We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Spotlight on Greenlight, 26/1/13: Space Shock

Space_Shock_1

This week I’m going to shine the Spotlight on just one game in particular, and it’s a game that, uh, technically isn’t even on Greenlight yet. But bear with me here, all will make sense. I’m going to show you Space Shock.

When
it comes to PC gaming, there’s never anything wrong with challenging
some assumptions or shaking up the norm, and Space Shock asks some very
important questions about some pretty entrenched gaming conventions. For
example, why do dungeon crawlers have to be set in a fantasy land? And
what really counts as a dungeon anyway? Would the dimly-lit corridors of
a gigantic starship offer the same opportunity for exploration,
adventure and laser combat? I think you know where questions like this
are leading and I think you know what kind of a game Space Shock is
going to be. Better suit up and get ready, because we’re going to take a
closer look.


Space
Shock grabs the old-fashioned dungeon crawler, the sort of experience
we’d expect from a game like Legend of Grimrock, and drags it a few
thousand years into the future. Spells and bows are replaced by shotguns
and rifles, weapons that your brave party members will have to use
against the giant robots that are as fearsome and deadly as any dragons
you might have come up against.

But
it’s still a game built upon tried mechanics and familiar concepts.
There’s no reason why the far future can’t also have tanks and healers,
or skill trees and quest objectives, and if other RPGs can be
space-based, dungeon crawlers can to.

So
say hello to your soldier, your new tank and your DPS expert, and
welcome your Sentinel, whose PSI powers are the spellcraft of the
future. An engineer provides technical assistance and can disable your
opponents, while the adept takes the traditional support and healing
role. Finally, there’s the mercenary, who rounds out the character
selection by offering another fighter, but this time one with sniping
and assassination skills. From this selection, you’ll recruit your team
of three and march them in the direction of the nearest adventure.

All
the weapons of the future are at your disposal and this team can kit
themselves out with flamethrowers, pistols, rocket-launchers and
grenades. There are also NPC traders to find and do business with, as
well as an arsenal of weapons and items to collect and to compare, guns
that you can spend hours sorting between and pouring over, so that you
can find just the right combination of abilities and death-dealing
statistics.

The
locations in Space Shock aren’t just limited to the insides of hostile
or abandoned starships, either, and developer Ideas Unbound has hinted
that there are quests that need completing on the surface of the frozen
moon of Europa, perhaps among the corridors of a distant research base
that was built in some forgotten corner of the solar system.


Space
Shock isn’t a fully-fledged Greenlight project just yet. It’s currently
at an early stage of development and it’s status on Steam reflects
this. It’s currently a concept entry, a pitch put out there to gather
community feedback and to test the water, but if it’s well-received then
we can expect to be voting for the game soon. What can we do in the
meantime? Well, actually, we can vote for it anyway, and help it towards
its next stage of development. Think of yourself as nurturing gaming
larvae, helping it to burst out of its chrysalis and become a larger, even more impressive creature. Yes.

You can find Space Shock’s entry in the Steam community right here.