Embark is a colony management game with a focus on complex simulation in a huge living 3D world. It is a game targeted at enthusiasts of the genre who are looking for a deeper experience. While a lot of effort has been put into the interface, and there is a short tutorial, there is still a significant learning curve (especially while in Early Access).

• Order your colonists to build the ultimate base in multiple Z levels.
  
• Manage your colonists' needs.
  
• Watch your colonists live their own lives and have their own relationships.
  
• Build aqueducts and pumps to manage a detailed water simulation system.
  
• Farm food with a detailed plant simulation system.
  
• Tame and hunt animals.
  
• Craft dozens of different items to keep your colonists happy and defend yourself.
  
• Dig deep to find sources of metal ore with a prospecting system.
  
• Explore the massive game map.
  
• Defend your colony with a detailed combat system.
  
• Play a procedurally generated map with different biomes and places of interest each time.
  
• Each component of an item has a material and quality which affects the item differently.
  
• Impress or fight with other factions.
  
• Trade with other factions.
  
• Modding, with Steam workshop support.

EXPLORE
Explore a huge procedurally generated 3D world and meet its inhabitants. Embark simulates thousands of flora and fauna in detail. Time of day, seasons, temperature, and precipitation are modeled in detail. These conditions can have effects that help or hinder your colony. Crops can fail from lack of water or an early frost.

CRAFT
Gather a large variety of materials and craft items with a deep hierarchical crafting item system. With practice comes the ability to build better items, smith more effective weapons and armours, and smelt better ores. Each part of an item affects its effectiveness in different ways. A spear could be made with an iron head and wooden shaft, or it could have a steel head and bronze shaft.

BUILD
Rebuild civilization block by block. Embark’s fully destructible world allows you to build anything from small trading outposts to huge fortresses. Order your people to build complex structures and sit back and watch as they complete them. Your colony depends on you. Your management style may result in a cohesive well oiled military machine or a dysfunctional band on the brink of murdering each other. Reward a skilled craftsman with a larger room to make her more productive but be careful, as her friends may get jealous at the “unfair” treatment.

DEFEND
Defend yourself from multiple threats using a deep combat system which models individual body parts, weapon sizes, character skills, and more. Build the ultimate fort to keep intruders out, but beware! Some enemies can dig, climb, or fly to reach you.