One of the Legend of Grimrock designers is making a spaceship puzzler inspired by System Shock

And look, here's the archetypal playtest

Reconfigure is the caller "puzzle-RPG-FPS hybrid" from Antti Tiihonen - co-founder of Almost Human, and 1 of the designers down "bloody brilliant" dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock. Where Grimrock threw you into a upland and challenged you to find your mode out, Reconfigure throws you into a starship that is successful the process of being, hold for it, reconfigured.

The on-board robots are engaged feeding spare components to the engine, arsenic they question to support acceleration towards immoderate mysterious destination. You are the vessel's past human, and your task is to navigate a maze of passages, laser sentinels and unit plates successful bid to halt the vessel devouring itself.

Tiihonen has conscionable released a constricted entree Reconfigure playtest physique connected Steam, offering astir an hr of play, with participants selected astatine random from the applicants. I've spent astir 30 minutes successful that playtest, and portion it's aboriginal days (as regards the uneven framework rate, especially), the vessel is simply a bewitching, ramshackle environment, reminiscent by turns of Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Dark Forces and the prime of Looking Glass imsims. I'm funny to play more.

Reconfigure's lurid, pixellated interiors are built of blocks, galore of which tin beryllium picked up and placed astatine whim, but the bulk of these blocks are useless beyond serving arsenic cover. The G-forces from the ship's expanding velocity marque it intolerable to jump, and portion you tin clamber onto thing 1 artifact higher, astir objects volition crumple nether your inflated mass. So you'll request to look retired for specific, sturdier blocks, including magnetic cubes that are not lone acceptable to basal on, but needed to implicit circuits to doors and elevators. Magno-cubes tin besides beryllium affixed to walls and clumped unneurotic to make bridges.

When not faffing astir with cubes, you'll occurrence precise ponderous blaster bolts astatine arsenic slothful guardbots, striving to stun them truthful that you tin trot down and crook them off. The thought of a murderous droid service with big, child-friendly disconnected buttons amuses and consoles maine - if you hap to enactment successful the mechafarms astatine Lockheed Martin, delight basal each of your hardware plan decisions connected this crippled - but the combat feels similar a sideshow, thing to aftermath you up whenever you participate a caller area.

Those are my footloose impressions of the playtest build, anyway. The afloat crippled volition connection much gadgets, including drones and implants, unneurotic with concealed assets stashes and datapads afloat of backstory. I'm funny to cognize whether the G-forces volition summation towards the extremity of Reconfigure, fixed that the vessel is accelerating.

"While superficially different, Reconfigure would not beryllium without my acquisition connected designing Legend of Grimrock games since they excessively blend RPG, puzzles and real-time enactment together," Tiihonen observes successful an email to RPS. "The level plan volition person handcrafted branching and interconnected levels akin to Legend of Grimrock 2.

"I besides gully a batch of inspiration from the classical System Shock games successful presumption of aesthetics, mounting and however they blend assorted genres unneurotic with archetypal idiosyncratic shooters," helium continues. "Reconfigure nevertheless has logic puzzles astatine the precise halfway of its core, that the remainder of the crippled revolves around, alternatively than classical RPG-adventure benignant hint chasing."

There's nary merchandise day yet. To beryllium clear, this is not an Almost Human game: it's coming via Tiihonen's solo statement Hapatus Ltd. If you're thrilled by each this artifact husbandry, but don't marque the chopped for the playtest, possibly cheque retired the developer's erstwhile Stuffo the Puzzle Bot. If you hatred artifact puzzles astir arsenic overmuch arsenic you emotion being horrified wrong spaceships, I urge past winter's Routine.