Void Bastards

To Play, Just Fill Out Game Requisition Form C9-23b in Triplicate…

- Robin Valentine

With a name that spicy, you’d think this FPS would have a pretty strong idea of what it wants to be. But strangely Void Bastards’ biggest problem is an identity crisis, its disparate elements failing to click together into one coherent whole.

It certainly makes a good first impression. Its dystopian setting, the Sargasso Nebula – a spaceship graveyard where mutants roam, yet automated bureaucracy rules – is immediately intriguing and darkly funny. As a hapless ‘rehydrated’ convict, you’re sent out by your brilliantly dry AI master to collect items from the floating wrecks, all the while gathering the salvage, food and fuel you need to survive what seems like a hopeless, endless quest.

The accompanying art style is, without exaggeration, one of the most striking we’ve ever seen, seamlessly combining cel-shaded 3D environments with Doom-esque 2D enemies. Exploring the nebula feels like stepping into the pages of a classic sci-fi comic, immersive and scary but with a very British satirical edge. Even menus are a spectacle – your current convict given a characterful mugshot above their stats, your inventory full of chunky, colourful items, your map swarming with monstrous voidwhales and lurid pirate vessels. It’s the sort of visual flair that makes us want to like Void Bastards much more than we do.

Shock and awe