Derelict Redux

I usually play games I'm unsure about for at least two hours so that I can get a good idea of how they work before the refund deadline, but it only took me half an hour to see most of what this game has to offer - and what it offers is a dull, repetitive and positively ugly attempt at a top-down shooter. Built on a roguelike-style framework that features procedural generation, character progression and permadeath, [b]Derelict[/b] is a game that clearly prides itself on throwing the player in at the deep end - a fact that shows very well on the first level, where you're required to escape a self-destructing spaceship without a tutorial or even so much as a map. Randomly-spawning, godawfully-ugly explosions take significant chunks from your health as you stumble through the corridors, and though you catch glimpses of what could be enemies or friendly NPCs, they tend to get gibbed by the RNG pretty fast. It's only when you bump into an escape pod and launch yourself free of the doomed ship that the game 'opens up'. for want of a less promising term. In reality, although you're now free to visit space stations, abandoned planets, wormholes to newly-generated map sectors and discarded chunks of former space liners, the promise of freedom rapidly withers when you find out that there's absolutely nothing to actually [i]do[/i] out there. All of the destinations you can visit, though different in appearance, play out identically - you land your ship, shoot the mindless zombie-like enemies rushing towards you in single file, pick up poorly-sprited items and weapons that the game never really tells you the purpose of, then take off and try to find a use for all the indistinct junk you accrued. I'd like to be able to write a paragraph for each different type of destination you can land at, but unfortunately, they're so similar in how they play out that there's just nothing unique to be said. Though the game does boast an impressive array of different collectible weapons to find in your travels, the anaemic levels of enemy variety make the point moot - an automatic pistol carves through a brainless line of whatever those sprites are meant to be just as well as a plasma rifle, so what's the point? The only time I actually managed to die to these foes was when a huge mob of them sprung onto me out of what must've been a spawn point as I approached. My other deaths - getting shot in the back repeatedly by a companion who I never asked to join me, getting hit by an asteroid that I had no way of predicting, and failing to luck my way to the exit during the starting level - were similarly unenthusing. There's also different spaceships to grab off space stations and derelicts to replace your initial ship, but there's even less point to it than getting a new weapon - besides their admittedly-decent sprites, all the ships are totally identical. In all, between a music playlist that varies between 'generic' and 'actively unpleasant', a near-total lack of any artwork that could be called 'good', and mechanics so bare-bones that they almost don't need that tutorial that the game fails to provide anyway, [b]Derelict[/b] feels far more like a tech demo than a bona-fide game. The 'open world' the game puts you in is laughably bare, the exploration aspect falls flat once you realise you're not doing anything new after the first couple of landings, and frankly, I don't even think the area maps that you land on are procedural. Just spend the $10 on a cheap movie or a takeout or something, since both would keep you entertained for longer.

25 Minute First Impressions: An interesting if not extremely early and low-budget game. I like what I have seen so far but it took effort to keep going at the start. You begin the game on a starship that has been adrift in space for an extremely long time and wake-up to the sounds of explosions. You then have to quickly grab some starting weapons that are lying on the floor and attempt to escape the ship. The 'the ship is disintegrating' effects are poorly executed and the whole first mission is seriously annoying. There are little balls of fire burning everywhere and you have to escape while avoiding them...but you have no idea what the exit looks like. Not only that, but the mission is time sensitive and the instructions are written in tiny distorted pixel letters on the left side of the screen. Anyway, once you realise that the exit is a circular lens-like protuberance (because, of course it is), you flee the stricken ship in a tiny fighter and begin roaming the galaxy. This is what happened to me: I cruised around in space for a bit in my new fighter. The game’s space-stage is a ‘top-down Newtonian drift shooter’ ala ‘asteroids’, so it was fairly easy to master. I quickly stumbled onto a planet. I landed, exited my ship, and began exploring. Crab aliens attacked me in droves but I gunned them all down easily enough with my shotgun, which seemed to miss randomly. I explored an old abandoned school and a factory, realising only after five minutes that the point of landing was to pick up these small circular fuel and O2...pods; themselves hidden amongst useless boxes and explodable barrels. Many of the crab-aliens were clipped into the wall and were stuck there, making the clearing task that much easier - also, the aliens never attacked unless they had direct line of sight, which made evasion quite easy. After I had cleared and stripped the area, I reboarded my ship and took to the stars again. I boosted relative north, firing my cannons at space-junk. Just before my O2 ran out (at least, I think the little white bar was my O2) I came across a derelict ship floating in space. I boarded the ship and found that this was a little different than being planet-side - I was floating in an airless environment. So I floated down the corridors, encountered a whole heap of crab aliens again, shot them in zero gravity. I saw a hole in the bulkhead which was full of eyes, decided to avoid it and took refuge in a room. This is when I tackled the inventory system. I still do not know how to use it because, much to my surprise, being in your inventory does not pause the game. I was eaten by crab aliens. This game has charm and, as they all do, potential. I like the concept and I like what they have done so far. The inventory system needs to be explained, the introductory mission needs to be overhauled, the AI needs epic work and the starting splash-screen needs to be more conventionally laid out. On that last point, it took me a while to even realised there was an options menu and that is not good when you are an indie game trying to make a good first impression. The last thing you want is for everyone to believe that it's such a shell of a game that it has no graphics or audio options. It's a good early-access game and its first 20 minutes can grab you if you give it a chance beyond the unconventional splash-screen and the horrible introduction. In 20 minutes, I had fun and felt that there was more to come. Hope this review helps!

EDIT: The dude's remaking the game, so definitely keep a watch on this. This game has a lot of promise. I'm a big fan of the graphics, weapons, combat and general feel of it. It's pretty awesome to dock with an abandoned ship to search for supplies, only to have a hoard of aliens and nano-zombies try kick your balls up through your mouth. However, it's got a decent amount of glitches and really not all that much to do. You kill and search a ship, planet or space station for, hacking tools, medkits, explosives and ammo so you can kill more. There seem to be missions in, but I'm not sure if they even work. It seems like it should be in early access. It's definitely not worth the $10 price tag, but would be if there were more additions to it. I really, really wanna give this game a thumbs up.

Derelict is game which for the 2 hours I have already played, I enjoyed it. However I have no desire currently to go back and play more because of the lack of things to find in this "universe". The game itself has huge potential but really that's all it is, potential. I am praying for updates to expand what is already here because the concept is solid and what is there already is really good but there just isn't enough to justify buying it at this stage. I wouldn't recommend this yet but I would say to keep this on your radar and check back when hopefully more is added to the game.

So I tried this game out, hoping for the best. TLDR: It was very impresive in scope but as a player I felt detatched from the game. The npc's sometimes shot me and sometimes didn't, the ships I found I could not customise or learn to make. Basically I just felt like the whole game was a repetative loop of "Now go here, now do this, no go there, now do that" steps. I found it fun for the first few deaths, but I got bored once I started to see the game sections repeat themselves. It feels kind of half finished, the content and vision are here but the player needs more personal elements. In a very funny way, Duskers has what this game lacks BUT duskers lacks what this game has .... if these two Devs could combine Duskers and Derelict.... we may have a masterpiece

So far I like the concept of the game and everything you can do I just feel like there is a lot of tweeking that needs to be done. From me getting perma stuck on walls to having no clue were I guess "quests" are and what I am really post to do. The rogue guns blazing your own man type of game I like it a lot.

10/10, price is a bit high but its a low budget HeatSignature (the game Tom Francis is working on, i recommend you check it out as well) anyway, like SPAZ (NUMBER 1, NOT 2, ugh 2 is ... not my bag, Really weird SPAZ 2 that is.) it offers frree space exploration, and choice to do what you would like in a free roam environment. Pros: 1. GTA 2 like gameplay in the dark future 2. Space exploration 3. free roam narrative (although lacking) Cons: 1. barely any story 2. price....9.99? for this? cmon. (that seems to be a bad trend among indie developers, but I'm sure Valve recommended the price.. surely) 3. not enough tutorial, not enough guidance, and there really needs to be a better sector map in these kinds of games. 10/10 because we dont have enough games like it, wish SPAZ 1 would have more games. EDIT: games is still good. but man does it still need love. The concept is solid as ♥♥♥♥. We really need more games like this. I swear Im addicted to SPAZ 1 type games..... if you like this game check out games like CRYPTARK, Space Pirates and Zombies.

Once I figured it out, I don't seem to be having much fun. Flying is irrating, and my curiosity doesn't seem to stimulated when exploring these dark ships.

Still awaiting the promised features from pre release.

A dank mix of Hotline Miami and Alien. This game has mad amounts of potential. Buy it so the dev can keep up his awesome work!