SpaceBourne First Look, Gameplay and Guide

Spacebourne, a Turkish-made space-themed action RPG game, is right here with its curve. Although it has some shortcomings, Spacebourne is open.

A space-themed role-playing game developed by DBK Games. It is an adventure where you go on various missions with your spaceship and you can improve both your character and your ship. It also includes various mechanics such as mining in space, loot collection, and you can see your character by traveling with a third-person camera in space stations. Let’s examine what is right and what is wrong together.

Spacebourne makes our breasts puffy

I will not be very emotional about it, but I must say that Spacebourne came out of our land. DBK Games, We can say that Spacebourne, the second game developed by Burak Dabak, has made incredible progress after the first game Mesel.

Pros

+ Graphics and performance are good

+ Good in-game cinematics

+ The game is constantly updated

+ Ship battles are exquisite

Cons

– Controller key assignments incorrect

When the issue first came out, I had the opportunity to examine the play by contacting Burak Dabak. DBK Games, who participated in the horror games rush that followed Outlast with Mesel, had already shown that they wanted to do something different. When I first played Burak Dabak’s Mesel, I thought “This man will do many different things and grow the business.” Because that’s what happened, after two years, we came across with Spacebourne, his early access game. Let’s also point out that the long journey for Spacebourne, which is a game on its own feet, is just at the beginning of the early access label.

What has changed since early access?

I also had the opportunity to play Spacebourne when it was first released into early access. When it first came out, the interface was not that useful and simple, it was cluttered. At the same time, performance issues troubled me more than they do today. Also, bugs were incredibly large and could affect your gaming experience in critical places.

I might be unfair to the developer if I pass without specifying that the game has been constantly updated in the two years since the game was first released for early access. Even today, I noticed another update was coming while running the game so that I could enter the review one last time.

In this sense, we can say that DBK Games is far from being a “build-sell-drop” type of developer that we see in the industry, standing behind its game and striving to take it further every day.

The basic structure and storytelling of the game

In Spacebourne, our main character is a legendary pilot who was affected by a virus that aliens invaded the world but was frozen so that he would not die. After the extinction of mankind, he is awakened by artificial intelligence and finds himself in the middle of the galaxy. He also gets his first spaceship and his friend there.

Our primary goal at the beginning of the game is to find a cure for the deadly virus that travels through our bodies. We advance the story with the dialogues we enter with NPCs and the missions we do. As we are used to stories that proceed with dialogues, no one takes you anywhere for your treatment. Person A points you to person B, Person B to C, and C to the person you need to kill. You are eventually referred from someone who is likely to assist with treatment, to another person who is more likely to be. We can’t call it ordinary, because it’s a kind of storytelling we love. However, I must add that the cinematic given at the beginning of the game to warm the player to the story is very satisfying and explains a lot of things.

When playing Spacebourne, you encounter a feature that I have rarely seen in other games. You can choose the type of music that you will listen to while getting into action or just wandering in the game. You can choose the classical, pop and rock music you like and you can only listen to that kind of music in the game. As a classical music lover, I chose classical music and I can say that the music is satisfying, at least for my taste.

You also choose the hardware you will use during the game while starting the new game. You can change these choices as a keyboard, mouse, or controller afterward. My humble advice, don’t choose the controller.

Don’t play Spacebourne with the controller

If you want to play Spacebourne with controller and learn keypad in training mode, think again. The key that it tells you “hit the x key” in training mode unfortunately does not match the key on your controller. In fact, sometimes there is no button assigned on your controller for the action it asks you to do. If you want to play the game and want to use your spaceship with your controller, don’t. At least for now.

As far as I have seen and experienced, the game was developed for keyboard & mouse in the first place and the keyboard can be played very comfortably with the mouse. In the main menu, if you want to use your controller and lean back, you can sweat a little. You cannot navigate between the menus with the arrow keys, you have to use the right analog as a mouse.

The visuality and atmosphere don’t feel like independent play

How raw the animations are and how poor animation transitions Spacebourne looks beautiful, though. In the game developed with Unreal Engine 4, the things you see while you are in space stations, colliding with enemies in space or just mining, make you forget that you are in an independent game. Although Spacebourne does not get the full score in terms of graphics quality, it does come close. In addition, when we look at the performance compared to the visual, we can say that it is much better than the situation in early access. I can play the game between 25-35FPS in early access and now around 60FPS. My system is the same as the one I used that day.

Fighting mechanics and RPG elements have been processed very well

The battles you fight against three different enemy types with your space shuttle are very enjoyable. In fact, the success of this field has gone far beyond comparing Spacebourne with other big space games on the forums. The mechanics of fighting space shuttles, which we call dogfight, are very fun, no matter how hard it is or how long it is, it never feels raw. It always drives you to do something and follow things. Is your shield intact? Do you have energy? Are you suitable for launching missiles? Are you locked in the enemy? Has an enemy got behind you? You are always fighting with these questions and the music you choose.

The improvements you will apply to the character and ship are also important. Your character has a level system and you can earn new points at each level and use it to advance your skill tree. In addition, every time you level up, new more powerful equipment is unlocked for your ship. You can obtain this equipment from the Bazaars – I will explain in the rest of the review here – or from the enemies you killed. Again, let me give you a recommendation, never start a mission without installing the best equipment on your ship, and confirm your level is sufficient, as it can end in frustration. Tried and approved.

Also in Spacebourne, there are three galactic nations featured in the story of the game, and your relationship with beings from these nations can be viewed in the diplomacy section. Your relationships with these beings can return to you a road, water, and electricity. I can say that this system, which reminds me of Mount and Blade, has added a different flavor to the game. Let me explain again by giving an example of M&B. We can also monitor the prices of commercial products and earn money in the game by trading. These are enjoyable things that increase replayability.

There are still major deficiencies in localization

If I had not seen the Turkish language support on the Steam store page of the game, I would not have mentioned it here. However, we can say that the Turkish localization of the game is half as much as it should be. To play a half Turkish and half English game, you can enter the settings and select “Turkish” from the language section. Yes, it’s still nice to see something in Turkish, especially in such a role-playing game.

But and only! I know you are dealing with a lot of bugs and feedback, and localization is not among your priorities, but that needs to be dealt with soon. It causes confusion in the missions and can be considered deceptive for players who see and receive Turkish language support on Steam. I’m sure this will be fixed in the near future with one of the updates coming up constantly.

To summarize Spacebourne in short is an independent and fun game that is not a system enemy. It stands out with gameplay mechanics rather than storytelling, while the visual quality is satisfactory. Also, the gameplay is top-notch. Although the raw animations on the space stations are a little uncomfortable, you get the real atmosphere when you get on the ship. Especially the cinematic sequence that takes place while you warp yourself from one place to another is really delicious. It is a game that is full of hard work, but for impatient players, I recommend waiting a little longer.