First Impressions: Deep Sky Derelicts

First Impressions are game reviews where I play a game for one streaming session on my Twitch channel and talk about my initial thoughts afterwards. This review is for Deep Sky Derelicts, developed by Snowhound Games and published by 1C Entertainment.

Image courtesy of: 1C Entertainment

Right away I’m intrigued with what Deep Sky Derelicts presents to me as I create my crew and play through the first Derelict. A rogue-like dungeon crawler? Turn based card battle system? Pulp sci-fi comic book aesthetic and art style? Hell yeah! That sounds like a really cool combo.

The dungeon crawling is a lot of fun to interact with. I like searching for goodies in every nook and cranny of a derelict ship while keeping my crew’s energy and health maintained. It’s fun to seek out other scavengers on a ship to trade with or enemies to fight.

The card based combat mechanics have a really cool tactical feel to them. I like being able to find new equipment or mods for equipment that add new cards to my crew’s battle deck. It feels like there’s a lot of different paths to success and I get to mix and match what works best for my crew’s specialties.

My favorite thing so far with Deep Sky Derelicts is the overall aesthetic and art style it presents. The first thing I thought of when I saw the dark line art with bright colors was Darkest Dungeon. However, the science fiction setting mixed with the comic book feel and presentation really makes the game stand out on its own. The writing also does a great job of painting the world in a wacky science dark futuristic way. Reading through logs, engaging dialogue with NPCs, even the battle chatter of enemies between rounds make me want to learn more about the world.

Really I have no negatives to say about the game. Even when I completely botched the main missions for a particular Derelict and was locked out of the rewards for it, the game expects you to occasionally fail and the story continues onward. Any failures in the game were really failures on my part to think ahead and properly prepare.

Snowhound Games has put together something that’s fun and exciting right from the start. Both a cool exploration mode and engaging combat mode make me want to play more. The story is interesting and just the right amount of dark silly for my liking. The artwork is just plain awesome. I’m very interested in going back and continuing my play through of Deep Sky Derelicts to discover what happens next.

Deep Sky Derelicts Definitive Edition is available on Steam, Xbox One, PS4, and Switch. If you want to help me out, you can buy the Steam version on Humble Bundle with my affiliate link. I’ll get a little money from the sale as commission at no extra cost to you.