Line #18 VideoGame/Duskers


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/header_3.jpg]]
2
3	->''Explore. Adapt. Survive.''
4	-->--{{Tagline}}
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6	Released in 2016, ''Duskers'' is a roguelike science fiction realtime game by Misfits Attic, also known for ''{{VideoGame/A Virus Named Tom}}''.
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8	In ''Duskers'', you play the role of a forensic investigator, flitting from derelict to derelict, attempting to piece together what happened to transform a once-vibrant universe into a cold, dead husk.
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10	Your only companions are your fleet of up to four drones with which you explore the lifeless ships, scavenging the resources you need to survive one more jump.
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12	Unfortunately, your scavenging is complicated by the fact that the universe isn't ''entirely'' dead. Deadly monsters infest almost every derelict, and your drones are anything but war machines. Only careful use of the tools available to your drones will prevent them from being murdered in the dark, bringing your investigation to an unceremonious halt.
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15	!!This game provides examples of:
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17	* AfterTheEnd: The game begins with you awakening from cryo sleep, [[LateToTheTragedy apparently unaffected]] by [[ApocalypseHow whatever happened to humanity]].
18	* AIIsACrapshoot: One of the theories to explain humanity's demise is a [[TheSingularity Singularity]] that went wrong. [[spoiler: Researched by boarding and investigating Muteki ships.]]
19	* AlienInvasion: Another potential way that mankind was destroyed. [[spoiler: Researched by boarding and investigating Military derelicts.]]
20	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Even if your drones and/or upgrades get so wrecked that you have no hope of continuing, you have a ResetButton that can be used without losing any progress you've made collecting logs or investigating theories.
21	* ApocalypseHow: Humanity has vanished, and your objective is to figure out what happened. [[spoiler: Ultimately this is futile. See NoEnding below.]]
22	* ApocalypticLog: On boarding certain derelicts, your mothership's systems will sometimes recover log files left by the former crew of the vessel you're trying to board.
23	* AttackDrone: Purple-tinted robots with autoguns that will blast your drones should they be detected. You can also make your ''own'' drones into attack drones with a Turret upgrade.
24	* BoobyTrap: You can set remotely detonated explosives with the Trap upgrade. [[ExplosiveStupidity Just make sure to get out of the room before you set it off]].
25	* CassetteFuturism: The entire fleet of derelict ships and abandoned drones you encounter and command throughout the game utilize a very basic, old-school command code. Also technology doesn't seems to have advanced enough for anything more advanced than wire-frame displays.
26	* ContinuousDecompression: Opening doors to rooms that have been exposed to space will vent the newly opened room as well as spread [[DeadlyGas radiation]] after awhile.
27	* DeadlyGas: Radiation is lethal over time to your drones. It will spread through open doors, and can [[RandomEvent randomly occur]] from a [[MalevolentArchitecture broken pipe event or an airlock bursting]].
28	* DeflectorShields: the Shield upgrade gives a 500 point damage barrier between enemy attacks and your drone's hitpoints. An upgrade can [[RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth reduce its overall strength but give it regeneration]]. It can also [[FantasticRadiationShielding be upgraded to make your drones immune to radiation]]. Just make sure you remember to turn it on.
29	* DerelictGraveyard: ''The entire universe''. From one galaxy to the next, every ship and space station left for you to find is rotting away and bereft of human life.
30	* DevelopersForesight: If you exit the mission with [[spoiler: a surviving dog]] in your boarding ship (r1), it will keep you company on your mothership. Though the noises might become annoying.
31	* DrivingQuestion: What brought humanity to an end? There are multiple theories in-game that discuss potential fates, but nothing is concrete.
32	* ExplosiveDecompression: Occurs when an asteroid hits one of the rooms, opening an airlock without your docking vessel attached, or you intentionally blow a hole in one with the [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter Cannon]] [[KillSat ship upgrade]].
33	* DiegeticInterface: Since the whole game window represents a monitor on your character's ship, and EVERYTHING is keyboard controlled from the word go, it can be assumed that your IRL keyboard and monitor represent the computer peripherals used to interact with the drones in-game. There's some bloom lighting and other subtle effects meant to mimic a CRT screen.
34	* FlashStep: More or less what the Leaper enemy does for its attack. It can clear a ridiculous amount of ground in a single jump and [[OneHitKill deals a worrying amount of damage]], but takes a moment to recover before it can attack again.
35	* GhostShip: All of the derelicts and space stations fill this role. Other than automated trade stations and stargates, they're the only thing left for you to find in the universe.
36	* GreyGoo: One of the possible ways that humanity met its demise. [[spoiler: Researched by boarding enough space stations and fuel depots.]]
37	* HellIsThatNoise: What you hear is filtered back to you by your drones. The ominous creaking of the ship, the soft whirring of a power generator, and the noises of the creatures lurking in the darkness... you'll come to love and hate the sounds of ''Duskers''.
38	* LandMineGoesClick: Mines are one of the weapons you can equip on your drones. The "click" comes from seeing an alert in your console that it has detonated upon contact with an enemy. Hopefully [[TooDumbToLive you aren't witnessing this explosion firsthand]].
39	* LateToTheTragedy: Whatever rendered humanity extinct, it entirely passed the player, who then awakens and must investigate for themselves what happened.
40	* MalevolentArchitecture: Not all (or even many) of the derelicts are stable. Their airlocks can fail and their pipes can burst, flooding rooms with lethal radiation as you're trying to explore. On occasion, they can also stop responding to a random console command -- expedition-ending news if the command is "close (door)", throwing your TacticalDoorUse right out the window. And that's not to mention the random vents which can leave any room vulnerable to Swarms.
41	* MegaCorp: Muteki appears to be this, judging by the logs you can find aboard their ships.
42	* MookMaker: On derelicts infested with Swarms, be '''VERY''' wary of rooms with vents in them. Not only can Swarms travel through them freely, the vents themselves can also spawn more Swarms.
43	** Slime also works this way, with first slime to spawn continually producing a line of secondary slime blobs towards nearby drones. Given how hard they are to kill, it may count as AdvancingWallOfDoom.
44	* MurphysBed: Your boarding ship (r1) can become something akin to this if you allow threats or radiation to get into it.
45	* NothingIsScarier: You never get a clear look at anything in the game, due to the minimalist UI and only able to view the insides of ships via a wireframe representation. Even when your drones encounter enemies, it's often really quick encounters, where a lack of preparation means your drones instantly die. This, alongside the fact that you may be the last sentient being in the entire universe, makes for a lot of paranoia and dread, as you don't get any clear explanations for whatever happened.
46	* NoBodyLeftBehind:
47	** Part of the mystery. Whatever happened, it left no noticeable traces of any human life, not even bones. Humanity seemingly disappeared overnight.
48	** Averted for drones and enemy corpses. Slain enemies will leave corpses (and prevent you from closing doors), while you can find drone corpses (both salvageable and completely wrecked) on many ships. If your own drones die, their corpses are left, as well.
49	** Confusingly, [[spoiler: you can on rare occasions find a dog that somehow survived the extinction event.]]
50	* NoEnding: The game itself has no set ending or win condition. [[spoiler:This applies to the plot as well. None of the theories regarding whatever disaster occurred can ever be confirmed, nor do any others present themselves. [[ShaggyDogStory The mystery ultimately has no answer.]]]]
51	* NoOSHACompliance: All the ships you encounter have various hazards that range from mildly annoying to outright lethal to both your drones and presumably any humans that used to be aboard. Justified, as humanity's disappearance for so long has left them drifting without regular maintenance, so as time passes, they steadily break and fall apart, resulting in the rusted, damaged hulks you find.
52	* OneHitKill: Leapers can take down most unshielded drones in a single hit. [[FlashStep From across a room.]]
53	* PinataEnemy: Security drones. While not ''harmless'', they're far and away the easiest threat to deal with, and the only one that drops any kind of reward (a few scrap) when you manage to kill one.
54	* PortalNetwork: The stargates form a loose portal network, allowing you to transition between galaxies at limited points.
55	* PracticalCurrency: Scrap. You need it to repair your upgrades and drones, but you can also exchange it for new upgrades or fuel at trading posts.
56	* RadiationImmuneMutants: Slime and leapers, while organic, are immune to radiation.
57	* RagnarokProofing: Notably and tragically averted. Humanity is gone, but their derelict ships are falling apart, your upgrades deteriorate with use, and even your ship's video feed becomes increasingly unreliable when you can't commandeer a new vessel.
58	* RandomEvent: Mostly in the form of failing airlocks, pipes bursting, and asteroids colliding with derelicts.
59	* RandomNumberGod: Your greatest ally and your most bitter enemy. RNGesus giveth and RNGesus taketh away very often in ''Duskers''.
60	* ResetButton: A variation -- you can reset the universe back to the beginning of the game, keeping all story progress, but having to start over with a new ship and new set of drones.
61	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Each "galaxy" in this universe seems to have only a small handful of star systems.
62	* SensorSuspense: All of the gameplay is seen through an InUniverse feed of your drones' sensors.
63	* SentryGun: Comes in two flavors; the first is an [[TheTurretMaster upgrade your drones can mount]], the second (and much more lethal) are shipboard defense turrets that require power and a drone with the Interface upgrade but will annihilate [[FriendOrFoe anything moving in the room they cover]].
64	* SignatureRoar: The Leaper (once provoked) does this, instantly informing you about it preparing to strike.
65	* SoundCodedForYourConvenience: There are some important audio cues, particularly dreaded ones being buzzing of [[DemonicSpiders the swarm]] behind a closed door and creaking of bent metal that warns you about incoming [[DeadlyGas pipe rupture]].
66	* SpaceIsolationHorror: The genre of the game. You're all alone in a hostile, ruined universe where humanity has gone extinct, you have limited fuel, your upgrades are constantly decaying, the only "civilization" you'll ever see again are automated trade posts, and [[spoiler:[[NoEnding there is ultimately no way for you to confirm any of the theories about what happened to humanity.]]]] Worse still, you'll receive occasional messages from someone who seems like they ''might'' be someone you know, but [[spoiler:you'll never learn whether the messages are just random spam you picked up or indeed a colleague or loved one of yours who is now long dead.]]
67	* TacticalDoorUse: Essential in keeping your drones alive for as long as possible.
68	* ThePlague: A potentially galaxy-spanning superbug is another possible reason for humanity being wiped out. [[spoiler: Researched by boarding enough Medical derelicts and outposts. Requires a specific ship upgrade later to continue the plotline.]]
69	* ThrownOutTheAirlock: One of the safest ways to eliminate threats aboard a derelict is to herd them into a room with an adjoined airlock and then vent the room. The problem is that doing this will also vent any salvage and all other objects in the room. Including your drones and even generators and interface consoles.

Context VideoGame / Duskers