Duskers is spooky space exploration—with a command console

by Lee Hutchinson

Enlarge / Poor little Ron the Drone. Something bad is beyond this door and he's going to have to face it by himself.

My ship is docked at one end of an abandoned space station, and I’m staring intently at a flickering schematic view of the facility. Jill, one of my three squatty remote maintenance drones, is funneling energy into a power inlet so I can operate a few doors. Twiki is gathering scrap in what looks like an abandoned corridor—scrap I desperately need in order to repair my ship’s video system, which has been on the fritz. Ron is carefully scanning rooms for hidden materials for Twiki to gather up.

The situation is tense but manageable. This outpost showed an unknown infestation type, but I’m being careful, closing doors behind my drones, making sure to not leave a drone for too long in a room with a vent—because things can crawl out of vents.

Without warning, a door flashes red. "DOOR 22 IS BEING ATTACKED" appears on the console. It’s the door to the room where Jill is powering the ship, and I quickly decide it’s time to get the hell out.

I type in "NAVIGATE 1 2 3 R1" with a swiftness honed by a lifetime of LucasArts and Sierra adventure games, and in the schematic view all three of my little drones obediently turn and head for the airlock… and then the faulty video system gives up the ghost and my screen goes black. I can still hear the drones moving, but suddenly Jill's health drops to zero and she goes offline. Twiki goes down a moment later, and before I can finish typing "STEALTH" to flip on Ron’s cloaking shield to hide him from whatever's killing my drone fleet, he too is gone.

In 10 seconds, I lost everything. I love it.

Duskers launch trailer.

man duskers

This is Duskers, a realtime strategy-exploration-survival indie game by the folks at Misfits Attic. It’s been in the works for a couple of years—the story of how the game came to be can be read on the publisher’s site—but it officially achieved release status last month on May 18. It can be picked up now for about $20 on Steam.

You take on the role of a nameless ship captain who must move from derelict to derelict in order to salvage supplies. But as you explore you begin to realize that everyone else but you—possibly everyone else everywhere—is dead. All the ships and stations you find are infested with…something. Several different kinds of somethings, in fact. And while you remote pilot your drones around to gather supplies, those somethings will do what they can to kill your remotes dead.

My current system, with all the (horrible, scary) places I can go.

1. 
   My current system, with all the (horrible, scary) places I can go.
   
2. 
   Current drone inventory, with reserves. Most drones can be fitted with three abilities (a few can take four), so you'll want to equip them for certain roles (recon, towing, and so on).
   
3. 
   The ship I just jumped into, with its available upgrades. Remote power in particular is a huge time-saver.
4. 
   You use the scrap you collect on derelicts to keep everything running. There's never enough scrap.
5. 
   The more you use each ability or upgrade, the more likely it is to break.

The game’s signature feature—and the thing that’s kept me enthralled for more than a week—is that you mostly control your drones via commands typed into a bash-like console (it's even got tab completion and command aliasing!). This isn’t an optional gameplay mechanic, either. You can take overhead control of a single drone and navigate it around obstacles with the arrow keys, but you have to use the console to make your drones do anything. You also have to use the console to open doors, power up or down portions of the derelict you’re currently docked with, and lots of other things—including executing a panicked all-drones escape when everything comes tumbling down around your ears.

In between boarding attempts, you can manage and repair your drones. You start with three but can have up to seven of the little guys, since you can find and repair disabled drones on some derelicts. Drones can be fitted with upgrades to make them do different things—one drone, for example, can be equipped to sneak stealthily into new rooms and scan them without being detected by lurking creatures. Another drone might be configured to interface with remote consoles and tow back damaged drones or ship upgrade components. You might equip a third with mines, shields, and extra speed to lure hungry monsters away and trap them in airlocks.

Your ship and its systems—along with the drones and their upgrades—are wearing out. The scrap you collect from derelicts has to be used to keep your drones working and to keep their systems from failing, and there's never enough scrap. Plus every time you use anything, you increase its chance of failure. Your ship will also eventually fall apart, and so with each derelict you board, you have to decide whether the time has come to commandeer it—leaving your old ship and its upgrades behind but perhaps gaining new upgrades.

Of course, on top of all those choices, you have to clear out the monsters first.