Wild Bastards isn't quite the game I expected. This rogue-like FPS by Blue Manchu is notionally a follow-up to 2019's Void Bastards, but it differs from the studio's comic sci-fi shooter in some fundamental ways. Where Void Bastards was a System Shock-style shooter that featured boardgame-like space exploration, Wild Bastards is a planet-plundering boardgame that features arena-style gunslinging.
It's a significant change of emphasis, and at first, I it. Not only did Wild Bastards seem to take away the thing I liked most about Void Bastards – exploring derelict spaceships filled with weird enemies and chaotic potential – it didn't seem to replace it with much at all. But this proved a premature reaction.
Wild Bastards' change of emphasis reflects new ideas it wants to pursue, and while I'm still sceptical about some of these, there are others that I'm very excited by. Interstellar bandits Wild Bastards sees you guiding a posse of interstellar bandits through different sectors of space, as they flee from a hostile organization known as The Chaste. Think FTL, only each sector of space has multiple planets you can beam down to and scavenge for resources.
Landing on a planet triggers a turn-based, isometric planetary map that you can move your posse around, buying, collecting, or outright stealing as many useful gizmos as you can. Ideally, you want to sweep the planet clean and abscond before a swivel-eyed Chaste deputy known as McNeil turns up to hunt you down. But the maps .
