The Desolate Hope

The Desolate Hope is a Sci-fi action platformer that features amazing artwork, great characters. It’s a blend of genres that’s not found all that often in games.

When a good developer is also a great designer, magic happens. Usually, in game studios, the job of developer and designer are separate, and there are always debates between the two sides. The designers come up with the artwork and the general design, but the developers are the ones who makes it happen.

Sometimes the two jobs are done by the same guy, and that’s when there is a chance of getting something really special. If you add to this mix some incredible talent, then you get something like The Desolate Hope, which looks gorgeous and has a number of really interesting concepts.

I’m sure that many players will first notice the design or maybe the artwork, but the story is not something to ignore. Given that most games out there only have a decent story, at most, when we do find a game with a great story it’s easy to notice it. It’s not overly complicated, but it covers pretty well the accompanying gameplay. It’s difficult to say what came first, the story or the gameplay, but that’s actually a good thing.

Humans sent an advanced mission on a faraway planet that consisted only of five sentient computers. Their job was clear; to run simulations regarding the eventual human colonization of the galaxy.

The computers were abandoned, but they never stopped running simulations. Thirty years later, their ecosystem is breaking down and you take on the role of a coffee maker that also happens to have a rather powerful CPU that’s trying to keep the place up and running. To top it all off, the colony is attacked by a nasty virus, and you need to stop it.

There are three levels of gameplay, if you will. One is more of an exploration phase in which you can move the little coffee maker around to interact with the computers. Then, you can enter the simulations that are running, and this is where the gameplay changes again, transforming into a 2D platformer. The little coffee maker can jump around, shoot, collect currency, and upgrade its components.

The third level of gameplay is entered when the player is inside the simulation and need to find the virus. Then the perspective changes to a small 8-bit minigame. From time to time, you will also have to face a level boss, but that’s only taking place in a turn-based fashion.

The weird and fascinating designs of everything in the game are completing the gameplay in a unique manner, and it’s impossible to point at another game just like it.

The Desolate Hope is a free game with great visuals, a compelling story, and the gameplay to match it. If you take into consideration that it’s also a free game, there is no reason not to try it.