For a Kickstarter to really take off, it needs to have a clear-cut audience to have the best chance to succeed. My first backing was towards Yooka Laylee on its promise of recapturing the collect-a-thon platformer nostalgia – and whilst the end product wasn’t perfect, it was a worthwhile campaign that jumpstarted Playtonic Games. In the case of Underspace, its modest $10,000 goal was backed by fans who grew up with Freelancer. A space sim that was equal parts adventure as it was trading in alien marketplaces. Certainly a niche, but one with gusto, Underspace launched into Early Access on April 10. Is it worthwhile in its initial form?

Straight from the get-go, Underspace is not going to hold your hand. No, it’s hardly able to tutorialize a new player, practically expecting you to know the ins and outs of space sims and their vast systems. This is due to Underspace’s largest ache – there is barely any voice acting present within the game. This led me to think my game was broken when I habitually turned off subtitles and sat in an elevator for 120 seconds with a floating alien not knowing what the heck was going on. The same goes for flying around for the first time in near silence.

Once the subtitles mishap was cleared up, Underspace started to make a lot more sense. Its spacecraft handling is versatile and quite easy to pick up. Dogfighting is a blast too – I’ve always said the foundation of an action game lies within its combat and I can overlook other faults so long as the gameplay is great. That’s the case in Underspace, battling enemies is a blast. The problem is, when the fight is over, you’re going to be jetting around one of its many star systems for minutes on end before you reach your destination. It’s akin to all the walking around in Starfield that makes for a non-engaging experience.

It’s a crying shame that Underspace isn’t friendly to newcomers, too; the hook is within its premise of helming Eldritch horrors within space storms. It’s a shame that when this is introduced, there’s no waypoint or indicator of how to engage with the freaky tentacle monster that admittedly looks dazzling. Once I gave up on that, I spent 3 minutes flying to the main objective and Underspace started feeling more like a job than a space adventure. Such is the Early Access experience.

The pieces are in place for Underspace to be a compelling, visceral game. Though, at present, I couldn’t find my way around, I got frustrated with extremely long traversal times, and I think it has a long way to go before it can become a winner. With the Kickstarter aiming its launch date as December 2019, it’s a tad concerning to see the game being put on sale in this rough state. However, if we can see No Man’s Sky make a full recovery and turn into something great, I’m sure Pastaspace Interactive can work out the kinks and make this worth picking up after its currently-projected year-long Early Access period.

A PC preview copy of Underspace was provided by Camlann Games for the purposes of this preview.

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Underspace

$19.99

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Sound Space Combat
• Honors its Source Material

Cons

• Barebones Early Access Release
• Not Enough Tutorialization
• Needs Voice Acting ASAP