> begin emergency broadcastDo not adjust your set, twiddling the tracking controls won’t fix things… I am actually writing another game review. It’s oddly addictive.
This time I’m taking a look at a recently released indie game called, wait for it… Duskers.
I first heard about the game from a random Tweet comparing it to Alien, which peaked my interest but couldn’t get in the way of a weekend hacking away on a big project with my amazing friends and colleagues, but that’s another story.
When I got back, and had some much needed sleep, I went to Steam had watched the trailer in all its retro, desolate and beautiful glory.
That’s when I feel in love, the nerd in me has always been drawn to sci-fi interfaces; I drool over LCARS, frequently consider if having to be Rodney McKay would be worth it to play with the Ancient mainframe and wonder how much my neighbours would freak out if I setup a DRADIS array in our garden.
So, getting to control drones tasked with searching mysterious space wrecks by entering commands into a terminal was an instant draw for me. Dusters doesn’t disappoint, the whole experience can be driven by the keyboard, in fact you won’t touch your mouse in most cases.
To play Duskers you don’t have to be a level 9000 Wizard or know how to reload a P90 faster than a speeding bullet that’s being fired at you by some stereotyped bad guy. No, it’s far harder to play this game. You have to think, plan things out, take risks and pay the price for a bad decision.
When you see the motion detector goes red in a nearby room, knowing you have to get in there to gather precious resources for your ship to survive, your reactions tighten and you start typing faster to execute your plan — you sure as heck better not make any typos that will ruin your intricate timing.
Do you blow the nearby airlock, risking losing access to potentially valuable items in that room but at the same time killing the nasty thing that was moving in there? Do you set a trap, lure it into another room or activate the internal defences — assuming you’ve got the right tools on your drone to access the derelict’s systems?
I think you get the point that the gameplay is immersive and often incredibly frustrating, but that’s why I love it. Let’s talk about some of the other parts of the game, shall we?
Graphics
Because of the nature of the gameplay, there’s no need for fancy 3D graphics. To quote the system requirements for graphics:
”generally everything made since 2004 should work”
That’s great news because almost any computer can have fun playing this. I can confirm, my 2016 12” MacBook has no issues with this game, despite it’s ‘paper’ specs being what they are.
Being available on OS X, Windows and Linux from launch is something every game should be doing.
Don’t let the system requirements turn you off. The graphics are well thought out, beautiful and reflect the nature of the game.
Sound
There’s no music here, and that’s a good thing. I highly doubt the guy that’s discovered the universe is a graveyard has a Spotify Premium subscription. If nothing else I can’t imagine there’s great LTE coverage at the back end of the cosmos — I can’t even get a reliable connection on the train down to London.
What you do get is an atmospheric set of background noise and sound effects that make the Enterprise bridge computers hide in shame.
The Developer’s Story
I could spend ages writing about the story of Misfits Attic and Tim Keenan, a former Dreamworks alum who poured his desperation into this game. But, I’ll stop there, not because I don’t care (I do) but simply because there are far better writers who’ve done the same thing.
What I will say is this, if anyone complains about the price of this game, I will personally come and show you all the crap you can get for 79p in the App Store. If you pirate this game, you’re scum! It’s less than a months worth of Starbucks, get some proper coffee and buy this.
Developers, especially those with families to support, deserve to be paid well for their work.
One of my closest fiends, and now my colleague and boss, is an amazing designer and developer and far too often I’ve seen people devalue his work by quibbling over pricing. You’ll notice I’m not saying his name, that’s purely because it doesn’t matter and the person in question gets quite embarrassed when I wax lyrical about his skills.
Final Thoughts
Games don’t have to melt your graphics card to be a valuable contribution to the community. They don’t have to force you go play online with people you’ve never met before, or make you watch hours of low budget cutscenes to tell you the story — you can read can’t you?
In a way, I’m glad I don’t have a gaming rig, it’s making me enjoy games that others may dismiss for all the wrong reasons.
> broadcast ends