Format PC, PS5, Xbox Series
Developer Blackbird Interactive
Publisher Focus Entertainment
Origin US
Release 2022
When in E349 we first wrote about Blackbird Interactive’s science-fiction simulation during its time in Early Access, we couldn’t help but think of Tim Curry’s Anatoly Chedenko in Red Alert 3 talking about escaping to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism. Bad luck, Chedenko – even in space, there is no escaping the unyielding grip of the megacorporation. In Hardspace: Shipbreaker you’re pressed into indentured servitude for the iron-fisted Lynx Corp, tasked with slicing up derelict spacecraft in the hope of paying off an exorbitant debt. It’s fitting, then, that the game originated from an initiative meant to give its makers more independence from their publisher paymasters.
Having shipped Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak for Gearbox in January 2016, Blackbird Interactive found itself without a big project on its slate. As talks for what that might be continued, the studio sensed an opportunity. After years of working on the Homeworld prequel, here was room for developers to cleanse their creative palates, while starting the process of developing ideas internally. Staff were split into seven teams of six to eight people, game director Elliot Hudson tells us: “Our accounting team was part of the team and our IT people were coming in and doing modelling on some of the projects – like literally almost everybody was involved.”
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Denne historien er fra October 2023-utgaven av Edge UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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BONAPARTE: A MECHANIZED REVOLUTION
No sooner have we stepped into the boots of royal guard Bonaparte than we’re faced with a life-altering decision.
TOWERS OF AGHASBA
Watch Towers Of Aghasba in action and it feels vast. Given your activities range from deepwater dives to climbing up cliffs or lumbering beasts, and from nurturing plants or building settlements to pinging arrows at the undead, it’s hard to get a bead on the game’s limits.
THE STONE OF MADNESS
The makers of Blasphemous return to religion and insanity
Vampire Survivors
As Vampire Survivors expanded through early access and then its two first DLCs, it gained arenas, characters and weapons, but the formula remained unchanged.
Devil May Cry
The Resident Evil 4 that never was, and the Soulslike precursor we never saw coming
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare has made a deeply self-conscious game, visibly inspired by some of the best-loved ideas from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
SKATE STORY
Hades is a halfpipe
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VII
Firaxis rethinks who makes history, and how it unfolds
FINAL FANTASY VII: REBIRTH
Remaking an iconic game was daunting enough then the developers faced the difficult second entry
THUNDER LOTUS
How Spirit farer's developer tripled in size without tearing itself apart