Shardpunk: Verminfall Review (PC)

The plot of Shardpunk: Verminfall reminds me of the Has Fallen film series starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. The Rat Swarm is about to sink its claws into The Capital and flood the city with the vermin horde, but instead of a solo adventure, you must put together a crew of survivors crazy enough to want to save the city.

The game developed by Clockwork Pile doesn’t have a complex story with twists and turns, but this is definitely not the kind of game you’ll play for the narrative. After a pretty explanatory tutorial missions and dozens of entries in the codex that teaches you about every mechanic and item in the game, Shardpunk: Verminfall slowly starts throwing your crew against an increasing number of enemies.

At its core, Shardpunk: Verminfall is mix of turn-based tactical combat with some RPG elements that involve character progression, weapon upgrades and a few more surprises that I’m not going to spoil. There are lot of other influences in the game, such as XCOM and Darkest Dungeon, but what you need to know is that you’ll be dropped on a map and your objective is to breach the bunker and escape with all your teammates alive.

Each level is populated with loot that you can scavenge on your way to the exit, but the more time you spend on the map, the higher the chance that enemies will pop up. Also, you are rewarded for quicker extractions, so the first thing I always do at the start of the level is trying to come up with an efficient route that brings me close to as many loot spots marked on the map as possible.

+4more

Although my team comprises of three very different survivors, each with their own weapons and skills, you’re allowed to have a total of four characters in a mission. In addition, an automaton will be your support unit for the entire campaign, but unlike characters which can die, losing the automaton means it’s game over.

Combat is pretty simple to understand, yet hard to master. I found that the best strategy is to let the enemy come to you and use “overwatch” a lot if you have the time. Grenades and melee abilities in general are extremely good and more reliable than ranged attacks. Each character has 2 action points that they can use to move, shoot, vent their weapon, or use an item.

Since the entire map is visible right from the start, you get to choose your route. Enemies usually pop up at the end of your turn, but sometimes they can be hidden in a corner. The worst-case scenario, which happened to me so many times I lost count, is send a survivor to scout ahead and find a band of rats without any action points remaining and no allies in range.

In that regard, the game encourages a slow, tactical advance rather than a “blitzkrieg” type of operation. Once you reach the exit, you have two options: use a fusion core to automatically open the door or breach the door and wait a number of turns for the operation to finish. Typically, it takes five turns to breach the door without using a fusion core, a very rare item that can also be used to revive your characters.

While you’re waiting for the door to open, you’re most likely to be attacked by waves of enemies, so I found that putting my teammates in key positions before breaching gives them a much higher chance of survival. Although there are stimpacks in the game that allow you to heal your characters, the healed points are only temporary, as they will disappear once you exit the map.

Play Video

That’s where the camping stage comes in. After each fight, you get to heal all your characters if you find enough medical supplies during the mission. Stress is another resource that you have to manage in Shardpunk: Verminfall, a reminiscence of Darkest Dungeon.

Using a stimpack will cause your character to become stressed, and the same goes for all survivors who get hit during missions. Even seeing rat soldiers on the map will earn your characters a few unwanted points of stress. Luckily, you can get rid of all stress during camping by either using abilities or sending your characters to rest.

The character progression system is well crafted and rather unique for each survivor. Since each comes with their own weapon, they also get their own abilities that can be upgraded after they gain new levels. On top of that, team-based skills can be unlocked with achievement points. Killing five rats in a turn or use a special ability to kill a rat can earn you achievements, which can then be turned into points to be used for unlocking team-based skills.

Unlocking team-based skills allows you to invest points into abilities that further improve your characters, such as adding more HP or AP in the camping stage. These are just as important as leveling up your survivors as the bonuses they provide assure that you can keep up with the increasingly difficult enemies that you’ll encounter.

+4more

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion