release from Early Access to full game is a scheduled event. Here’s a press release, maybe an embargo or maybe not, and within is a set date for Early Game to transform into Released Game. And then there’s Cell to Singularity, which is leaving its release in the hands of the players by way of a special event. A black hole is sitting on the screens of all players who have made it far enough to unlock the final(?) chapter, and they’ve already knocked hard enough on the gates to clear the halfway point. Cell to Singularity could release tomorrow, November 3, of maybe even the November 4 if the initial surge relents a bit, but it’s almost time for the evolution-themed idle/clicker to finally show off what its singularity is all about.
In the beginning there was a cloud of gas that slowly coalesced into the solar system, but that’s a long dull process so Cell to Singularity starts up with Earth fully formed. Clicking the mouse (for PC) or tapping the screen (mobile) earns Entropy points, which oddly enough are used to go against entropy and arrange the world into a much more life-friendly order. The earliest taps activate the Sun and Earth, because life needs a place to live, and then the primordial soup, and after a very short minute or two the first amino acids show up. Amino acids lead to DNA, various types of cells, sponges, and then sea life, and each new life form generates entropy points so you don’t have to spend your whole life tapping away. Soon enough the evolution tree sprouts mammals and lizards, and as in any good idle game the costs go up as do the rewards. Traits make the animals more effective at generating Entropy points, as do side missions like the dinosaur valley that acts as its own little mini-idle game.
There is, of course, a free-to-play element involved, and having personally not gotten beyond a couple days of play I can’t say how intrusive it might get, but so far so good. There’s always the temptation to tap a little more to squeeze another evolution or trait out of the current play session before shutting down and letting the point-accumulation engine do it’s slow but highly effective work over time, but it’s been nice to poke in, clear a goal or two, and then drop out again for a couple hours. It’s a long way up the evolutionary ladder to earn the rewards of the singularity, but there’s a big universe outside Earth’s door and it’s about time to go exploring.
