Duskers

 PC
User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 22
  3. Negative: 7 out of 22

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  1. MarcioCavalcant
    Jun 7, 2019
    3
    It's a niche game but even if it wasn't... it's absolutely pointless and wayy too slow paced. There are way better fiction novels and/or games that are post-apocalypticand that will fullfil your need for derelict exploration and loots. Not recommended.
  2. Alphahel1x
    Jun 27, 2019
    4
    Has the same "roguelike" elements as FTL, so it shares some of FTL's virtues. (Also reminds me of the Amiga game Quadralien.)

    However, once you get past the wonderfully grim aesthetics and bleak atmosphere, there's no escaping the fact that the core gameplay feels like a tedious logic puzzle where the penalty for the tiniest mistake is instadeath. Success boils down to being patient and    Has the same "roguelike" elements as FTL, so it shares some of FTL's virtues. (Also reminds me of the Amiga game Quadralien.)

    However, once you get past the wonderfully grim aesthetics and bleak atmosphere, there's no escaping the fact that the core gameplay feels like a tedious logic puzzle where the penalty for the tiniest mistake is instadeath. Success boils down to being patient and methodical, resisting boredom and the temptation to take risks or be greedy. Once you've learned the ropes, the game starts throwing time pressure at you and asking you to solve the puzzle with different sets of tools, but it remains tedious.

    Duskers would be intolerably unforgiving were it not for the following crude mitigation: if things are going south then rather than restarting the whole game, you can simply abandon the mission. Your losses are written off and the only punishment is that you're not allowed to retry that mission, which impacts your progress but doesn't normally end the game.

    There are occasions when quick thinking in a crisis makes the difference between life and death, and this is where the game ought to shine. But it doesn't quite work because there are no stakes: the ability to abandon the mission makes the difference between "moderate losses" and "catastrophic failure" irrelevant most of the time.

    Then we have a few problems in the execution:

    * The drones get stuck a bit too easily when pathing, and the corridors are too narrow.

    * The semantics of your commands are a bit unintuitive e.g. if you want drone 1 to go to room r3 through door d2, then close the door behind it then you might think you could write "navigate 1 r3; d2" but no, that causes d2 to close immediately, blocking drone 1. In fact there is no way to queue up a door closure after another operation.

    * There are some bugs: e.g. last time when I tried to swap upgrades between drones 1 and 4 it showed me drones 1 and 3 instead (even though drone 3 was in a different room). For me, this was the final straw.

    * The rules of travelling between systems and galaxies are unintuitive and inconsistent in some ways. The subtleties are left to the user to figure out.

    * One of the enemies seems to be enormously more deadly and less predictable than any of the others. Yet it appears just as frequently (relative to the other enemies) at the beginning as midway through the game. Feels a bit imbalanced.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

48
#48 Best PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. GameOver.gr
    Oct 21, 2016
    80
    Duskers’ lo-fi aesthetic and gameplay completely immersed us in the role of the captain and his efforts to remotely direct his drones on board of perilous derelict spaceships.
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  2. CD-Action
    Sep 17, 2016
    80
    Duskers would be perfect if it wasn’t for an exaggerated impact of randomness on gameplay. [09/2016, p.53]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 14, 2016
    80
    Very fresh and not forgiving rouge-like, which is not an RPG, but rather text game linked with real-time tactical strategy. Interesting and very tasty mix. [Issue#266]
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