Space punks ign series#

It had been scheduled to start online on June 11, and then run from June 13-16 in-person in downtown Los Angeles. But at this point Space Punks is a tad too generic to make a lasting impression.There will not be an E3 in 2023 after all - in person, online, or otherwise. Early access means it will grow, if given the chance, and so I’ll likely eat my words in a few months. The shooting is fun, the aesthetic is lovely, and there are seeds of something great. There’s a lot of potential here, but at the moment it needs a bit more variety and personality. The loot game is decent, though, and there’s scope for interesting build diversity down the line. Even with other people, lack of voice chat and little potential for emergent moments leaves me a little cold. At present, there’s not enough personality for that. Playing alone is definitely viable, but I feel Flying Wild Hog really want to generate stories of mayhem. As my Epic friends list is about as busy as an igloo sale in Dubai, I’m mostly left ploughing through it alone.

I’ve tried multiple times to matchmake and had very little luck. Sadly there’s no communication option right now, though. Guns feel effective and destructive, melee attacks have an impact, and the synergy between your Punks’ special abilities promotes teamwork. Thankfully, the minute-to-minute gameplay is pretty damn fun. This is early access and more will come, but there’s not much here to carry you at present. You’ll be restarting generators, destroying generators, killing bosses. These missions are fairly simple but a little repetitive. Space Punks: Sci-fi shenanigansĪn isometric blaster, Space Punks has you completing short missions while scavenging gear. There’s also a sixth slot that I’m yet to unlock. While cosmetic skins must be earned or bought, loot comes in the form of a ranged weapon, melee weapon, health module, shield and gear item. There’s no ease-of-access menu here, either, you’ll have to schlep around the place to access even your own inventory to switch out gear. Oh, and of course access the Premium Store, which is currently fairly barren. There’s a space station hub where you can pick jobs, access your inventory, level up. In Space Punks you’re just going into hostile territory for no real reason. The difference is the PvP element and steadily worsening storm gives a sense of urgency and context. If you’ve played The Cycle, you’ll have experienced a free-to-play adventure with a similar premise. Just a lot of scavenging missions to a hostile planet that are nothing a small army couldn’t sort instead. There’s no over-arching plot to follow, no big bad antagonist to worry about. Beyond that and a unique skill tree, there’s nothing else. They have names, and an assortment of one-liners they regurgitate over and over in-mission. There’s Handsome Space Dude, Beautiful Space Badass, Space Pig Guy, and a grown-up version of Men in Black’s coffee aliens.

There’s almost no character to any of it, even the actual characters. While all these words were probably plastered all over Space Punks’ design document, it tends to miss the mark on all but the violence.

Space punks ign series#

Space Punks: Loot, shoot, put in the bootīorderlands is a series set across hostile alien worlds, peopled by characters you shouldn’t like, but do. But while it’s bright and colourful and has a general air of forced zaniness, it lacks one crucial component: charm. As you head down to an alien planet with your mercenary of choice to shoot robots and monsters and loot chests, the cel-shaded aesthetic does its best to invoke Gearbox’s magnum opus. In fact, it’s pretty good fun in short blasts. Not yet, anyway.įirst of all, I should say that Space Punks isn’t a bad game. That’s how Space Punks is being sold and, while I get it, well, it’s not quite that. If playing Space Punks in early access has taught me anything, it’s that marketers get a lot of mileage out of the words “Borderlands meets…”.