The Promise vs. The Pathetic Reality
In video games, “good” is “addictive,” and “bad” is “the worst thing ever.” Leaning into that hyperbolic exaggeration, I want to make the case that “Earth 2” is an actual contender for the worst game ever made, yet people still try to defend it.
The general consensus online is that Earth 2 is a scam. It’s not a scam because nothing exists; it’s a scam because of what does exist and the simple fact that what they promise versus what they will ever deliver have no relationship to each other.
Earth 2 is like that kid on the playground telling you he went to space, saw aliens, and came home to a private party where Drake performed at his family’s second mansion. Then you go to his house, and it’s a trailer. People defend Earth 2 by saying, “they’re just overly ambitious,” but unlike a child coping, Earth 2 makes grandiose promises to monetize its fanbase on a scale it cannot achieve. At a certain point, “overly ambitious” becomes a scam.
A Community Built on Hype, Not Gameplay
Earth 2 is a “metaverse” born during the Web3 crypto hype era. Its standout promise was a 1:1 representation of Earth where you could buy and sell land tiles for real money. This cultivated a community not of gamers, but of bottom-of-the-barrel financial speculators.
When your community knows little about video games, software development, or even finance, it becomes very easy to keep them entertained. Earth 2 has done precisely that. They launched new countries, made a crypto token tied to the land, and implemented gem systems to keep you logging in, all peppered with dramatically emphasized tech lingo and scripted trailers about a technologically marvelous digital earth.
Four Years of Deceptive “Tech Demos”
Four years ago, they showcased a “terrain system” in a scripted, artistically rendered overview. Almost three years ago, a 30-minute “tech demo” showcased entire cities, shops, cars, internal buildings, perfect collision systems, and multiplayer.
Two years ago, they showed high-speed drones flying through a city. One year ago, a multiplayer promo dropped with flying, boats, campfires, fishing, a T-rex, and guns. This promo made a specific claim: “all footage, REAL TIME MULTIPLAYER in a seamless 510 million km2 world.”
Eleven months ago, they showcased wildlife. Three months ago, it was combat with hordes of enemies. Then, a few weeks ago, they finally released “E2V1” as a pre-alpha test, and it has literally none of these advertised systems.
The E2V1 Pre-Alpha: A Total Joke
The pre-alpha build has no drones, no boats, no guns, and no wildlife. It has no cities, no building, no campfires, and no multiplayer. It has basic survival mechanics like eating and drinking, but everything from the collision to the world rendering is complete garbage. This is not the bare bones; it’s the left toe of the worst survival game you’ve ever seen, after four years of advertising the most technologically impressive metaverse ever conceived.
Broken Mechanics: A Masterclass in Failure
Putting aside the fact that you can’t do anything after four years of hype, the core systems that do exist are fundamentally broken.
Botched Collision and Movement
The collision system is a mess. You routinely clip through the ground and run into the smallest bushes, making basic movement a complete chore.
Useless Inventory and Survival
The inventory is broken, incorrectly displaying capacity versus the number of objects with no indication of weight. This doesn’t matter because all you can do is gather food to stay alive; other items are useless. As for staying alive, hunger and thirst only decrease when you move, so standing still makes you immortal.
Predatory Monetization: Pay to Respawn
Earth 2 isn’t just a game; it’s a crypto project with its own token, “Essence.” According to their website, you acquire Essence by buying land, claiming E-ther, and then transforming E-ther into Essence. This means E-ther, which is used to make Essence, has a real-dollar value.
When you spawn in this empty world, it requires E-ther. If you die, which you will because the physics are so botched you might accidentally jump too high, you have to pay even more E-ther to revive yourself. You have to pay real money to revive yourself in a pre-alpha tech demo. This is a level of greed that makes companies like EA and Ubisoft look generous.
The Shady Withdrawal System and a Major Red Flag
Despite the community being built on financial speculation, the withdrawal system is not “KYC compliant.” To cash out, you must convert your dollar value into Essence (which requires manual help from the developers), cash it out to a crypto exchange, swap it, and then bring it back to your bank through a third party. The only way to cash out is tightly controlled by the development team—a massive red flag.
Worse Than “The Day Before”?
Earth 2 cannot become popular without appealing to actual gamers, but paying per life in a pre-alpha is a non-starter. This isn’t revolutionary; it’s a step backward in every category. Unironically, “The Day Before”—an actual, delisted rug pull scam—was a superior product with more playable features than Earth 2.
It’s insane how brazen they are. From their official Pre-Alpha release post, they boast about “Persistent Inventory System v1.0 allowing default storage space and management for items per character.” This is the most basic, least impressive component of any game, yet they frame it as a monumental accomplishment.
They also hype “Immersive Audio v1.0,” claiming it provides “dynamic positioning of complete immersive spaces” to match “the immense level of detail literally spread across an entire planet.” This explains why you can hear random sheep noises on top of Mount Everest. This whole project is what a dumb person thinks a smart person sounds like.
The Final Verdict: An Insult to Gamers
After all the promises, all the doctored tech demos, and all the crypto-jargon, Earth 2 finally launched a playable build. That build is an actual contender for the worst game ever made. Within the context of timeframe, resources, promises, and scope, it is at the very top of the list for the worst game I have ever seen. No hyperbole, no exaggeration. My heart goes out to anyone still supporting this project.
