PREVIEW : Deep Sky Derelicts ( PC/ Steam)
Deep Sky Derelicts is similar to Darkest Dungeon with Spaceships Derelicts. Its not a bad thing that it is so similar as it adds enough new bits and pieces to feel fresh. You can easily go through the game in matter of few hours but the game still feels solid.
You recruit small time salvagers who are cleaning out abandoned spaceships. Movement is through unfolding grid of squares which are mostly empty but some contain encounters.
Deep Sky Derelicts uses limited life supply as a limiter on how far you can explore. The Energy Units start at 100 and each step at the grid uses one energy unit. It is a really good system that provides balance to resource management and exploration.
Combat utilizes energy as well. Each character has CCG decks based on the characters skillset. CCG decks provide a layer of customization. After a few levels you would be able to max out most of your characters.
Shields make everyone more durable. Game is quite difficult but the developers were quite smart in game balancing. With right CCG and moves, the game is very enjoyable.
The money system is also tight but well balanced. Constantly resupplying everything drains your reserves. You need to find loot in every exploration and advance story.
The nature of the CCG elements, where each piece of equipment comes with a few cards as well as stats, makes the loot interesting. And again, there is great room for customization with equipment having mods with their own cards. A fully decked out gun could have 9 cards and dramatically change the tone of your deck.
The story mainly revolves around helping a shadowy figure gather data from ships to locate home world. The entire story is divided into missions and every mission requires good amount of exploration. The tone of story is nice and even though the interactions do not matter much it is still fun to interact.
Deep Sky Derelicts opts for a more comic art style. The overall presentation is dirty and grimy and everything looks sci-fi. The laser blast and canon look amazing and overall the art style is superb and blends with the atmosphere of the game.
Deep Sky Derelicts is a really solid game. The systems blend work well together and are fairly balanced.
