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Go download the demo… now.
Hold up! Don’t like reading? Watch instead…
I saw this game pop up on my YouTube feed the other day.
I’m a sucker for anything cyberpunk, Ghost In The Shell-esque, so I decided to give the demo a try.
Usually, games of this indie level come across as shallow imitations of their larger-budgeted counterparts. But the short demo gave a sneak peek into a depth that has me excited for the full release.
Selaco is a first-person shooter set in a post-Earth world. Our home planet has fallen and the survivors now live in an underground facility called Selaco.
It’s your standard “human colony gone wrong” story where you wake up to find your world radically changed. At least that’s how the demo presents itself.
The developer, Altered Orbit Studios, is a newly formed team with no real public history. They apparently grew from a few people working on a Doom mod — and it shows.
Selaco runs on the GZDoom engine where it looks right at home with other titles from that collective.
In fact, this small indie studio is so on point with their development that they were featured in Realms Deep 2021. It’s great to see the 90s, early 2000s-type games making a strong comeback.
The one thing I expect from all games with a cyber-future aesthetic is a clean soundtrack that sets the vibe.
The smooth blues, greys, and vibrant pinks and greens of the trope can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but music is the glue that cements you in the world. And while the music in Selaco is good, I hope they have more in store for us.
Aside from that complaint, the atmosphere in Selaco surprised me.
Sure the developers gave us the cartoon-pop advertisements, shiny surfaces, and neon lights, but for an indie title running on GZDoom, the amount of world-building elements was impressive.
The short demo was flush with lore-filled chat logs scattered amongst interactive chairs, magazines, vending machines, and edible birthday cakes for health points. It felt like a little brother immersive sim next to a Deus Ex or 2017’s Prey.
And the environment art was reminiscent of games like Dead Space or Bioshock. Advertisements, graffiti, and personal mementos throughout the game give clues to how people lived and how the ongoing invasion of Selaco was changing their world.
And of course, there are plenty of secret areas and collectibles as you’d expect from any game running on the Doom engine.
Like I said in the intro, games of this budget usually feel understandably shallow. Selaco is getting recognized for a reason.
Selaco’s gameplay slaps.
You can expect the typical running and shooting from GZDoom games but just like the surprising depth to its environment, combat in Selaco is indie… plus.
There’s a powered armored suit you get early on which allows you to slide in every direction while aiming down the sights of assault rifles, shotguns, and magnum rifles that take heads off.
The gameplay doesn’t feel limited at all. And the feedback you get has a lot to do with that.
The amount of environmental destruction in Selaco creates gunfights you expect to see in fast-paced frenetic games running on the Doom engine — they’re loud and full of broken glass, explosions, and bloody limbs.
Whereas basic Doom-engine games have you strafing left and right while shooting hordes of enemies, Selaco has you mantling through windows, ducking behind hospital stretchers, and slide-kicking enemies while hitting your shots.
If the demo is just an indication of where the developers are starting, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised by how Selaco’s mechanics evolve throughout the game.
Conclusion
In tongue-in-cheek homage to the futuristic first-person shooter, developers Altered Orbit Studios list Selaco’s release date as August 2255.
I’m sure it’ll come out way before then and I can’t wait.
See you on Selaco and as always, stay cool, gentlemen.
