Void Bastards

[674395c229863edx]

°void bastards

This game, by Blue Manchu Games (Jonathan Chey), was just announced at an X-Box event:

Inspired by BioShock and System Shock 2, Void Bastards is a revolutionary new strategy-shooter that will test your wits as well as exercise your aim.

Forget everything you know about first-person shooters: Void Bastards asks you to take charge, not just point your gun and fire. Your task is to lead the rag-tag Void Bastards out of the Sargasso Nebula. You make the decisions: where to go, what to do and who to fight. And then you must carry out that strategy in the face of strange and terrible enemies.


Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkQvQ7H5HRY

Website: https://voidbastards.com/

[674395c229ae5Kolya]

So that is the game that @Farbs was hinting at.  I really like the graphics novel look. And I sense some Infinite Space in that nebula plotting screen too. Is Rich Carlson from Digital Eel on board with Blue Manchu these days? Or maybe I'm just mistaken, because I missed FTL. Anyway, I'm looking forward to release the robo-kitty.

I found some more info about the game here: https://www.gamesradar.com/bioshock-meets-ftl-in-void-bastards-a-tactical-fps-from-irrational-games-co-founder/

[674395c22af29Farbs]

Yep that's the one

[674395c22b102icemann]

Looks interesting

[674395c22b20bfascinate4]

https://twitter.com/pripyatbeast/status/1061382295741853696

[674395c22b315Kolya]

A game with Shodan in it has to be centered on Shodan. Throwing her in as some side character or cameo in a comic game could easily cheapen her appeal, as well as detract from their own achievement. So while it's a nice offer, I think it's for the better the Bastards said naah.

[674395c22b450ZylonBane]

Interesting that they got the Stanley Parable narrator to voice the trailer. I wonder if he's in the game as well.

[674395c22b930JDoran]

A game with Shodan in it has to be centered on Shodan. Throwing her in as some side character or cameo in a comic game could easily cheapen her appeal, as well as detract from their own achievement. So while it's a nice offer, I think it's for the better the Bastards said naah.

I pretty much agree about Shodan. She could work as a side character, and even if not then it might not cheapen her as a character, but I think it's most likely to do her image harm than good, which is all the more disappointing because there are so few strong and memorable characters (even psychotic computers) in video game stories. Seriously, why is it that even today's overly-generic, let's-spend-$300-million-dollars-making-a-film-that-has-a-script-that-cost-$75-dollars-to-purchase-the-rights Hollywood portrays stories that are better than most video games?

It's like when people ask you who your favourite gaming character is, and you have to think and then realise that there aren't many good ones at all. There are lots of great games, but most of them have a protagonist who is somewhere between an utterly forgettable non-entity, and a totally stereotyped cliche. But if someone asks who is your favourite movie character, then you have countless great characters to choose from, in almost every film genre you can think of.

And yes, I know in System Shock 2, and to a lesser degree SS1, you're supposed to read your own character into the games' protagonists, so you can maybe exclude games like those from the criticism. But countless other games try to give their protagonists (and their NPCs) some sort of personality, but they rarely manage to imbue you with any real emotions, and even if they do it's mainly because of the gameplay rather than the character's portrayal (i.e. when you hate a boss character because it's boss-battle is unfair or too repetitive to be enjoyable).

[674395c22bbb5Farbs]

Interesting that they got the Stanley Parable narrator to voice the trailer. I wonder if he's in the game as well.

Yep! Kevan portrays BACS, the not particularly helpful AI who is present throughout the campaign.

[674395c22bcf6edx]

A nice article with lots of information about the game:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/11/15/void-bastards-is-system-shock-2-meets-xcom-and-it-looks-great/

[674395c22be0aedx]

IGN featureas 18 minutes of gameplay:

https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/12/10/18-minutes-of-void-bastards-ftl-meets-system-shock-strategy-shooter-ign-first

[674395c22bf64fox]

RPS: "Come and hear all about Void Bastards at EGX Rezzed 2019"

[674395c22c055edx]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_MdnBx_3cs

Out May 29

[674395c22c13ffox]

Whoah, that's pretty soon!

[674395c22c215fox]

Just a friendly reminder: today's release day.

[674395c22c464Kolya]

A few notes while I'm playing:
- Different languages are only supported as text. Understandable but you may want to know.
- Mouse speed in the game options only seems to apply in the FPS part of the game, not the menus.
- The game looks and plays great. I got excellent performance on highest quality levels.
- I wish there was more interactable but useless junk, empty lockers etc to make this feel more immersive. 
- Loot containers are large but the area you have to click to open them is often very small/narrow. This is a bit annoying.
- Some of the menu screens are a bit confusing, like the attached one, where the voice tells you to move where the bouncing arrow points. Which is outside the map screen. But you have no way of moving the map. Instead you probably just want to board the nearby vessel, which isn't communicated in any way or form.
- Shooting people (and getting shot at) feels kind of flat, even for a comic world. This will hopefully change once I acquire better weapons.
- Seeing this comic world and knowing SS2's smooth surfaces and SS1's sprite enemies, it is easy to understand how one led to the other. I really like the idea and it does look very cool.
- I'm not sure about the humour, which often carries a GLaDOS snark that doesn't feel entirely fresh anymore and other times just seems silly. I generally prefer my scifi more serious and at best philosophical. But I'll get used to it.
- Besides the obvious System Shock relation Weird Worlds and Duskers seem like cousins of this game. And probably FTL but I haven't played that yet.
[2019-05-30 13_22_56-VoidBastards.png expired]

[674395c22c583fox]

I've only played it for an hour or so but so far I like it a lot.

I agree about the lack of interactive clutter. In terms of comparisons, to me it feels a lot like a comic-version of Prey's Mooncrash.

[674395c22c655icemann]

Unlike Mooncrash can you save?

[674395c22c72fedx]

Downloading to play during the weekend. Btw, I received a 25% off coupon for owning System Shock 2 on Steam

[674395c22c95ffox]

Unlike Mooncrash can you save?

No, it just autosaves when you quit the game, I believe.

[674395c22ca4cicemann]

Bah . Respect level in game reduced.

[674395c22cc48NeilHoward17]

It's definitely the first unity first-person game I've played where moving through 3D space feels good, albeit through very noticeable flat spaceships. It really reminds me of Neon Chrome and FTL more than bioshock. But it gets repetitive fast, some things carry over from run to run, other things don't which can be frustrating. It's competently done, it's a fun casual experience with some roguelite and immersive-sim mainstays, but it feels very casual. You go through the motions with this game trying to engage with it but it does little to engage you. But the worst part of it for me so far is this awful grey comicbook border the viewport has. The combat is very similar to SS2, but only in a checkbox manner, it's missing, the game as a whole now that I think about it, character, nuance, or a reason to keep going beyond a personal need to finish it. It's very much the solitaire of games that get mentioned a lot on this site. Fun time waster, but not immersive or enthralling. I do like the game, but it's very basic.

[674395c22d01cfox]

It's definitely the first unity first-person game I've played where moving through 3D space feels good, albeit through very noticeable flat spaceships. It really reminds me of Neon Chrome and FTL more than bioshock. But it gets repetitive fast, some things carry over from run to run, other things don't which can be frustrating. It's competently done, it's a fun casual experience with some roguelite and immersive-sim mainstays, but it feels very casual. You go through the motions with this game trying to engage with it but it does little to engage you. But the worst part of it for me so far is this awful grey comicbook border the viewport has. The combat is very similar to SS2, but only in a checkbox manner, it's missing, the game as a whole now that I think about it, character, nuance, or a reason to keep going beyond a personal need to finish it. It's very much the solitaire of games that get mentioned a lot on this site. Fun time waster, but not immersive or enthralling. I do like the game, but it's very basic.

Having played it a little more in the meantime, I think it's fair to call it a casual game. I still enjoy it and think there's enough variety hidden (although the stations are a bit too repetitive) in its mechanics to keep me playing for quite a while though. I hope the devs of this keep building and expanding on their ideas.

[674395c22d143icemann]

Mooncrash is similar in regards to being casual, though that has permanent character upgrades (if I remember right). I was really getting into it, but as you can't save it got annoying + some of the character unlocks required finding specific dead crewman. Just lost interest very quickly. There was no long term appeal.