VOID BASTARDS Review: An Innovative Rogue-Like FPS With Humor To Spare

Nintendo Switch code provided by Humble Bundle.

Void Bastards is an inspired tribute to some of the best sci-fi first-person-shooters in gaming with an entirely unique take on rogue-like gameplay and absurdist space humor.

Developed by Blue Manchu and published by Humble Bundle, it’s an amalgam of traditional FPS gameplay and new innovations that created a one-of-a-kind experience. The strategy shooter will require players to manage resources and delve deeper into space as they scavenge and fight their way to freedom.

Originally released for PC via Steam on May 28th of last year, the game is now available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

If Office Space took place in space. If Portal involved criminal gangs of pirates. If Bioshock was a comedy. There are so many wonderful elements woven into Void Bastards. Let’s take a look at its innards and see how it works.

STORY

The Sargasso Nebula is a nasty place. Filled with strange space anomalies, bloodthirsty pirates, void whales—and so much more.

And The Ark is stranded. Filled with dehydrated inmates who carry long prison sentences. So these "void bastards” must maneuver through the nebula, defend against enemies, and follow the instructions of the automated system that oversees the prisoners.

And when a prisoner dies? No problem. Rehydrate another one and pick up where the deceased left off. The Ark and it’s S.T.E.V. exploratory vessel will keep all of the resources and items constructed by the inmates. After all, they are incarcerated individuals.

Void Bastards is a hilarious space adventure. What it would be like if the Guardians of the Galaxy were prisoners and their exploits were all in an effort to reduce sentencing and restore order to the floating penitentiary in the Sargasso Nebula.

It’s a campaign that you won’t want to miss.

GAMEPLAY

Take over a prisoner. Board derelict vessels. Plan your route. Scavenge for supplies. Find parts. Build weapons. Kill enemies. Get off the ship. Rest. And follow the instructions from your penal supervisors.

Then rinse and repeat.

Void Bastards is a rogue-like FPS that expects you to die. Whether you run out of oxygen, are killed by hostile forces onboard a spaceship, starve, or get flattened by a void whale, it doesn’t matter. You will die.

But that’s okay because there is an endless supply of prisoners, and they can all be rehydrated to finish the mission.

The game even sets you up to fail in the beginning. In order to see an inmate perish, a new one reborn, and the story continues. The show must go on.

But the game lets you decide what to do. Which vessels to board, which enemies to fight, how long to stay on board the spaceship, when to escape, and what parts to build. This is an open strategy game that encourages you to forge your own path through the Sargasso Nebula.

And you get to do all of it while watching fabulous comic-book art reveal the story.

Void Bastards is good fun.

Improvised weapons, hilarious tools, and comedy abound.

Shoot enemies with a pistol, or a stapler, or a laser gun. Or distract them with a kittybot. Stun them with a shocker. Blow them up with a proximity mine.

Blueprints for so many weapons and tools can be constructed so there is no wrong way to approach an excursion.

If you want to stealth through the spaceship, pick up supplies, and head out without a fight, that’s possible. But if you want to rush in guns blazing and blast away the nebula interlopers that inhabit a derelict vessel, that’s fine. Void Bastards frees the player to follow any variation or combination of those strategies.

And while you’re deciding how to navigate in space, the story will unfold in amusing ways; the narrative will leave you flying through the void with an itchy trigger finger from all the enemies and a scratchy throat from all the wry chuckles.

I enjoyed my time in Void Bastards, and I’d like to return on a harder difficulty. There were many times when I was attached to my particular inmate and their weird traits—the smoker whose lungs I healed or the shallow breather whose scavenging I improved—but my hopes would be dashed on the asteroids of space as I forgot a variable. Slowly asphyxiating as I forgot to resupply my oxygen levels. Walking instead of crouching by that one remaining gunpoint. Et cetera.

And yet each death paved the way for a prisoner that I found even more amusing. That overly formal one that always used last names who ran into a DNA storm in space that reprogrammed his genetic makeup… to become an overly informal individual who only used first names.

Absolutely stupid. I loved it.

My one recommendation, for the Nintendo Switch specifically, is to use the Pro controller. I didn’t even attempt to play this remotely with the Joy-Cons. It’s a first-person shooter. You want good control of the character, and I just don’t think that’s really possible with the tiny Joy-Con thumbsticks and minuscule buttons.

That detail won’t matter on another console, but it’s essential for the Switch.

Back to the game. It wasn’t too long either. Some rogue-likes overstay their welcome, but Void Bastards was a good length. I didn’t want to leave by the time I was done. Which only makes me want to play more. Which is a good job on the part of Blue Manchu.

And it’s all made better by the visual design of the game.

VISUALS

It’s like living in a comic-book world. If Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse brought comic books to the movies, then Void Bastards brings comic books to video games.

It’s just a gorgeously-rendered environment. The enemies are visually-arresting. Their actions and deaths are captioned on the screen with small words and big onomatopoeias.

The entire game looks like the sketchbook of some daydreaming high-schooler who envisions a sci-fi universe filled with ridiculous creatures and stupendous events.

It’s part of the allure in Void Bastards. The panels of the narrative blast into each other when you’re not traipsing down the deserted hallway of a dead floating spaceship.

The art style is definitely one of the highlights of the game.

REPLAYABILITY

It’s a rogue-like FPS that can be played with dozens of different prisoners on different ships with various degrees of difficulty.

You’ll be able to play Void Bastards again and again.

The humor will likely not get old. The gameplay can be unique every time. And the experience will always be enjoyable.

I plan to keep playing right now. And I imagine you would, too.

WHAT IT COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

The game doesn’t waste time. It jumps in and blasts off. There aren’t many things I didn’t like.

But keep this in mind. This is a rogue-like adventure. And it’s a first-person shooter. While I think these two genres are blended nicely in a compelling package, players might be disappointed in how each of those two elements features in Void Bastards. The FPS mechanics are not going to satisfy like Call of Duty or Rainbow Six Siege.

They’re not designed to be like that, but if you’re an FPS junkie, then you might be frustrated by what you find here. Enemy movement isn’t always predictable and gunfights are not always prioritized.

Same goes for those that like rogue-like games. How it’s implemented here might not be for you. Personally, i love how it works with the story and how the prisoners are not valued at all. But the gameplay mechanics that riff off that genre might not appeal to all.

I think this mish-mash of genres and games is fantastic. But you might not.

VERDICT

Void Bastards is damn good fun. If you want a light-hearted but engaging strategy shooter, then this is something you should pick up. The price point is worth it, and it has the humor and heart to win you over in no time.

I’m enjoying it, and I will continue to do so.

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