''Void Bastards'' is a science-fiction

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

and

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing game, role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedural generation, procedurally generated level (video gaming), levels, Turns, rounds and time- ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed by Australian studio Blue Manchu and published by

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. It was released on May 28, 2019, for Microsoft Windows and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

. Ports of the game for

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

were released on May 7, 2020. The game revolves around surviving in the dangerous Sargasso Nebula by boarding and salvaging materials from spaceships. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its comic-book art style,

dark humor Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

, and gameplay, but criticized its lackluster story and replay value.

Plot

The main character is one of many rehydrated prisoners aboard a stranded personnel vessel, whose AI must rely on its dangerous cargo to obtain fuel for a final jump to its destination.

Gameplay

The game revolves around a procedurally generated structure, in which the player enters other ships, fights enemies and salvages materials to repair their own ship. If the player dies, they are replaced by another "rehydrated" prisoner. When a prisoner dies, the player loses all ammunition, fuel and food, but keeps weapon and gadget upgrades as well as objective progress.

Development

The game was inspired by ''

System Shock 2 ''System Shock 2'' is a 1999 action role-playing survival horror video game designed by Ken Levine and co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios. Originally intended to be a standalone title, its story was changed during produc ...

'' and ''

BioShock ''BioShock'' is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K Games. The first game in the ''BioShock'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 pla ...

''.

Reception

''Void Bastards'' received "generally favorable reviews" according to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Cosmin Vasile of

Softpedia Softpedia is a software and tech news website based in Romania. It indexes, reviews and hosts various downloadable software and reports news on technology and science topics. Website Softpedia hosts reviews written by its staff—each review in ...

rated the game 8.5/10, calling it an "absolute delight" due to its comic-book aesthetics and "solid", "addictive" gameplay, but also called it "repetitive" with a "weak story". Alessandro Barbossa of

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

rated the game 8/10, also praising the art style and "ridiculously designed" but "satisfying" weapons. Samuel Roberts of ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' rated it 71/100, calling the game "slightly messy" but praising its "gorgeous" art style and "excellent" weapons.

Accolades

The game was nominated for "Xbox Game of the Year" at the

2019 Golden Joystick Awards The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted ...

, and for "Excellence in Visual Art" at the

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

Awards.

References

{{Reflist 2019 video games Black comedy video games First-person shooters Humble Games games Indie video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Roguelike video games Science fiction video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Australia Video games using procedural generation Windows games Xbox Cloud Gaming games Xbox One games