Five months. That’s how long it’s been since Ryan Gosling drifted across our screens and made half the theater fall for a science teacher in the rather excellent Project Hail Mary movie. The credits rolled. The adventure didn’t stop.
Project Hail Mary: Journey Among The Stars is almost here, and it’s a chapter nobody has read.
A story that isn’t in the book or the film
This is the part worth sitting up for. Journey Among The Stars takes place during Ryland Grace’s space mission, but it covers a completely new stretch of it, something not yet seen in either version of the story.
Rocky’s along for the ride. Your job is keeping the Hail Mary alive.
Your play space becomes the cockpit of the ship itself, and you spend your time doing whatever it takes to keep every system running.
Zero-G, hand gestures and your living room
The mixed reality team behind it is Maze Theory, and the game is set to launch on mixed reality and virtual reality platforms in late 2026. It’ll be available for Meta Quest 3/Pro, Android XR and Pico.
Original writer Andy Weir is fully behind the project, which makes the guessing game about what’s coming a lot more interesting.
Handling objects in zero-G and talking to Rocky using nothing but hand gestures looks like a lot of fun. Mixed reality has a particular trick it never stops pulling: your living room turns into a functioning cockpit, and the view where your fireplace used to be becomes open space.
It’s a visually strong space survival sim, and any expansion of this book and movie is welcome as far as I’m concerned.
The team has the receipts
Maze Theory aren’t newcomers. They’re the studio responsible for Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow and Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time, all of which landed on VR headsets before this.
A property like Project Hail Mary feels like a natural fit for them. You can sign up to their newsletter now for early news, access and more.
How much Weir is in this, exactly
Weir is busy working on his next project, so it isn’t quite clear how much involvement he’ll have in bringing Journey Among The Stars to VR. But with Maze Theory at work on it, the game is in safe hands.
VR fans have been waiting for another sci-fi adventure since Half-Life: Alyx turned up years ago, and there’s real hope this one delivers across the board.
At minimum, it should scratch the space adventure itch while everyone waits for The Expanse: Osiris Reborn to launch later next year.
Fist my bump!
