#Space punks release date how to

When he then invited me to a party, I was informed I was already in a party-the one we'd failed to form has played an early access build of the game already, and we spoke over Zoom with two of its main developers. After that, I stopped being able to invite him at all. When I recruited our editor-in-chief Phil Savage, for instance, he couldn't join my party even after finishing the tutorial. This way it is at least possible to play with other people, but grouping up can also lead to more frustration. See, while there's no real social menu, there is a very basic friends list that it draws from the Epic Games Store. Things are only slightly better with friends.

#Space punks release date how to

There's no voice or text chat, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to play with randos, aside from simply praying. You'd be forgiven for thinking it's singleplayer, frankly. I don't know how lively Space Punks is, but it's certainly not enough to fill a whole party in 20 seconds. You can only wait for 20 seconds, however, after which it automatically readies you and flings you into the mission, regardless of how many co-op buds have joined. When you activate a mission, you're taken to a lobby-after you've waited for the game to connect to the servers, if it decides to work this time-where you can ready-up or wait for other players. I assume the objective is a bit easier to do with a team, but I've had a hard time finding a crew. These early missions should be teaching players, but the only thing I learned was not to trust Space Punks. By the time you do that, another wave will be on you. When it stops, you have to then clear out the robots, rush back to the console, hold down a button and start it up again. But this time it stops working the moment enemies get close enough-which isn't remotely clear at first, and doesn't really make sense either.

This task is then replicated at the end, where you need to power up a relay. When you activate the machine that doles out batteries, it has to charge up first, making you wait around and shoot waves of enemies. That specific mission type is also a victim of Space Punk's inconsistency. But then you've got missions that task you with jobs like collecting batteries and powering up generators, and boy is that a chore-especially when you're not warned that the batteries drain quickly while you're carrying them, necessitating repeated trips if you're distracted for even a second.

If you're lucky, you'll just need to blow up some stuff. Absent any context, world building or creative objectives, there's nothing to set the missions apart, aside from how much faffing around you have to do. Unlockable skills then offer a bit more versatility, letting you unload rockets on the gormless robots, or suck them into range so you can start hitting them with a hammer.Īs much as I like dismantling evil machines, after a few hours I was starting to get the itch to move on-and not to one of the other worlds, which I'm yet to unlock. I've yet to come across any weapons that match Borderlands' out-there arsenal, but so far all of them have been punchy and explosive, with the constant onomatopoeic feedback making it feel like I'm doing something exciting rather than just slowly walking backwards while hammering the trigger. The actual shooting, and occasional hitting, is actually a lark. You go out, shoot some shit, do some busywork and then come home. There doesn't appear to be much difference between fleeting missions that are only up for a specific time and campaign missions connected to quests. Why couldn't all of them be that simple?Īfter accepting a quest, you hit up another station that takes you to a map with an assortment of repeatable missions. But then you've got the fame progression system, which doles out random rewards, unlocks features and opens up new worlds-to access that you just have to hit a button. For every menu, there's a different spot in the hub you'll need to interact with. The same goes for missions, tasks, the microtransaction store, the regular store and whenever you want to unlock new skills. If you need to see your inventory, you have to visit a specific location. Even something as basic as bringing up crucial menus becomes a pain in the arse. For instance, the tutorial mission has slots for other players, but only after that will you discover you need to unlock multiplayer first, which involves completing said mission. This inconsistency is apparent all over the place.