XCOM’s tactical fight and FTL’s dangerous exploration mix with a bit of little bit of Waterworld in HOF Studios’s Depth Of Extinction, a strategic RPG with some roguelike bits launched at the moment. I’ve been taking part in a preview construct of this over the previous few days, and whereas I stay resolutely garbage at it due to my eternally terrible risk-management expertise, I believe that is properly value a peek. Below, a launch trailer and a few preliminary ideas on the game.
Depth Of Extinction scavenges lots of flotsam from different games, and bodges it collectively into one thing respectably seaworthy, even when you can see the outdated seams. Set lengthy after the world was flooded, a scruffy little mercenary crew uncover a plot by an AI to exterminate what’s left of the human race, so it’s off on a multi-stage quest to avert one other apocalypse, as a result of the primary was dangerous sufficient. The world is already filled with murderous androids, creepy cultists and compulsory leather-clad raiders, so the percentages aren’t trying too nice for humanity right here.
Strategically, it’s structured lots like FTL, however extra open. You’re not always being pursued by an enemy power, and get to select between aspect and principal missions from a board between sorties. Once you’re on a mission, navigation is straight away acquainted stuff for FTL followers, with you spending gasoline and selecting your method throughout a collection of map nodes en path to your last goal. Some nodes include enemies, others treasure, some have outlets and lots pose doubtlessly harmful decisions to make.
Once you stumble upon enemies, all of it goes a bit XCOM. Most of Depth Of Extinction’s fight is lifted from Firaxis’s technique reboot, with levelling taken from Harebrained Schemes’ latest Shadowrun trilogy. Hard cowl is life, you’re at all times outnumbered and enemy hearth hurts lots, though you may progress by way of the modular, randomly generated tactical maps largely at your individual tempo. Unlike XCOM, your crew totally heal after fights, and people downed in fight will be revived with a single hit level when you have the fitting gear.
Despite this concession it’s nonetheless surprisingly simple to take losses and a full squad wipe scrubs the mission, forcing you to draft new rookies, change misplaced gear and fill further squad slots with costly mercenaries. You don’t lose story progress on a wipe – it’s not a full roguelike – however it’s going to take money and time to recoup losses, and something greater than a single merc dying (they depart your squad after a mission anyway) can sting. I practically gave up after I misplaced my favorite totally geared-up Wrecker (a category that causes cowl to violently explode by taking pictures it) however perseverance is vital.
There’s a couple of tough patches to Depth Of Extinction that I’ve seen up to now. While largely respectable, a few of the squad voices (which I’ve not seen a approach to change) are a bit of bit awkward. Also a couple of typos and grammatical errors within the script, particularly when it’s attempting to wrangle faction names into references to singular characters. I’ve discovered that I generally have to wiggle the mouse a bit of to focus on precisely the fitting ground tile to maneuver to when it’s surrounded by cowl, too. These are simply nitpicks although, and I hope to dive deeper into the game this weekend.
Depth Of Extinction is out now on Steam, GOG and Itch for £13.50/€18/$18.
