$29.99Void Bastards Comic-book chaos in deep space
Raid derelict ships for salvage, sneak or shoot your way out, and try to get another expendable prisoner home alive.
Is Void Bastards worth it?
Void Bastards is worth it if…
- you enjoy roguelites where a death moves the run forward instead of erasing it
- you want a game with a bleak sense of humor and a comic-book look
- you prefer deciding when to fight, when to run and when to just be a bastard
Screenshots
Plan the raid, then survive it
Before you board a derelict ship, you see its layout, its hazards, its enemy types and what it holds. That scan decides everything: do you detour to the generator to bring the power back, or push straight for the security module to shut the defenses down? Inside, every room tends to hold what it should. Sound shows up as floating words in doorways and corridors, telling you what is moving where, so you can slip past it or set up for it. Sometimes the smart play is to fight. Sometimes it is to grab everything and run.
Expendable prisoners, permanent progress
Your crew are rehydrated prisoners, each with random traits that change how a run plays. One might cough at the worst moment and give away your position; another might bring an extra weapon aboard. When one dies, another steps up to carry on, and the crafting progress you earned stays with them. Ammo is scarce and some enemies cost more to kill than the loot is worth, so you learn to pick your fights, improvise tools from salvage, and accept that a body is a resource too. The nebula map works like a branching route between ships: every jump burns food and fuel, and void whales, pirates and hungry hermits are all reasons to choose your next move carefully.
How long does a campaign take?
How long is the campaign?
A full run through the Sargasso Nebula takes roughly 12 to 15 hours. That is one complete escape, not a tutorial: by the end you will have crafted story items, weapons and upgrades across a whole chain of ships. Because every prisoner brings different traits and the ships are procedurally generated, a second campaign plays out differently from the first, and the crafting progress you banked carries over into it.
Do you lose everything when your prisoner dies?
No. When a prisoner dies, a new one is rehydrated and takes over the mission, and all the crafting progress you made stays with the crew. Deaths cost you a character and whatever they were carrying, but the run continues. That takes the sting out of a bad boarding: you learn what killed you, and the next misfit steps out of the tank a little better equipped.
Can you play it stealthy, or is it all shooting?
Both, and the mix shifts constantly. Stealth tools exist, like a poison dart gun that does not alert the enemy it hits, and the floating sound words let you track patrols well enough to slip past them. But ammo is scarce, ships can spawn plenty of enemies, and some fights are not worth the bullets. Many runs end up as sneak, dash, grab and run, with shooting reserved for the moments you cannot avoid. If you want a pure stealth game, this is not it; if you like choosing per room, it works well.
Is the story any good?
The setting and writing are the strong part, not the plot. A dry, bureaucratic AI runs a prison ship staffed by freeze-dried criminals, and the humor is bleak and sardonic throughout. There is little plot to speak of beyond the excuses that send you deeper into the nebula, and the game does not take itself seriously. Come for the raids, the tone and the world more than for a story with twists.
