In the distant future, where vast corporations have reached their profiteering tendrils into every corner of the Solar System and beyond, their endless greed spurs unforgivable acts in the dark reaches of space. The growing exploitation and violence doesn’t go unnoticed, gradually invoking a terrible force from a parallel reality to ours that seeks retribution for humanity’s crimes. This is Quasimorph, which has just left early access after three years, and if you love punishing turn-based RPGs that reward experimentation, character building, and smart tactics, it needs to be on your wishlist.
In Quasimorph, everyone is out to profit, regardless of the consequences – if you can’t stop the apocalypse around you, you might as well get in on the action. You do so as the captain of the HIS Magnum, a ship navigating the galaxy to seek out and complete contracts for the multitude of corporations and factions hoping to stake their claim among the stars. Each mission you successfully finish awards a payout, potential reputation gains, and of course as much gear and loot as you’re able to extract back to the ship with you. Die, and everything your mercenary had on them is lost.
The result is a particularly tense, high-stakes formula that borrows concepts from extraction shooters and roguelikes. The mercenaries you dispatch to execute on each request are actually clones – printed from a gradually expanding list of base types with all manner of specialities, perks, and drawbacks. You’ll therefore have to carefully study the demands of every task you send them on and ensure their gear is up to snuff, while considering the risks of losing it all if you misjudge either your loadout or your on-the-ground tactics.
At play are all manner of nefarious groups. There’s Hexarch AnCom, an anarcho-capitalist media conglomerate able to influence many through its entertainment, and a religious group styling itself as the Church of Revelation. You might work for industrial weapons manufacturer RealWare, pharmaceutical corp Daydream Chems, or order-seeking rebel group the Civil Resistance. You could even ally yourself with Tezctlan, the leader of a group of Quasimorphs who have found a way to remain in our reality – but what exactly are they?
As hinted at earlier, Quasimorphs are dangerous entities who live in a realm parallel to our own and are being drawn in by destabilization. Many actions you can – and will want to – take in pursuit of advancing your cause can lead your ‘quasimorphosis’ meter to grow. This can be as simple as engaging in violence and murder, but it also extends to the likes of consuming meat-derived products (and yes, you can and likely will resort to cannibalism at some point, whether neatly packaged to hide its nature or procured directly from the source).
The higher your quasimorphosis grows, the more Quasimorphs will bleed across from their reality into ours. Initially, they’re weak, but allowing that meter to rise will bring in more dangerous, elite forces, gradually escalating to a ‘rapture’ incident that draws the ire of a powerful demon known as a Baron upon the region. Once it’s here, there’s no escape – you must kill it before it does likewise to you. A better method would be to mitigate the issue early on, typically through the likes of recreational spirits and drugs, although these naturally come with their own suite of issues.
How you choose to proceed through the world of Quasimorph is entirely up to you. Factions have pre-existing ties to one another, and you can chart their current standing in the interstellar power struggle. Perhaps you’ll influence this through your actions, putting groups that are favorable towards you into positions of power, or helping them take over supply stations so they can sell you goods at a better price than the former owners. If you’re feeling particularly chaotic, you could even promote the spread of quasimorphosis to work in your favor – the demons aren’t solely here for your head, after all.
When it all inevitably goes wrong, just try again. Quasimorph is a game that pulls no punches, and you will die. A lot. But with dozens of potential mercenary bases, the ability to unlock body modding and augmentations, hundreds of weapons and armor pieces, and all manner of other gadgets and consumables on top, you can always change your approach and give it another go. Should you find yourself too far down the influential ladder, there’s always the option of a new game – with multiple difficulty settings if you find the whole experience a bit too punishing (or, conversely, want to torture yourself even more).
With its full 1.0 launch, developer Magnum Scriptum is bringing the past several months of testing onto the main build to conclude Quasimorph’s three-year journey through early access. The new additions include everything from a map editor with custom map pack creation to an in-game mod manager, additional faction storylines, improved fire and liquid mechanics, more random events, extra tutorials, and Steam achievements. If you’ve already been playing, you’ll need to start fresh unless you’ve been on the most recent beta branch.
Quasimorph 1.0 is out now on Steam, with a 33% launch discount to celebrate the game leaving early access. Expect to pay $16.74 / £13.39 if you buy it by Friday August 14, or $24.99 / £19.99 once the sale ends. You can find it right here.
If you enjoy learning through trial and error, experimenting to find unique solutions to awkward problems, and the concept of scheming your way through an intergalactic anarcho-capitalist hellscape, few games will scratch all those itches quite like Quasimorph. It’s punishing, although the aforementioned difficulty settings do give a more approachable way to learn its systems, but that’s a big part of the appeal. Embrace the pressure, learn lessons the hard way, and try again – until you’re the big cheese.