Stylish shooter Void Bastards will splice BioShock gameplay and Borderlands art in May
A-lien drawing.
Void Bastards looks like a mash-up of all the best things: it's got the cel-shaded, sci-fi art style of a Borderlands title, gameplay mechanics inspired by BioShock, and dark humour to make even GLaDOS blush. If all that sounds good to you, thankfully you won't have to wait much longer, as Void Bastards is releasing on PC and Xbox One at the end of the month. Mark 29th May on your calendars.
The game is the latest project by Blue Manchu, the studio led by the former design director for BioShock and System Shock 2, Jonathan Chey. Unsurprisingly, he cites both titles as inspiration for Void Bastards, explaining much of the game design choices stem from those titles.
"I love the deep simulational gameplay of BioShock and System Shock 2 - they aren't just run and gun shooters," Chey says in the press release. "I wanted to find a way to experience more of that gameplay without having to replay the same story over and over. Wrapping the shooter inside a strategy game turned out to be a great way to do that!"
The game's narrative will take players on board the Void Ark - essentially space prison - where players control misfit perps to hop between abandoned spaceships to scavenge and survive. Aboard these floating wrecks you can find loot, craftable gear and upgrades - requiring you to "test your wits as well as your brain". I guess they're taking cell shading quite literally.
To find more details about Void Bastards, make sure to check out the Steam page and Humble Bundle listing. Handily for Xbox One players, the game will be available on the Xbox Game Pass from day one.
The way it's looking so far, I'm pretty sure it won't be getting a Eurogamer Avoid.