DERELIKT is a game that caught my attention for its attention to detail in bringing to life a PlayStation 1 or PSX-era title in a modern FPS release. As someone who is always on the lookout for retro experiences to enjoy on my CRT, DERELIKT seemed like the perfect answer to satisfy my ravenous retro appetite. Despite some rough edges, DERELIKT delivers a moody and atmospheric PSX-inspired retro shooter, complete with optional texture-warping quirks that feel ripped straight out of the original PlayStation era.
In fact, from the moment you boot up DERELIKT for the first time, it becomes evident how much love and attention went into creating an experience that authentically recreates the PlayStation 1 start-up sequence, made better with native 4:3 support that looks great on older TVs and monitors. My time with DERELIKT was spent entirely in 4:3 on my Sony Trinitron, making it one of the few rare instances in which I’ve opted to use the press kit-provided images for this review, as all the screenshots I took during my playthrough were captured in the wrong aspect ratio that wouldn’t make for a good review on most modern displays.
DERELIKT is a narrative-heavy FPS that places players in the shoes of a badass lone wolf contractor sent to investigate the Von Neumann Outpost. The now mostly derelict space station hovers around Venus, grafted directly into the facade of an anomalous asteroid. The remnants of Von Neumann Outpost have locked themselves in the safety of the shuttle area, but many other scientists and staff have gone missing deep within the unusual foreign object.
“…from the moment you boot up DERELIKT for the first time, it becomes evident how much love and attention went into creating an experience that authentically recreates the PlayStation 1 start-up sequence…”
One of my favourite aspects of DERELIKT is its emphasis on environmental storytelling and the numerous in-game collectables that drip-feed story information and build up the lore of the world. Typically, I don’t particularly care about extraneous collectables, but flavour text in DERELIKT is presented in a way that fills up the screen and just feels charming, while adding to the foreboding isolation of the game world.
Weapon variety is good, with DERELIKT featuring your usual suspects of sidearms, assault rifles and shotguns, on top of mining equipment and some more exotic alien tech that I won’t spoil, giving the player plenty of options to dish out death. DERELIKT employs survival horror tropes, including the whole limited resources gimmick, on top of an item and ammo stacking system that works, but can feel a bit unintuitive and clunky, making the experience feel more tedious than tension-fueled.
“One of my favourite aspects of DERELIKT is its emphasis on environmental storytelling and the numerous in-game collectables that drip-feed story information and build up the lore of the world.”
Level variety in DERELIKT also feels like a mixed bag, with many claustrophobic twists and turns that take you from alien structures to human-made facilities and even some movie-inspired locations. Issues arise when it comes to enemy placement, which often spawns at your feet, giving almost no time to react and resulting in unnecessary damage. Levels often include chase sequences or set pieces that require quick thinking and movement, something that can get in the way when enemies ambush you seemingly from thin air.
Thankfully, DERELIKT offers plenty of autosaves, which elevate this issue somewhat, although I found myself relying on this heavily after giving up on actually engaging enemies or meaningful route planning. Occasionally, I found myself getting stuck in the geometry, specifically when there is a set piece or environmental hazard, something that resulted in either a soft lock or a reset. DERELIKT is also a rather dark game that seems to stem from its desire to capture a certain atmosphere, which works mostly in its favour; however, the in-game flashlight players discover in the opening hours of the game feels like a complete afterthought and barely functions as intended.
Outside of combat and exploration, DERELIKT throws several light puzzles at the player, including rerouting power, finding context clues to open doors and even some alien splicing action later in the game. These are, unfortunately, not particularly interesting or intuitive, feeling more like roadblocks than clever inclusions that enrich the experience.
Ultimately, I found myself drawn into DERELIKT‘s faithful recreation of the fifth generation of console and PC gaming, to the point where I still enjoyed my time with the game, despite some frustrating issues that may mar the experience for others looking for a competent FPS title to dive into.
