''Deep Sky Derelicts'' is a

dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video g ...

video game developed by Snowhound Games and published by Fulqrum Publishing. It combines elements of traditional

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

s and

roguelike deck-building game A roguelike deck-building game is a hybrid genre of video games that combines the nature of deck-building card games with procedurally generated randomness from roguelike games. Gameplay aspects Most roguelike deck-building games present the pla ...

s. Players create a custom crew, who explore and scavenge derelict space ships. It was first released in 2018 and was ported to consoles in 2020.

Gameplay

Players create and customize three crew members sent to scavenge derelict spaceships. Each character can choose from seven

character class In tabletop games and video games, a character class is an occupation, profession, or role assigned to a game character to highlight and differentiate their capabilities and specializations. In role-playing games (RPGs), character classes ag ...

es. Exploring derelicts is done via a 2D, procedurally-generated

automap A mini-map or minimap is a miniature map HUD element that is often placed at a screen corner in video games to help players in orienting themselves within the game world. They are often only a small portion of the screen and must be selective ...

that simulates graph paper. The rest of the game uses an art style similar to comic books. While exploring, energy is expended for life support. If energy runs out, the characters are injured. When encountering hostile monsters or scavengers, combat is resolved through turn-based combat using cards. A character's class and gear provide them with cards, which are shuffled and drawn randomly. If these cards are not useful, new ones can be drawn, but this costs energy. Each character has

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

and

shields A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

. Shields regenerate after combat, but health does not. The only way to recover health is by paying a medic. Hardcore mode enforces

permadeath Permadeath or permanent death is a game mechanic in both tabletop games and video games in which player characters who lose all of their health are considered dead and cannot be used anymore. Depending on the situation, this could require the p ...

, but players are otherwise able to load

saved game A saved game (also called a game save, savegame, savefile, save point, or simply save) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardw ...

s to redo a failed combat or exploration mission. Besides scavenging random derelicts, players can take side missions.

Development

The developers cited ''

Darkest Dungeon ''Darkest Dungeon'' is a roguelike role-playing video game developed and published by Red Hook Studios. The game was first released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in January 2016, which followed a year-long early access development period. Lat ...

'', ''

XCOM ''XCOM'' (originally called ''X-COM'') is a science fiction video game franchise featuring an elite international organization tasked with countering alien invasions of Earth. The series began with the strategy video game '' UFO: Enemy Unknown' ...

'', ''

Hearthstone ''Hearthstone'' is a 2014 Online game, online digital collectible card game, digital collectible card video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment, released under the free-to-play model. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthsto ...

'', and '' FTL: Faster Than Light'' as inspirations. ''Deep Sky Derelicts'' entered

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

in November 2017 and was released on September 26, 2018. Two DLC were released: ''New Prospects'' on May 30, 2019, and ''Station Life'' on December 12, 2019. The game was ported to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on March 24, 2020. This version, under the subtitle ''Definitive Edition'', bundles both DLC.

Reception

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

, the PC and Xbox One versions of ''Deep Sky Derelicts'' received mixed reviews, and the Nintendo Switch version received positive reviews. ''

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC game, PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper S ...

''s reviewer praised the combat, saying that the ability to control which cards went into his deck overcame his dislike of deck-building games. Though he criticized the game for its lack of a tutorial, he said the combat is "great fun, never over-complicated". ''

Gamereactor UK ''Gamereactor'' is a Nordic online media network covering video games in multiple languages and a former print magazines network. In 2013, it was "one of the biggest games publications in Europe" according to Develop. History The Gamereactor ...

'' called the art and music "brilliant" and praised the combat, though they said it "can sometimes be a slog". A perceived poor user interface and severe difficulty spikes kept the reviewer from making a wholehearted recommendation. After overcoming a steep learning curve, ''Nintendo World Report''s reviewer found the game enjoyable. ''

4Players ''4P'', formerly known as ''4Players'', is a German online magazine that provides news and reviews of video games and related content. Established in August 2000, ''4Players'' is owned by the Hamburg-based company 4Players GmbH, an indirect subs ...

'' recommended it to fans of ''

'', though they said ''Deep Sky Derelicts'' was not quite as good.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.snowhoundgames.com/deep-sky-derelicts/ 2018 video games Windows games MacOS games Linux games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Xbox One games Single-player video games Indie games Video games set in outer space Dungeon crawler video games Digital collectible card games Early access video games Video games using procedural generation Role-playing video games