Though it doesn’t happen often, every once in a while I’ll spot a gameplay trailer for a game and immediately be sold on the concept, right off the bat. The latest example of that being the case for me isBeta Decay, an indie horror RPG dystopia with PSX-era graphics.
No, no, you read that right:Beta Decayis deliberately styled after games from the original PlayStation era. The bit that elevates it beyond merely attempting to ape that old, beloved aesthetic is the classic Cyberpunk-style soundtrack and the premise itself. Though you might think this is “just” another attempt at doing something similar towhatForever Winteris doing judging by gameplay alone, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Apparently there’s space-ship building, engineering, and faction-leading in-between all the brutal gunfire, if you’re able to believe that.
Beta Decay is the unlikely PSX Phantom Pain follow-up nobody saw coming
For starters,Beta Decayis seemingly a dedicated single-player game set in a far future where humanity colonized an entirely different star system. Predictably, clashes between mega-corps, micro-governments, and various smaller factions spin out into open warfare, and the player character is one of the colonists living on this brave new frontier. “Be an engineer, repairing shuttles in space, to a syndicate leader, executing raids deep within a labyrinthic neon city,” promises the Steam page, and the gameplay trailers shown off so far definitely deliver.
The vibes ofBeta Decayare nothing if not immaculate, though I have to admit the sheer scope of the project has me grabbing a pinch of salt, just in case.Beta Decaysupports both first and third-person perspectives, seems to have aFEAR-style bullet time mechanic, featuresMetal Gear Solid: Phantom Painstyle combat and movement gameplay, maps ranging fromBLAME!-type superstructures to swamps that wouldn’t look out of place in Chronobyl, a player-drivenEVE Onlinekind of economy, starship-building and mecha-controlling, and it’s a roguelite on top of all of that. Are you out of breath yet? I sure am.
The best bit, though, is just how goodBeta Decaylooks in motion. Sure, all we’ve got for now is cherry-picked footage, but the low-fi graphics really do wonders for the kind of speedy, brutal gameplay this game is all about. It’s impressive in a way similar toProject TH, and it’s curious that this game, too, is aping a classic stealth title of the yesteryear. I’m all for it, though.
Once again, however, I recommend being at least somewhat skeevy ofBeta Decayuntil the developer Rotoscope Studios shows us something tangible. For one, the game is supposed to launch in Steam Early Access sometime in 2025, so it shouldn’t be that long of a wait now. Regardless of anything else, I’m crossing all of my fingers forBeta Decayto deliver on all of its promises because it looks phenomenal. Can an indie dev really incorporate all the elements of roguelite games, survival titles, slick shooters, and economy sims into one comprehensive whole? I don’t have the answer yet, but I am oh-so-hoping that it is positive, in the end.
You can learn Decayand Rotoscope Studios onthe project’s official website, and if you too are as enamored with the concept as I am, you’re going to want to stay tuned. We’re just months away from the game’s Early Access launch, now.
