RetroSpace: The Weirdest but Most Alluring Sim Horror You Didn’t Know

The upcoming title RetroSpace is shaping up to be the glorious, disco-punk, space-horror fever dream of 70s sci-fi cheesiness we didn’t know we needed. The Wild Gentlemen, the brilliant minds behind this madness, are crafting a game that feels both like a tribute to the greats and a delightfully weird creation all its own.

A Fever Dream Called RetroSpace

Imagine you’re humanity’s last hope…who is also a janitor. That’s the starting point for RetroSpace. You’re just trying to do your job on the Aurora 5 space station when, whoops, it gets swallowed by a black hole. Suddenly, your daily routine of mopping up mysterious puddles is replaced by a desperate fight for survival against mutant pigs, creepy-crawly insectoids, and humans with too-wide smiles.

The developers describe RetroSpace as “disco-punk space horror.” Creative Director Bánk B. Varga explains that this bizarre genre mashup comes from blending the groovy atmosphere of ’70s sci-fi movies with a thick layer of psychological horror covered with a quirky sense of humor. It’s a strange cocktail, to be sure, but one that promises a truly unique flavor.

Pure Unfiltered Immersive Sim Chaos

If you’re the kind of player who rolls your eyes at glowing quest markers and conveniently painted yellow ledges, then roll those eyeballs over to RetroSpace. Varga makes it crystal clear: “the game will not hold your hand at all.” The team is leaning heavily into their love for classic immersive sims. They want you to experiment, explore everything, and think outside the box to evade the enemies.

This philosophy of player freedom is at the core of the experience. A locked door isn’t just a physical barrier; it’s a question with multiple answers. Do you hunt for a keycard? Hack the terminal? Find a hidden vent? Or maybe you just blast it open and deal with the consequences? You can ignite oil slicks to turn enemies into crispy critters, shoot out lights to create pockets of darkness for a stealthy approach, or just go in, wrench swinging wildly. The choice is yours.

Mutations, Clones, and Glorious Replayability

Things get even weirder with the game’s progression systems. Forget boring skill trees. In RetroSpace, you get Mutamods—special abilities derived from animal genes. You can mix and match these offensive, defensive, and passive mutations to create your own unique build. Want to be a sneaky chap who avoids conflict? Prefer to be a rampaging mutant action hero? You’re covered. You can even ignore them entirely and rely on tech gadgets or your own wits.

Death is also just a minor inconvenience, thanks to the station’s cloning system. Since being a janitor in space is apparently a high-risk profession, Aurora 5 can clone you indefinitely. Cloning isn’t perfect, and each rebirth comes with a “cloning error”—a random negative trait you’ll have to adapt to. To get rid of the debuff, you have to find your old corpse and extract its genetic material, adding a morbid but compelling gameplay loop.

While there’s a main story, the game opens up to allow for freedom in how you tackle objectives, side missions, and collectibles. Combined with the cloning errors and a staggering eight different endings based on your choices, RetroSpace is practically begging you to play it over and over again. The devs are emphasizing that no two playthroughs can be the same.

Final Thoughts: Clean Up Crew, At Your Service!

This is the kind of ambitious, passion-fueled project that gets me excited about the future of gaming. It’s a love letter to a beloved genre, but it’s not afraid to get weird and carve out its own groovy, terrifying niche. RetroSpace is slated for a future release on PC and is available to wishlist on Steam now. Prepare to punch in, clean up some cosmic messes, and maybe save humanity while you’re at it.