Stargate Meets The Expanse In New Open-World Sci-Fi RPG
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The sci-fi genre and Steam are having a moment. A new game drops every day on the massive platform, and if you don't know where to look, you'll miss out on so much. Discoverability has become a problem in modern storefronts, and Steam isn't the only one to blame.
Thankfully, with so many curation options, it's hard to miss hidden gems if you know where to look. Even more obscure concepts can surface thanks to that curation, which is a great thing. Now, over on Steam, you can pick up a game that unites both The Expanse and Stargate in an interesting way.
An Expanse-Like World Comes To Life
On December 14, A Sector Darkly will be released on Steam by A Paradise Lost Studios, and it looks ambitious for a lot of reasons. Offering a "full galaxy simulation," the entire galaxy will be simmed, including "all entities and actors."
That means miners will mine and then move it to refineries, as they need to. Traders will exchange goods at ports and stations, and haulers will need to long-haul goods across the galaxy. Amid all this economic growth, you'll need to protect those ships from the U'Guul invaders.
The game's synopsis sets you up pretty nicely: "A Sector Darkly is a 2D real-time space exploration open-world RPG. Explore, trade, scavenge, research, craft and survive a sector in chaos. Interact and dialogue with more than 10 alien races. Imagine a 4x-LITE universe, where instead of being in command of the faction, you are in command of a single ship and crew just trying to survive. An open world exploration, with an underlying mystery: sectors are going dark one by one and no one knows. Take command of your ship and crew, survive, solve the mystery of the dark sectors, and get your crew home."
A Sector Darkly Is Ambitious
Real-time combat spices up the simulation aspect, and you can wield special weapons as you try to take down battlecruisers, phantom fighters, and other baddies. Stealth technology is included, along with missiles, mines, and torpedoes. Using the resources you gain throughout the game, you can claim new ships and upgrade your tactics in turn.
Better radars let you detect enemies faster, and you can lower your heat signature to stay off radar. The idea is that there is "no best weapon or ship," and that player experimentation is encouraged during the game. Because of this focus, nearly every upgrade provides some kind of bonus, so it doesn't get lost to the ether when you move on to a new ship.
In terms of the game's lore, things seem incredibly expansive, as A Sector Darkly features 11 alien races, all of whom communicate differently. That includes the aforementioned U'Guul, the indifferent Noxu, and the aggression-prone V'Throni.
With concessions for crew management, deep wormhole-based exploration, and missions to help stranded allies, A Sector Darkly has a ton to do. Look for it once it hits Steam on December 14.
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