Underspace | PC Early Access Review

Remember Freelancer? PastaSpace Interactive sure does. They saw the distinct lack of a Freelancer in our modern era and decided “Not today, gaming industry!” And thus, Underspace was spawned from the galactic nebula.

New Beginnings

Underspace’s main campaign starts you off as just having been convicted of a crime and having been stripped of all your wealth and resources. To make ends meet, you hop into a starship and become a freela–no, wait, that’s copyrighted, so you’re actually a stormchaser. It’s functionally the same: take on odd jobs, explore the galaxy, mine asteroids, take down eldritch horrors spanning lightyears…you know, similar stuff.

There’s definitely an undertone of Lovecraftian horror in this game. Entering the area around a storm brings with it a growing sense of unease as vast tentacles of some galactic monstrosity stretch across the vastness of space. And that’s only a level 1 storm. They get worse. Taking down the storm involves finding the eye of it and destroying it, clearing the area for a time.

That’s not the only thing available in the galaxy, though. If you want to be an asteroid miner, you can do that. If you want to be a trader, you can find the optimal shipping lanes and barter goods. If you want to peace out off the beaten path and see what you can find, you can do that. The game does, in fact, give you freedom to do so.

Do Whatever, but Do It Deliberately

This works in its favor to a big degree, but also comes with some caveats. There’s no fast travel system, and that’s by design. So if you want to move from one system to another, you have to take the shipping lanes to get to the next hyperspace gate, take the gate to the next system, get in the shipping lanes to the next gate, and so on. It’s a deliberate choice that can certainly encourage exploration, but considering how big everything is and many minutes it takes to get through one system (and the fact that you’re just waiting for your ship to arrive at the end of a lane once you enter it), this can potentially be a downside if you’re hoping to eventually have more expedited travel.

That said, it does nail the atmosphere of Freelancer. There are factions to woo, entire systems to explore, vast planet-sized bosses, and absolutely weirdo areas that demonstrate how bizarre space can really be. Especially when there’s eldritch horrors to be found.

Recommendations

Underspace is currently in Early Access on Steam for $20 USD, with a free playable demo. The campaign can presumably be completed in 12-15 hours (I opted to instead go farting around the galaxy, so I cannot confirm this) with many more dozens of hours to be had for completionists. At present, the only thing noticeably missing from the game is voice acting, though the devs have said that once they start bringing in some money from sales, they can hire voice actors to fill those gaps. In the meantime, it’s an easy recommendation for fans of Freelancer, especially with a free demo available to whet your appetite.

To hear me talk more about Underspace, be sure to listen to the June 12, 2024 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the

This review is based on a PC Early Access copy of Underspace provided by Evolve PR for coverage purposes. As of the time of this writing, it is exclusive to this platform.