Void Bastards

Came for the game, stayed for the soundtrack.

I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game. I love this game.

It's pretty cool. I had a lot of fun with it even if I got my ass KICKED for playing on Hard first time around. The strongest parts of the game are the presention/art style and the atmospheric immersion. Unique sounds for each enemy, the eerie music that plays when you're traveling through a worryingly empty ship and wondering why you haven't met one of those terrifying Screws (even though you would be better off not doing so), and the intense tunes that kick in when you do encounter something, all of it gets you constantly at the edge of your seat, which is definitely what a good action game should do. Void Bastards seems very speedrunnable thanks to having consistent biome generation throughout, and I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, since it's so heavy on time management (limited oxygen that gets scarcer as you go deeper), the consistent procgen lets you plan out movement/combat strategies quickly and fits in line with the stealth mechanics. On the other hand... what I like about roguelikes is how you can both easily get utterly screwed or get super crazy builds at the same time, and with the way Void Bastards is built it doesn't give you much room for either side. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if the game went way further on the common(?) roguelike aspect (shorter runs with permanent upgrades applying across all your runs, think One Step From Eden's unlockable player characters and cards), or had a 100% static campaign mode. But y'know, Void Bastards is neat as it is. Excellent presentation with good gameplay. Will give Normal Ironman a few whacks some time.