Void Bastards

I mentioned it in a topic about System Shock 2, but I have been playing Void Bastards a lot lately after getting it fore free on Epic Games Store. Being a roguelite, it has its quirks and limitations and its content will get very repetitive after a while, but it is a fun blend of FTL, System Shock 2 and Borderlands.

Check it out!

It's okay, I bought it when it was in EA, and I think it was $5, maybe $10. It's certainly not worth the $30 they're trying to charge for it now. The last update was in October 2019, a few months after the release. 

It's fun, and if you got it for free as part of a bundle, then play it. But I wouldn't pay for the game, it's boring, it's an FPS roguelike in space where you explore the same environments over and over. 

As I've said, if you got it for free, it'll be a fun diversion and it's worth some time. But don't pay money for it, it was was quickly abandoned by the developers, in the same year; when it seemed like a game that would have increasing content releases. There's no way in Hell that it's worth $30.

Yeah I would agree with Jello on when I tried it. Roguelikes in general are like, 99 times out of a 100 total misses for me anyway, but I can say this game does not understand anything about what made System Shock 2 work. Anything with random generation is never going to be remotely like System Shock 2.

I might as well say anything with random generation is going to be inferior to an equivalent game that doesn't because that's pretty much how I feel on the whole matter. 

4 hours ago, hybridial said:

Anything with random generation is never going to be remotely like System Shock 2.

I have to disagree there.

While it is true that procedural level generation makes for really repetitive level architecture, it also makes it so you never quite know what is ahead of you, which can make the experience quite tense. That tension is part of what made System Shock 2 great... at least, on the first playthrough; once you become familiar with the level layouts and item locations, you become aware of what to expect and thus the game becomes much less scary.

Also, playing System Shock 2, you quickly learn just how absolutely overpowered the Wrench is and how easily you can defeat many of the game's enemies by exploiting the AI's blindspots. So far in Void Bastards, there does not seem to be such weapon given to you.

Also, unlike System Shock 2, there is no loading back to safety, so you have to proceed carefully knowing full well that a single mistake could cost the life of the character you have grown attached to; I literally screamed in horror when that happened - I got cocky and died to a stray missile fired by a Boompoint turret I had hacked - and now I have to make due with a new character that is not quite the same...

Oh yeah, and the game does something that I so wish System Shock 2 had done: allow me to lock doors!

Honestly everything you've said there Rudolph just reinforces my point about not understanding System Shock 2 in making this comparison. You can replicate its mechanics in a roguelike but you can't replicate the experience. You take the experience away and what you have is hollow. I play a game to engage in a designed experience from beginning to end because a human design touch is just superior. I have never come across any game that proves otherwise. I also cannot overstate how important SHODAN is to both System Shock games and what makes them special. 

I mean, is SS2 quite unbalanced? It is, because by human touch I'm not talking perfection by any means, but Void Bastards is just empty grind and repetition which is worse in every conceivable way. There is a lack of purpose to it. The random generation doesn't enhance replayability to me, it kills any point in playing in the first place. There's no selling point. This was honestly one of the quickest times I quit a roguelike.

I mean, if you like it, power to you, but I think selling this game based on it being influenced by System Shock 2 is about as dishonest as when Bioshock tried to sell that it had an indepth morality system (oh boy did that piss me off, but Bioshock 2 vastly improved on that like it did everything else.)

20 minutes ago, hybridial said:

I think selling this game based on it being influenced by System Shock 2 is about as dishonest as when Bioshock tried to sell that it had an indepth morality system

The System Shock 2 influence is definitely there, though.

I never said Void Bastards is like System Shock 2, I said the game is a blend of different games, including System Shock 2.

I have that title on my Steam wishlist, but I' m not sure... one thing I enjoyed in System Shock 2 was the eerie horror atmosphere and tension. From the videos Void Bastards seems more like 1960s Batman cartoon in space, with "BLORP!" and "FLAKK!" and so on. How would you describe the atmopshere?

Void Bastards is enjoyable to start off with and I love the comic book aesthetic, but it attempts to stretch out a limited amount of content for much longer than it can realistically last.

@Tetzlaff It is not very horrific: there is some body horror involved as far as the bestiary goes, but it is rather cartoony and closer to Borderlands and BioShock. The environments are generally serious and dark, but the game's tone is mostly sarcastic and satirical.

However, it can be really tense at times when you are low on health or oxygen and trying to make it back to your shuttle alive. When you die, you lose all your inventory - but not the materials you have brought back to your shuttle nor the equipment you have crafted - and you find yourself assigned a new character with different perks or quirks; you can change those at a specific terminal or when running into a space anomaly that randomizes one of them. So in that sense, dying can be punishing without being game-ending.

There is not much of a plot. You are just navigating space FTL-style, gathering supplies, crafting equipment, exploring abandoned ships and dodging hostile ships. In a way, I think this would be a good premise for an actual System Shock game, if done seriously: rather than taking place in a single space station/space ship, the game would have you explore multiple smaller ships in some sort of spaceship graveyard in order to salvage materials. I remember reading somewhere that this was actually the plan for the cancelled Dead Space 4.

Another cool thing that the game does better than System Shock in my opinion is the way security cameras work: instead of just causing an infinite wave of random enemies during a period of time, it activates a powerful security robot that will hunt you across the level.

I loved Void Bastards myself. I could see where it would be hit and miss for others, but I got so into it that I decided to tackle Ironman mode and somehow won. My only major complaint is that it feels like it just kind of ends, not having as much of a big conclusion or at least a final boss mission. Still, I'm a junkie for good roguelikes and this one cut the bill for me.

It is a shame that the Tidy DLC was not included in the Epic Games Store giveaway. It looks neat, but not indispensable, so I do not feel like buying it.

I also wish the game would let you join the Space Pirates somehow.

Huh. It looks like there is a sequel coming, Wild Bastards:

A bit disappointed that they dropped the System Shock-esque derelict ship setting. Oh well.