Review: Deep Space Rush

In Jul 2018, I had the opportunity to review Deep Space, a title from the Russian studio BUG Studio released in Xbox through Creators Collection. Due to the state of the game at that time, its score wasn’t one of the best. But its potential was latent – I could see it. And Ratalaika did too. Because now they published an improved version – with all the corrections I was waiting for – of the game called Deep Space Rush.

In this run and gun game, you will play as a member of DeTeam, responsible for cleaning up an infested space station where a virus leak wreaked serious havoc. Destroy enemies, buy new weapons and let’s see how long you can survive in this infested station.

What do you do? In this game you advance through procedural generated levels, fighting hordes of enemies, collecting money and buying guns and upgrades for your character. You can visit shops during the gameplay or at the beginning of each run to spend your hard-earned coins and buy items that will allow you to survive for longer and reach a higher score.

What we liked!

• Gameplay: The gameplay is very straight-forward. You deploy on the space station and eliminate as many enemies as you can. The further you go, the more money you get. And with this money, you will buy new guns and upgrades for your character. And now we mentioned your guns…
• Your arsenal: With five different weapons (well, some of them aren’t all that different) to unlock beyond your initial gun, enemies won’t stand a chance against you. There are some interesting weapons like one that shoots lasers, other that shoots an electric discharge that can hit multiple enemies and one that shoots a green bubble that will take the enemy it hits out of the station. Maybe it took some inspiration from Metal Gear Solid V Fulton recovery system – who knows? Besides your weapons, there are two power-ups you can unlock: one that gives you an electric aura that damages enemies and renders you invulnerable for a few seconds and other that gives you a speed boost for a few seconds. Both your guns and these power-ups, once unlocked, will be found scattered throughout the levels – and you don’t really need to save your ammo: you will find a new gun every two steps, so use them as you wish. Guns and power-ups can be upgraded in the shop: guns get more ammo and power-ups can last longer. Your initial gun can also be upgraded, increasing its fire rate (and trust me: your primary weapon is more than enough to finish the game), as much as your health.
• Your enemies: Yeah, that’s somethingwe’ve mentioned in our previews review, but it’s still worth mentioning in this new version of the game. Remember that, once inside the space station, you need to shoot everything that moves. And everything that doesn’t move but shoots at you too. Most enemies will run towards you, while others wait patiently for you to approach and then attack. Some will momentarily take control over your body, throwing your character to the closest trap. Some will explode, living a breach on the floor. Others will leave a sticky substance on the floor, rendering your movement. Others are infested and will release some worms from their interior when they explode. I’ve already seen more elaborated games with fewer enemies than this title.

Somewhere between

• Sound: In my review for thefirst version of this game, I mentioned the chiptune song of the game – especially the intro one – was cool. And it still is. But now that I could actually play the game (the first version was somewhat unplayable, but let’s not waste time talking about it), it gets noticeable how annoying some sound effects are. Especially the laser traps. It looks like the sound for them was bugged during recording (or during its reproduction, because sometimes they seem to be ok). And as these traps are encountered frequently, it gets irritating really fast.
• Duration: When you take more time to write a review than you take to finish a game – or, in this case, to get your 1000G – probably there’s something wrong with it. While our achievement hunter friends love games like this, maybe some other players won’t see much value for their purchase. If you just want your 1000G boost of the day, skip this part. But if you want more from this game, you will find here something that remembers that many mobile endless runner games: you will be replaying it over and over only aiming to increase your score – which feels pointless, since you can’t compare it to anyone’s else.

What we disliked

• Visuals: With simple pixel art visuals, the character, enemies and visual effects are ok. But the levels are waaaaaaaaaay to simple, composed by nothing more than colored cubes – that repeat over and over and over and over for all your gameplay. Some more variation would do wonders for this game.
• Bugs: During my time with this game, I’ve encountered some visual bugs: enemies that don’t disappear, lines and boxes covering your screen. Nothing game-breaking, thankfully, but still worth mentioning.
• Story? What for? The premise for the game mentioned above is based on the game description from the Xbox store. Except for a brief radio-com from the beginning of the game – that speaks nothing useful – that’s all you will ever know about the story of this game. I always say how motivation is important for me in a game. C’mon, guys: you can do it!

Score: 56%
‘An interesting title with good concepts that becomes almost unplayable due to some serious issues, spoiling all fun you could have with it’. That’s how my conclusion for the first version of this game started. And now its problems were solved, I can say I had fun with it. For about an hour, at least. After if, the game felt flat and uninteresting. I couldn’t find a reason to keep playing it after maxing all my equipment. And no, I don’t care about my hi-score, if there’s no one to compare with. If you’re looking for a boost in your Gamerscore, this game is surely a good option. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend it.