RetroSpace Devs On Immersive Sim Horror Gameplay: “The Game Will Not Hold Your Hand At All”

The immersive-sim genre is one of my favorites, and though it’s been around for decades, developers continue to innovate greatly in the space. And I love it. You give me a strange space station à la System Shock and some horror elements, and I’m probably already sold (maybe I shouldn’t be so easy?). Toss in a unique aesthetic and tone, and you certainly capture my attention. 

That’s why I’m excited to share a brand-new gameplay trailer for RetroSpace, an upcoming disco-punk space horror immersive sim developed by The Wild Gentlemen and set to be published by Kwalee. If you keep an eye on this genre of games, there’s a good chance you’ve already heard of RetroSpace; if you haven’t, The Wild Gentlemen describes it as a “disco-punk space horror where you can be a sneaky chap or a mutant action hero as you try to survive on a space station swallowed by a black hole.”

It further describes the adventure as a mind-bending ride with weird creatures, immersive features, time jumps, and ’70s mustaches inspired by games like – and this is what really sold me – System Shock 2, Thief, Deus Ex, BioShock, and Prey. 

You can check out all that and more in the exclusive gameplay trailer, complete with commentary from creative director Bánk B. Varga, below: 

In RetroSpace, you are but a simple janitor who has been plunged into the terror of deep space, black holes, and mysterious time jumps… and you’re also humanity’s last hope now. You’ll need to traverse the Aurora 5 station to figure out what went wrong while avoiding (or defeating) the various enemies and creatures who now call it home. You’ll encounter humanoid insects, dangerous fang-bearing plant creatures, massive mutant pigs, and humans with a skin-crawling smile. 

The game is an immersive sim, and the new gameplay trailer showcases how you can interact with its various physics and systems. Light oil on the ground to engulf enemies in flames; take out the lights above you to darken a space; and go in with wrenches blazing or stealthily to defeat whatever stands before you. 

There’s a lot more happening in RetroSpace, and I interviewed creative director Bánk B. Varga over e-mail to learn more. You can read that Q&A below: 

Game Informer’s Wesley LeBlanc: Can you describe to me “disco-punk” and what makes RetroSpace a disco-punk space horror game? 

The Wild Gentlemen’s Bánk B. Varga: The name disco-punk comes from the fact that the game specifically evokes the atmosphere of the disco era, i.e., the 1970s, and the unique charm of classic sci-fi movies of the time, such as Logan’s Run, Buck Rogers, and Silent Running, just to name a few. In addition, the game is characterized by a unique sense of humor, and horror – psychological horror in particular – is also one of the main elements of the game. This strange blend gave rise to the term “disco-punk space horror.” 

Can you tell me about the game’s Prey/System Shock/Dishonored inspiration and why immersive sim was the way to go for RetroSpace?

The immersive sim nature was one of the first things we agreed on when we started designing the game. We are huge fans of the Thief series, the System Shock games, Deus Ex, Prey, and many others. We wanted to make a game that has a strong narrative thread, but still gives the player a high degree of freedom, encourages experimentation and out-of-the-box thinking, and doesn’t hold the player’s hand. We wanted players to immerse themselves not only in the game setting, but also in the myriad of game systems, too. We wanted them to constantly be thinking about how they could outsmart not just the enemies in the game, but the game itself and us devs.

What’s the idea behind the Mutamods and the game’s cloning system? How did all that come about? 

We definitely wanted to give players some kind of special abilities, and that’s how Mutamods came about. These are mutations derived from animal genes that allow players to create their own “builds” in the form of specific combinations of these special abilities. These include passive and active, and offensive and defensive Mutamods, so some support open confrontation, while others support stealth. In addition to Mutamods, you also have tech gadgets at your disposal, so you can just use one of the two, mix both, or even play the game without using them at all. 

We wanted to use the cloning system to explain in-lore why the player can come back to life again and again. Our protagonist is a janitor whose job is extremely dangerous and often ends in death, so Aurora 5, the space station, is able to clone them indefinitely. Unfortunately, cloning is not always perfect, so each time you are reborn, you will get a kind of “cloning error,” a negative effect that you will have to adapt to. You can remove this effect by extracting the genetic material from your corpse, thereby cleansing yourself of the effect. This is a system inspired by both Soulslikes games and by the traits of Void Bastards; we just gave it our unique spin. 

No two playthroughs are the same, according to you. Is RetroSpace run-based, or do you mean full playthroughs of the game from start to credits? And in your words, why are no two playthroughs the same? 

The game does have a somewhat fixed main storyline, but beyond that, the player is free to decide on a lot of things. There are side missions and collectibles, and often the game opens up completely and lets the player decide what to do and in what order, but what makes the game replayable the most is the variety of features, tools, abilities, and combinations available to overcome any problem, be it an enemy, a puzzle, or just a locked door. 

From the beginning, we designed the game so that most problems can be solved in many different ways, and the game rewards you for trying to think outside the box. Of course, there will be simple problems with simple solutions, but for the most part, you will be free to do as you please, and the game will not hold your hand at all, so don’t expect glowing quest markers or yellow-painted platform edges. 

In addition to the general freedom, replayability is aided by the aforementioned cloning errors, which are guaranteed to cause unexpected situations, as well as the fact that the game will have a total of eight different endings, depending on how the player played the game.

RetroSpace is set to launch sometime in the future on PC via Steam. You can wishlist it on Steam here.