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| Featured Article - Derelict - by Cate Defrise |
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of you may be familiar with the sadly short-lived television show called,
“Firefly” from about 4 years ago. It was a Sci-Fi Western
set aboard a transport starship (known as a Firefly) with a small crew
that took on unquestionably criminal moonlighting jobs. The backdrop was a starry landscape of deep space roughly 500 years into the future, though the technology was refreshingly low tech. (No Next Generation beam me up fancy stuff). Everyone spoke a combination of Chinese and Redneck, the ship’s engineer is a girl, the planet Earth is no more and the profession of prostitution is highly respected. This subtle implication of the state of the universe not only has a philosophical impact but also is just good stuff. |
Okay, maybe the one about prostitutes seems highly unlikely in reality
but in a fictional show, it’s just wacky television at work –
and it works. For me, the show just came together and was fun. Its demise seemed to be because of a poor choice in program placement rather than because it was lacking actual content and entertainment value. Anyway I digress; I know I know. This IS going somewhere, I swear. In one of the episodes, the firefly named, “Serenity,” comes across a derelict ship floating aimlessly in space. The sticky fingers crew that calls Serenity home just couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to take a little look-see. |
Now, if they just went in, picked it clean, then left sans incident
– well, that would be boring television, wouldn’t it? Yeah,
something had to happen-- and something did happen. But I’m not
going to get into that because this is where the computer game, Derelict,
comes in. Like the episode of Firefly, Derelict shares a common premise of coming across an abandoned starship. After that point, the show and the game diverge to some extent, but it’s all good. You’re part of a salvage team and you find a derelict ship, called “The Dire Circumstances.” Yeah, I know, you’re asking for serious trouble naming a ship something like that. Choose one of two characters to play: Rachel Riveter, an un-gun shy |
extraordinaire, shoots streams and streams of rivets; or Demolition Ralph,
pyrotechnical bombing whiz kid uses explosives as his modus operandi.
Both are very effective in getting through what will be a fast-paced,
adrenaline inducing experience. You see, once you step afoot The Dire Circumstances, well, dire circumstances await you. The unfavorably named ship is brimming with aliens big and small and possessing assorted evil powers. If you haven’t guessed by now, this is what you have to do: Get rid of the icky creatures! You’ll have a mess of fun with cathartic, unabashed assault à la retro arcade game, Gauntlet. Derelict was developed with the game engine, PTK |
| Download
the Derelict Demo (4.8 MB) or Buy the full version of Derelict for $24.95:
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