WHAT Space Station Stronghold? And why would I need to venture deep into its corridors?
As with most modern roguelikes, Socketeer is more concerned with explaining the HOW rather than the WHY. No synopsis whatsoever but apart from that, it at least looks quite fresh when considered as another entry into the currently trending genre.
Announced out of Scotland by Ice BEAM sometime around dinner, yesterday, the top-down shooter cites lists the terms frantic, randomly generated, hacking and strategy among its USP’s. You play an unnamed robot who’s apparently not been programmed to shoot, deciding instead to hack through electronic devices to survive some sort of deep space ordeal.
At the surface this might appear to simply involve hacking any of the 10 kinds of uniquely designed robots, mastering their abilities and using them in attack; when there’s some element of stealth involved as players can even mask themselves in control panels, crates and other items.
The old alpha trailer, from when Socketeer was called Remote, is more demonstrative of this tactical approach. Moreover, both trailers encourage the use of environmental traps along the lines of explosives, lasers, lava and even the hull of the Station – the latter of which presents the risk of sucking out our robot along as well.
There are abilities to be had, unlocked via loot procured from secret treasure chests which in turn need to be hacked. If that’s too cumbersome, an in-game Shop allows for purchases OR another shopkeeper to hack for free goodies.
To me it’s the overall cheery style that makes Socketeer most appealing; someone’s picked just the right colors for its extremely tidy level designs, effects of gunfire are satisfying to look at and so are the explosions.
Not the usual bullet-hell mess, no? It’s due for a 21st August release across the PlayStation 4, Xbox and Steam platforms, and will also feature Twitch TV Integration for the livestreaming inclined.
