Edwin saw a game called Beta Decay that doesn’t have a release date or anything yet, but looks really cool. It’s being developed by Rotoscope Studios and it’s a low-poly, ’90s-inspired mix of dystopian RPG, survival, third and first-person shooter, with some roguelike bits thrown in too. Wow, that’s one lot. Potentially too much. Anyway, I’m here for something ambitious and interesting that ticks both boxes.
One of Beta Decay’s big ambitions is its setting: a vast open world planet with a dense array of dystopian cities, alongside resource-rich underground zones. The idea is that you effectively take on different roles, a bit like in EVE Online, for example. For example, from trading in ‘digital securities’ shops (whatever that means), to living as an engineer ‘calibrating communications servers’, or being a faction leader who carries out ‘raids’ on rivals.
The second ambitious thing? Building spacecraft. Beta Decay wants you to zoom around the world in a ship you’ve built with “complex subsystems” like server networks, power grids, and life support systems. I mean, sounds fantastic! But I also worry that the game runs the risk of overpromising things that even a triple AAA studio would struggle to implement coherently.
There’s more. Survival mechanisms, such as eating, drinking and sleeping, are crucial to keeping your character alive. And it sounds like they want the battle to be a bit of an extraction shooter, since death is permanent. I’m…not sure how I feel about this. I’m a fan of the high stakes, but I struggle with survival bars where I have to do the most annoying things so my character doesn’t drop dead.
However, in their latest gameplay clip above, we get a glimpse of what that battle could look like. And it may be the only thread that has kept me from being a total skeptic. The changes between third and first person look great, as does jumping out of cover to deliver some great shotgun blasts. I know it probably looks like a lot of old games, but it reminds me of Kill Switch on the PS2 and Rainbow Six Vegas. I long for those old days! Even if Beta Decay scales back some of its ambitions in the long run, I hope it at least delivers a satisfying shooter. You can keep an eye on it via his placeor on Steam.