Void Bastards
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Publisherhumblebundle/DeveloPerbluemanchu/releaseDate out now / cost £24.99/$29.99
2D enemies. Exploring the nebula
feels like stepping into the pages
of a classic sci-fi comic, immersive
and scary but with a very British
satirical edge. Even menus are a
spectacle – your current convict given
a characterful mugshot above their
stats, your inventory full of chunky,
colourful items, your map swarming
with monstrous voidwhales and lurid
pirate vessels. It’s the sort of visual
flair that makes us want to like Void
Bastards much more than we do.Shock and awe
As you progress across the map,
you’re free to dock at any ship you
wish to scour for goodies. These
first-person levels form the bulk of
your adventure. The game clearly
aspires to make these sandboxes
for your creativity and strategy, with
features such as automated turrets,
teleporters, deadly exposed wiring and
more all theoretically ready for you
to exploit to your benefit against the
mutant hordes that stand between
you and the loot. The approach isWith a name that
spicy, you’d think
this FPS would have
a pretty strong idea
of what it wants to
be. But strangely
Void Bastards’ biggest problem is an
identity crisis, its disparate elements
failing to click together into one
coherent whole.
It certainly makes a good first
impression. Its dystopian setting,
the Sargasso Nebula – a spaceship
graveyard where mutants roam, yet
automated bureaucracy rules – is
immediately intriguing and darkly
funny. As a hapless ‘rehydrated’
convict, you’re sent out by your
brilliantly dry AI master to collect items
from the floating wrecks, all the while
gathering the salvage, food and fuel
you need to survive what seems like a
hopeless, endless quest.
The accompanying art style is,
without exaggeration, one of the
most striking we’ve ever seen,
seamlessly combining cel-shaded
3D environments with Doom-esque
inspiredmostdirectlybySystem
Shock 2 and BioShock (in fact, one
of the key minds behind those two
worked on Void Bastards), and follows
a similar school of thought to the likes
of Deus Ex, Dishonored, or Prey.
But so much of the game’s
design seems to fight against you
experimenting with any of these
systems. Levels are small, randomly
generated and your time in them
is restricted to a tight time limit
governed by your O2 tank. Enemies
are fast with powerful attacks, in our
experience they’re almost impossible
to sneak past, and they constantly
respawn. You’re only allowed to take
a limited selection of items into each
mission, keeping combos minimal.
And the most meaningful interactions
you can do in the environment are
governed by your limited supply of
‘merits’ (essentially cash) – you spend
them to, for example, hack a turret,
shut down security, open a locked
container, or extend your O2 supply.
The result is an experience that
feels too fast-paced and frantic toshort
cutWhatis it?
a sci-fi shooter where
you explore derelict
spaceships in search
of salvage.
What’s it like?
Simple, fun and lovely
to look at, but weirdly
at oddswithitself.
Who’sit for?
Kleptomaniacs who
work well under
pressure and
appreciate tight
deadlines.076 the official xbox magazine