Void Bastards review – gloriously chaotic head-trip into outer space

PC; Blue Manchu/Humble Bundle
Graphic novels and classic anime provide the inspiration for this frenzied and spectacularly smart survival shooter

In space, no one can hear you make catastrophic decisions - and in Void Bastards, you will make plenty. This is a first-person shooter where shooting is often a last resort. Mostly, you're weighing up the possibilities: can you make it to that alluring loot before your oxygen runs out? Do you have enough food to see you through the next two scavenging missions? What should you take with you: a Clusterfrak grenade launcher or a cute Kittybot to distract foes? One lesson you learn very quickly is that the universe is cruel. And also hilarious.

What hits you immediately is the cel-shaded visual style and twisted humour. The grungy spaceship interiors and bizarre enemies all call to mind the 80s comic-book pomp of 2000AD, while the weird items and your plummy-voiced AI advisor owe a great debt to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You've broken down in the middle of the Sargasso nebula and you need to board a series of derelict spacecraft to steal equipment and repair your starship. Except every craft you visit is populated by a range of hostile crew members, from the swarming "juves" who swear at you as they blast at you with lasers, to the hovering "screws", highly armoured prison guards who hunt you like the Terminator and absolutely will not stop until you're splattered all over the walls of the medical theatre.