Being a janitor is usually a fairly thankless job. Being a janitor on a space station that has been swallowed by a sentient black hole is considerably worse.
RetroSpace throws you into exactly that situation, mixing sci-fi horror, immersive-sim gameplay, dark humour and a rather fabulous disco-punk aesthetic. It is now available for £16.74 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
At A Glance
- Game: RetroSpace
- Developer: The Wild Gentlemen
- Publisher: Kwalee
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC
- Price: £16.74
- Genre: Immersive Sim / Action-Adventure / Horror
Aurora 5 Has Seen Better Days
Aurora 5 isn’t exactly your average space station anymore. After being swallowed by a sentient black hole, the place has become home to strange animal and plant hybrids, dangerous systems and a rather serious problem with time itself.
You play as a humble janitor who suddenly finds themselves carrying the fate of humanity on their shoulders. The good news is that Aurora 5 is yours to explore, with a huge interconnected layout containing hidden areas, shortcuts and alternative routes.
There’s even a central hub where you can catch your breath before heading back into the madness.
How You Survive Is Up To You
One of the more interesting things about RetroSpace is that it doesn’t seem particularly bothered about how you solve its problems.
You can sneak past enemies, hack systems, create diversions or lure creatures into traps. You can also simply decide that subtlety is overrated and start blasting your way through the station.
The enemies aren’t all cut from the same cloth either, so learning their behaviour, abilities and weaknesses becomes an important part of surviving. Even the station itself can become a weapon, with environmental hazards and security systems potentially turned against your enemies.
Then there are Mutamods. These upgrades can enhance combat, stealth, exploration and mobility, allowing you to develop some decidedly unusual abilities. There’s a catch, naturally. Some mutations can have unexpected and irreversible side effects. So if you’ve ever wanted to become a tentacle-armed, mind-controlling space mutant, RetroSpace is apparently willing to indulge you.
Death Isn’t Quite The End
Death is an expected part of life aboard Aurora 5, but RetroSpace has an unusual solution. The station can produce clones of you, allowing the journey to continue even after things go spectacularly wrong.
Unfortunately, being resurrected doesn’t mean you get to walk away without consequences. Cloning can result in degenerations, while your previous incarnation’s gear might still be sitting somewhere waiting to be recovered.
It gives death an interesting role in the adventure rather than simply treating it as a conventional game over.
A Very Strange Trip Through Space
With its combination of retro-futurism, cosmic horror, dark humour and immersive-sim mechanics, RetroSpace is clearly not interested in being another straightforward space shooter.
The freedom to approach situations differently, the interconnected Aurora 5 and the bizarre Mutamod system give you plenty of room to experiment. Sometimes you’ll sneak through the shadows. Sometimes you’ll manipulate the environment. And sometimes, presumably, you’ll just hit something with a flaming body part.
RetroSpace is out now for £16.74 on Xbox Series X|S (Xbox Store), PlayStation 5 and PC, giving players the chance to find out whether they can survive Aurora 5 – and perhaps discover what happened to that perfectly respectable janitor along the way.
