Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition – Review
Follow Genre: Strategy, turn-based, deck-building
Developer: Snowhound Oy
Publisher: 1C Publishing EU s.r.o.
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Tested on: PS4

Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition – Review

Site Score
8.3
Good: Gives cool space vibes, Great at combining mechanics.
Bad: Deck building is a bit mediocre, Lacks options.
User Score
8.0
(2 votes)
Click to vote
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Rating: 8.0/10 (2 votes cast)

Deep Sky Derelicts saw its release in 2018, a good two years before the definitive edition. What’s new about this edition? Well, it adds the two previously released DLC packs, and it’s now available for consoles as well. Join us as we play the game on PS4 as first-timers on this magical space journey.

Story

Deep Sky Derelicts allows you to create a team using a list of pre-generated faces, classes, and names for you to choose from. The story goes that the three teammates you picked are scrap scavengers, people who loot space debris and abandoned places for valuables. A person of high power caught wind of your streetwise capabilities and decides to contact you and your team with a special offer: find a long lost fabled mothership and you will no longer be an expendable scrapper but a valued member of a real-world with a real home. Before you know it, you are chasing information to live the future dream. While trying to gather information, a lot of events can take place with conversations and descriptive text. Besides that, the game does not have any cutscenes, but it does have a pretty neat comic book style going on which it uses to communicate what’s up

Graphics

Visually Deep Sky Derelicts is smart. It manages to have a coherent style that looks like it has a lot of pre-drawn pictures but makes more out of those pictures with good programming. When ordering your crew to attack, depending on the effect of your attack and the state of each character, a fighting frame might look different. Perhaps the enemy creature dies under your attack or gets hit with or without you in the picture depending on range and attack type. Other than that, the game uses a great map that some of the gameplay takes place on. It’s minimalistic, but with the programming, again it’s smart.

Sound

The sound design in Deep Sky Derelicts is made up out of two things. First and mostly, there is a clear presence of 1980s-like background music with synths and mysterious echoing, or there is no music and you just hear weird noises that imitate sounds on a space ship that lacks life signs. It’s highly effective with the surroundings and theme that you find yourself in. Secondly, there are some sound effects; blasts, squashes of worm-like aliens, and more. It works and compliments the rest of the game quite well.

Gameplay

This is a game that combines multiple genres, and all of the actions (exploring, fighting) requires energy. You have a bank of 1000 energy that sometimes requires you to go back to the main station and refill. When walking around, Deep Sky Derelicts is a combination of an RPG with a tactical strategy game. It does so by handing you a grid made up of only blue squares. You can’t see further than the square you stand on, and you have to explore the map by going all types of directions. Find the right square and you might trigger a fight, a searchable area, or a piece of the story with possible choices. You can also buy and find items that help you make your search on the grid easier, though they aren’t that needed.

When fighting, it combines the tactical strategy with a deck-dependable turn-based card game. This deck is made by the gear and abilities your characters have. As an example, gear can be modded. So let’s say you have a precision rifle and a toolbelt with some extras in it. This might give you four cards for the rifle to attack with, and two grenade cards from the extras in the belt. The same goes for shields and medical tools. Depending on how you use all of this your deck might look different. You then get random cards from it and use your resources and energy bank at hand to win the fight.

Because of the way Deep Sky Derelicts approaches deck building, it does feel like you don’t have much control over your cards or the extensive varieties that some other similar games have, but this game uses such interesting core gameplay mechanics, that the game quickly reels you in. It’s not that difficult to learn, and the appeal of unknown rogue elements is what keeps you going most of the time. In multiple ways, the game successfully makes you feel like playing something space-related, and this urge to explore is a big part of it. It’s just a big adventure full of the loot and heart’s desires that futuristic scavengers might get to deal with.

Conclusion

Deep Sky Derelicts is great fun to play, thanks to its original approach to combine multiple gameplay mechanics. The deck-building might not be so extensive which makes the combat a little bit flat, but other than that, it’s a great and successful formula that allows you to dive into unknown parts of illustrated space. Add the two DLC packs included in this edition, and it brings you variety and excitement despite the lack of cards.

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Rating: 8.0/10 (2 votes cast)
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Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition - Review, 8.0 out of 10 based on 2 ratings
Icecreamvamp


I'm a game designer, developer, and reviewer. I've been reviewing for 3rd-strike.com since 2017.

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