Void Bastards

Get bombarded by British jokes and annoying enemies.

$36 | PC, MAC, XB1 | WWW.VOIDBASTARDS.COM

Void Bastards is described as a strategy shooter inspired by System Shock 2 and BioShock, and it features the talents of some former Irrational staff who previously made 2013’s Card Hunter. You are a prisoner, travelling across the galaxy to fulfil the whims of an HR computer that might eventually grant you your freedom. You get across the map with an FTL-style interface, and while most locations are enemy spaceships that you can board, loot and escape, there are also stores, asteroid ranges and deadly hazards to be aware of. Mostly, though, your time is spent navigating ships in first-person, looking for specific items to progress, then escaping before you’re killed.

While there is a stealth element to Void Bastards and you do have some silent weapons, it’s mostly about shooting weird, British aliens in small corridors and rooms. The standard immersive sim elements are here: you can hack turrets to fight on your side, or shut down security from a

terminal on the ship. You have a dart gun.

The tools are great, and often fun to use, but the enemy types are mostly a poor fit for what you have in your inventory. Some are deliberately overpowered and meant to be avoided, which is fine. Exploding enemies that sometimes sit behind doors and blow up before you ever see them are not favourites of mine, though. It’s the NPC barks that really turn me off the enemies in Void Bastards. One of the basic enemies shouts “surprise, buttface/ twatface!” whenever you’re caught by them, which I just can’t stand, and the game is rife with enemies barking irritating British things.

Sometimes the game does capture the thrilling feeling of being a thief who grabs the objective, gets caught, then escapes in a hail of gunfire. Mostly, though, I found firefights just a bit of a slog, with some levels jam-packed with enemies. It’ll take around 12-15 hours to finish a single run, and even after doing that, you can carry on unlocking stuff and taking on harder enemies.

Verdict

A slightly messy first-person shooter elevated by a gorgeous art style.