Void Bastards

[Sepiche]

Hadn't heard anything about this until I saw it pop up on Steam yesterday, but this is a new strategy/FPS hybrid from the Card Hunter devs (Blue Manchu), and it's a lot of rogue-like fun so far.



I'd call it a mashup between System Shock and FTL... without going too deep into the back story, you play a rehydrated prisoner on a penal spaceship that is stuck in a space sargasso with limitless numbers of abandoned wrecks to find and explore. You jump from derelict to derelict on a branching FTL-like map, looking for specific parts to eventually repair your ship, in addition to finding parts to make upgrades and new weapons for your prisoners.

So you select a ship to approach and based on some basic information about what's aboard you can choose to dock with it. Docking starts an FPS portion of the game where you can fight/sneak your way through the ship looking for crafting parts, food, fuel, etc. all the while killing and dodging the corrupted crew and passengers of the ship you're on. Each enemy type has different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and, especially early in the game, the best course can be to evade some of the tougher baddies rather then waste your limited ammo on them. There are a set number of different ship themes (warships, passenger ships, cargo ships, etc), but the actual layouts, rewards, and inhabitants are random.

The final catch is that each time you are killed aboard a ship, another random prisoner from your ship (complete with new random traits) is rehydrated and given most of your previous prisoners gear, and you carry on with your goal of repairing the ship and getting out of the sargasso.

Really a fun game as long as you don't mind rogue-likes and a little grinding.

[Lorini]

If/when I decide to get Game Pass on the Xbox I’ll be playing it. I can’t get my Xbox controller to work on my PC so console it will be.

[Paingod]

I looked it over on Steam and it's interesting. I'm not sold, though. I generally don't go in much for FPS - but this has a lot of elements I find appealing, and I watched someone go up against a baddie that he ejected out of an airlock instead of fighting it.

Steam thinks I'd like it and put a 25% discount in my inventory because I own System Shock 2.