Open world games in its current form seems like the product of modern video games. How many game mechanics and systems can still trace its roots to Far Cry 3 or Assassin’s Creed. But these style of games have been around for even longer. And some were even more ambitious.
Enter Underspace. This indie game is developed by Pastaspace Interactive, which one of developer has its work being known by many a Skyrim or Starfield player. Trainwiz, the person who did the silly Thomas The Tank engine mods, is the primary talent leading this game.
And this isn’t some meme game. Underspace really wants to evoke a specific style game prominent in the late 1900s and early 2000s of PC gaming. This feels a lot like what I’ve seen the Wing Commander games and Freelancer were described.
In Underspace, you play as Kardoz. A former nobleman, he’s reputation is now in tatters and have to resort to work as a Starchaser, this universe’s equivalent of mercenary with a space ship. After one tutorial mission, you’re let off to explore the galaxy making your way.
The whole aesthetic of Underspace screams 2000s PC gaming, and I mean this as a compliment. Flat but detailed textures. Slightly blocky character models and ship models. Yet the graphics isn’t here to wow you at how much time and effort the developers spent on making the assets look all nice, but diverting that attention to the world it is painting. The hums of space engines at the dock. The bustling bars with breathtaking views out of the window panes. Underspace feels like a huge world. It successfully sells an atmosphere.
Piloting through the massive underspace (that’s what the game calls outer space, apparently) is all done manually. You can enable free flight to move around in six degrees of rotation. Or toggle it off to navigate only on the 2D plane. There’s no fast travel here, this is a space flight sim after all, so the appeal is piloting your way to the destination. Though there are lanelines, rings that auto-flies you toward a specific destination on-rails like driving on a highway but for space ships.
The Starmap screen is a bit fiddly to use right now, though. The search bar isn’t working as expected (like how keybinds are still triggered so you’re likely to switch off the menu instead of typing a destination name). And given how some missions, the ones you take from the job board at any station, doesn’t put a pin to the location you need to go, this is a bit of a bother at the moment. Just one of the many rough edges of an Early Access release that I’m sure will be rounded off.
Combat is as you’d expect, pretty intense. And if you’re not used to dogfighting like I am, it can be a bit frustrating. The controls have some depths that the tutorial didn’t do as well of a job in guiding me. There were plenty of instances of where I want to shoot but the right-mouse click isn’t producing shots which I assume due to being in another state. And of course, you’ll be zipping around and over and around and over tiny looking ships a lot, hoping that your pea shooters land a hit. The starter weapons are weaksauce and you probably should upgrade or change the weapons array for something more hard-hitting.
But if you are used to it, then get ready to dance. And by dance, I mean ballet. Not only because dogfighting in Underspace requires grace movements to ensure you lock-on the target and avoid getting locked-on. But also because of the music. It’s a jaunty orchestral number that gives off The Nutcracker Suite vibes than the usual epic grandiose video game orchestra. An inspired choice.
Underspace has one neat trick that it isn’t just borrowing from its inspirations, and it’s the boss fights. This game lets you take on huge Lovecraftian monstrosities. It all makes sense why would your ship has a dodge button. Though I hope the game performance gets bumped up a bit, because in the preview build the one boss fight I encountered really eat up the frame rate.
The appeal of Underspace is an open world game where you are free to make choices and play how you like. Sure there is a main questline (which should run for 12-15 hours), but like a Bethesda RPG you’re free to head into any direction right after the opening sequence. Do odd jobs. Buy cheap cargo at one station and off-load it any at another selling for more. Smuggle cargo and run away from scanners. Upgrade your ships. Align yourself with a faction. The world is your oyster.
While I only slightly dabble with the content that’s on offer, this Early Access release is already offering massive amount of content for you to sink your teeth into.
Closing Thoughts
Underspace wants to bring back the open world space flight sim experience. Star Citizen is getting there ever so slowly, but if you can live without the ridiculous level of detail and enjoy the aesthetic choice of games from 20 years ago (the 2000s are 20 years ago?!?!) then Underspace is here to fill that void in your heart.
However, based on what I’ve played, there’s still plenty of odd issues here and there that can negatively affect your experience. Starmap search not working as intended. Autosaves not properly saving job board missions in progress which makes save scumming not viable for now. And other rough edges.
Still, it’s an Early Access release, for a debuting game developer and publisher. So you can expect the game being shaped up to be better in the coming months.
If you know what to expect, Underspace is a game worth playing. For most folks, Underspace is a game to put on your radar. There’s something good being cooked right here, and the Early Access release is full of potential. And we’re not talking about online multiplayer yet.
Played on PC. Review code provided by the publisher. Preview build based on Early Access release version