Duskers?
- Thread starter DampDog
- Start date
I've been playing 'Duskers' for several weeks now, and I can't say enough good things about it. But as usual, I can see that it's not for everyone, and I probably like it because I'm an oddball anyway, when it comes to games.
It's quite a unique concept, although I can see where it gets its ideas from:
A long time ago there was an Infocom text adventure called 'Suspended' with a game mechanic that had you issuing commands to robots by remote control and the atmosphere is quite similar I find. To put this in perspective: 'Suspended' was (and is) my favorite Infocom game by far.
Then there was a game series on the C64, Amiga, Atari ST etc. called 'Hacker' (especially 'Hacker 2'), where you sent robots from one room to another to accomplish tasks by remote while watching them on a number of monitors. It was a bit twitchy though, and didn't have 'Duskers' dark and foreboding surroundings, but very good, all the same.
Another game where you controlled a group of four robots by laptop was a brilliant Anthony Crowther game on the Amiga, Atari ST and PC called 'Captive', again with levels generated from seeds, although this wasn't much more than a sci-fi version of 'Dungeon Master', although I preferred 'Captive' by a long shot. In a way the scenario was remarkably similar, although not nearly as oppressive as 'Duskers'.
Two more recent games in a similar vein to 'Duskers' are 'Fear Equation' and 'Deadnoughts' although I didn't enjoy them half as much as I do this one, although I can recommend both of them.
All of the above games have in common that you're relying on getting out of trouble by issuing orders and then wait, hoping for a positive outcome. This is something that I enjoy tremendously in a game.
'Duskers' is miles better than any of the above. It lets you forget that you're actually sitting in front of a PC, playing a game. If you let it, it can make you feel as if this were for real.
Imagine that you're hunkering down in the dark in some closet inside the Alien ship Nostromo and directing bots around the decks via your laptop, trying to escape alive just by typing commands to those bots, you might begin to understand what pressure 'Duskers' can convey.
The game starts relatively sedately, and for the first four levels (that always have the same layout, like an extra tutorial, although the salvage items may be different) you think that this is as near to turn-based as dammit. But then unexpected things begin to happen, and you start rallying your bots, trying to get them to safety before they get lost, or destroyed, or blown out of an airlock by mistake. Then components start to malfunction and you frantically try to find a way to compensate for these, while you see the countdown to some occurrence slowly ticks down to zero. Then, in the rush or perhaps simply because your concentration wandered for a moment, you forget to check the doors or airlocks and find that you've forgotten to close one of them and the baddies have just passed it on their way towards you, and the icons of your bots start to blink red and then die. Then you realize that one of the doors has malfunctioned and one of your bots is trapped at the opposite end of the ship. It's too valuable to abandon, but you might have the possibility of docking near that end of the ship and try to make your way there to rescue it.
In spite all of this, it's not as hectic as it sounds, and, apart from a few special situations, you've got enough time to react. And if you haven't, you'll find it was your own fault. You have to keep calm and concentrate. If you start to panic, you're dead.
But then, completely unexpectedly, things can calm down, and you timidly step outside the safe zones again to see if there's a bit more you can salvage from some of the rooms you haven't explored yet. Or would it be better to call it a day, although that could mean that you might be losing out on some components that might be salvageable?
Although your main job is typing commands, you need to take direct control quite often though, even if it's just to discover every last piece of salvage, because left to their own devices, the bots often don't explore every part of every room. They tend to overlook things. And now and again they get stuck because the other bots are blocking their paths or there's some obstacle in the way, and they just give up and switch off.
Your ship needs repairs, the components are out of energy, you're running out of fuel, and there's never enough resources to go round, so you have to make decisions, but these are done mainly in the load out screens where you have more than enough time to think about them.
There are a very large number of things that can happen or go wrong, but sometimes they just don't, but you're still biting your nails because they might. I don't want to spoil any of the possibilities here, it's best you find out on your own.
At first glance the graphics and interface seem antiquated, until you realize that this is a brilliant design decision which is fantastic, once you get to realize what the game is about. It adds loads to the atmosphere of the game, and I couldn't imagine it to be different (or better) now. Well, apart from the map screen, perhaps. That could do with a bit more work, I suppose, but as you're not going to spend much time on it, it's not that important.
About the oddball thing I mentioned earlier: my tastes are miles away from the AAA mainstream, and I love procedurally generated game content, so much so, that my favorite games over the last few years have been 'Invisible Inc.', 'Darkest Dungeon', 'Heroes of a Broken Land', and 'Infested Planet'. I've sunk far too many hours into each of them.
And 'Duskers', I find takes a deserved second place after 'Darkest Dungeon'. That's not to say that they're similar, or that I find one to be 'better' than the other, it's just a personal preference.
As for the reviews you mentioned; I've seen a number of these myself where I have the distinct impression that several of the reviewers have only a vague idea of what's going on in this game, and are only scratching superficially at the surface while I fume at the screen in disbelief. Especially at some of the youtubers.
It's quite a unique concept, although I can see where it gets its ideas from:
A long time ago there was an Infocom text adventure called 'Suspended' with a game mechanic that had you issuing commands to robots by remote control and the atmosphere is quite similar I find. To put this in perspective: 'Suspended' was (and is) my favorite Infocom game by far.
Then there was a game series on the C64, Amiga, Atari ST etc. called 'Hacker' (especially 'Hacker 2'), where you sent robots from one room to another to accomplish tasks by remote while watching them on a number of monitors. It was a bit twitchy though, and didn't have 'Duskers' dark and foreboding surroundings, but very good, all the same.
Another game where you controlled a group of four robots by laptop was a brilliant Anthony Crowther game on the Amiga, Atari ST and PC called 'Captive', again with levels generated from seeds, although this wasn't much more than a sci-fi version of 'Dungeon Master', although I preferred 'Captive' by a long shot. In a way the scenario was remarkably similar, although not nearly as oppressive as 'Duskers'.
Two more recent games in a similar vein to 'Duskers' are 'Fear Equation' and 'Deadnoughts' although I didn't enjoy them half as much as I do this one, although I can recommend both of them.
All of the above games have in common that you're relying on getting out of trouble by issuing orders and then wait, hoping for a positive outcome. This is something that I enjoy tremendously in a game.
'Duskers' is miles better than any of the above. It lets you forget that you're actually sitting in front of a PC, playing a game. If you let it, it can make you feel as if this were for real.
Imagine that you're hunkering down in the dark in some closet inside the Alien ship Nostromo and directing bots around the decks via your laptop, trying to escape alive just by typing commands to those bots, you might begin to understand what pressure 'Duskers' can convey.
The game starts relatively sedately, and for the first four levels (that always have the same layout, like an extra tutorial, although the salvage items may be different) you think that this is as near to turn-based as dammit. But then unexpected things begin to happen, and you start rallying your bots, trying to get them to safety before they get lost, or destroyed, or blown out of an airlock by mistake. Then components start to malfunction and you frantically try to find a way to compensate for these, while you see the countdown to some occurrence slowly ticks down to zero. Then, in the rush or perhaps simply because your concentration wandered for a moment, you forget to check the doors or airlocks and find that you've forgotten to close one of them and the baddies have just passed it on their way towards you, and the icons of your bots start to blink red and then die. Then you realize that one of the doors has malfunctioned and one of your bots is trapped at the opposite end of the ship. It's too valuable to abandon, but you might have the possibility of docking near that end of the ship and try to make your way there to rescue it.
In spite all of this, it's not as hectic as it sounds, and, apart from a few special situations, you've got enough time to react. And if you haven't, you'll find it was your own fault. You have to keep calm and concentrate. If you start to panic, you're dead.
But then, completely unexpectedly, things can calm down, and you timidly step outside the safe zones again to see if there's a bit more you can salvage from some of the rooms you haven't explored yet. Or would it be better to call it a day, although that could mean that you might be losing out on some components that might be salvageable?
Although your main job is typing commands, you need to take direct control quite often though, even if it's just to discover every last piece of salvage, because left to their own devices, the bots often don't explore every part of every room. They tend to overlook things. And now and again they get stuck because the other bots are blocking their paths or there's some obstacle in the way, and they just give up and switch off.
Your ship needs repairs, the components are out of energy, you're running out of fuel, and there's never enough resources to go round, so you have to make decisions, but these are done mainly in the load out screens where you have more than enough time to think about them.
There are a very large number of things that can happen or go wrong, but sometimes they just don't, but you're still biting your nails because they might. I don't want to spoil any of the possibilities here, it's best you find out on your own.
At first glance the graphics and interface seem antiquated, until you realize that this is a brilliant design decision which is fantastic, once you get to realize what the game is about. It adds loads to the atmosphere of the game, and I couldn't imagine it to be different (or better) now. Well, apart from the map screen, perhaps. That could do with a bit more work, I suppose, but as you're not going to spend much time on it, it's not that important.
About the oddball thing I mentioned earlier: my tastes are miles away from the AAA mainstream, and I love procedurally generated game content, so much so, that my favorite games over the last few years have been 'Invisible Inc.', 'Darkest Dungeon', 'Heroes of a Broken Land', and 'Infested Planet'. I've sunk far too many hours into each of them.
And 'Duskers', I find takes a deserved second place after 'Darkest Dungeon'. That's not to say that they're similar, or that I find one to be 'better' than the other, it's just a personal preference.
As for the reviews you mentioned; I've seen a number of these myself where I have the distinct impression that several of the reviewers have only a vague idea of what's going on in this game, and are only scratching superficially at the surface while I fume at the screen in disbelief. Especially at some of the youtubers.
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Well picked this up in the Steam sale. Cracking little time killer, quite simple and a retro feel, but sooo addictive, draws you in. Very unforgiving, get it wrong and you start again which makes it even better. Lures you into thinking it's all sedate and friendly... then you ded....
Definitely worth a buy.
Definitely worth a buy.
As a tip: after a while, when you restart a lot, the first four levels become a chore before the game starts for real.
So I'd advise playing those four levels to the end and then making a backup copy of the Duskers directory under 'documents\my games'. Then you can always restart from tha point.
So I'd advise playing those four levels to the end and then making a backup copy of the Duskers directory under 'documents\my games'. Then you can always restart from tha point.