Void Bastards asks you to plan a raid before you fire a shot. Blue Manchu built the 2019 strategy-shooter around that pause, and it is the best thing in the game.
Trailer, via Blue Manchu.
The Sargasso Nebula
You are one of many rehydrated prisoners aboard a stranded personnel vessel. The ship’s AI needs fuel for a final jump, and the only place to get it is the nebula outside. So you board derelict ships, take what you can carry, and try to get back alive.
The setup is thin. The game knows it. What it lacks in story it makes up for in the moment-to-moment loop of deciding where to go and what to risk.
Where to go, what to fight
Void Bastards is a first-person shooter and a roguelike at once. Ships are procedurally generated. Before you step aboard, you read the layout, note the hazards and enemies, and check which terminals and ship systems you can turn against them.
Then you move. Carefully, usually. You can detour to the generator to bring power back online, or fight into the security module to shut down the ship’s defenses. The game wants you to choose when to fight, when to run, and when just to be a bastard.
That last option is the funniest and the most useful. Combat is fine. The planning is better.
Robo-kitty and clusterflak
Supplies buy improvisation. You build tools and weapons from what you scavenge: the distracting robo-kitty, the horribly unstable clusterflak. Meanwhile your escape pod crosses the nebula, where you flee void whales and pirates and politely avoid the hungry hermits.
Food and fuel drain the whole time. The scavenging never stops.
| Element | How it works |
|---|---|
| Death | Another rehydrated prisoner steps forward |
| Ammo, fuel, food | Lost on death |
| Weapon and gadget upgrades | Kept |
| Objective progress | Kept |
| Campaign length | 12-15 hours |
That table is the whole design in five rows. Death costs you resources, not progress. You always keep your upgrades and your objectives, so a bad run stings without erasing the work.
The prisoners you lose
Every prisoner has unique traits. When one dies, another steps forward to carry on the fight. The game supplies an endless stream of them, and it never asks you to mourn.
The trade is clear. You lose the personality of whoever just died, and you gain a reason to keep going. It keeps the pressure on without turning failure into a wall.
A 12-15 hour campaign
The campaign runs 12 to 15 hours, and the structure holds up across it. Blue Manchu cites BioShock and System Shock 2 as inspiration, and the immersive-sim label fits: you are managing systems, not just aiming.
The comic-book art style and the dark humor carry the tone. The story does not. It is the weakest part of the package, and the replay value thins once you have seen the ships.
What Void Bastards gets right
The best idea here is that strategy and shooting share the same space. You plan on the map, then you execute in first person, and the gap between the two is where the tension lives.
The roguelike death rule is the second-best idea. Keeping upgrades while stripping resources is the right call. It punishes carelessness without punishing time.
Void Bastards is not a game you play for the plot. It is a game you play for the decision before the door opens. It shipped on PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, and that decision is worth the trip.
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