New Battlestar Galactica Game Promises To Give Fans Exactly What They Want

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

If you’re a fan of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, you’re probably dying for some new content. That killer sci-fi show came out over two decades ago, and frequent attempts to spin it off or reboot it yet again have fizzled out. Meanwhile, video game adaptations have been hit or miss. Many fans enjoyed Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, but that game and all of its DLCs were delisted last year, leaving a vacuum just waiting to be filled.

Fortunately, the wait for a new killer game is over. Dotemu (who has published some excellent games in recent years, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and the recent Marvel Cosmic Invasion) is about to release Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes. It’s a creative and ambitious roguelite that’s coming out on May 11th. What’s this game about, and will it be worth your frakkin’ time and money? Recently, we sat down with two of the lead developers (Creative Director Julien Cotret and Lead Game Designer Simon Swinscoe) to get answers to all of your questions.

Gameplay That Actually Captures The Show’s Feel

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is a roguelite. That means that you will most likely need to make many attempts before you can successfully complete the story. In traditional roguelikes (named after the vintage game, Rogue), each of these attempts would be as brutal and unforgiving as the first. But as a roguelite, Scattered Hopes allows you to retain certain upgrades (and, of course, meta-knowledge of the game) to make successful runs easier.

As for the core gameplay loop, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is split into two main sections. The first is fleet management, in which you must allocate various resources, talk to your crew, and make difficult decisions that affect the entire fleet. You can only make so many decisions in this phase: as in the show, you can’t take care of every problem facing your fleet, so you are forced to make hard decisions that may or may not prove to be catastrophic.

After fleet management, your fleet will inevitably be attacked by Cylons (a design inspired by the excellent Battlestar Galactica episode “33”). At this point, the game switches to a real-time space battle mode, though you can pause at any time to issue various orders. As with most episodes of the show, you do not have a real shot at actually defeating the Cylons, who effectively have endless resources. During these sequences, your primary job is to deploy your Vipers and defend yourself until you can successfully jump to safety.

Something Old, Something New

One of the first things I asked the Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes devs was whether this game is meant to take place in the canonical universe of the show or if this was more of an alternate universe. What they told me is that the game focuses on its own, original story that could plausibly be part of the show. You take control of a gunstar that, like Galactica, survives the initial Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. You are actually trying to find the Galactica and join up with the rest of humanity. Along the way, you will find scattered colonial ships, and you’ll have to protect them (and yourself) from relentless Cylon raids.

Therefore, fans of the original show can easily imagine this as just another story taking place in this gritty sci-fi universe. It’s even in line with the show, which eventually revealed that an entirely different Battlestar (the Pegasus) survived the Cylon attack on the colonies. Of course, some aspects of the game still tiptoe outside of established lore. At certain points, for example, you will need to suss out hidden Cylons in your fleet, and they may be completely different characters than the named, human-looking bots from the show.

A Unique Kind Of Roleplaying

The original Rogue, and many of the subsequent roguelikes and roguelites, didn’t have much in the way of a real story. The games were all about kicking butt and seeing how far you could get before dying. However, there are some major exceptions out there, including Hades, a killer roguelike that has major RPG elements inspired by Greek mythology. With this in mind, I asked the developers of Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes if there were many RPG elements in their own game.

They told me that there are several RPG aspects to the game. In addition to giving orders to your subordinates, you can chat up the crew in the ship’s bar. When investigating who may or may not be a secret Cylon, you will also learn extensive background information about your suspects. Mostly, though, the game functions as an Adama simulator. While you play a different commander, you will face the same blend of strategic crises, moral dilemmas, and resource management struggles.  After playing the game for a few hours, you’ll feel closer to Adama because you will have survived the same impossible situations.

So Say We All

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is coming out exclusively on PC on May 11. Currently, there are no plans for a console release, but that may change if the game proves popular enough. Speaking of which, the developers have ideas for some exciting DLC, but they won’t release anything until they see what fan response to the game is like first.

That’s where you come in. If you loved Battlestar Galactica and are eager for some new content, then it’s time to vote with your wallet. From everything I’ve seen, this looks like it will be a killer game; one made by devs with genuine and heartfelt passion for the original show. It will give you a chance to be like Adama, making hard decisions that affect the lives of thousands of people. Or maybe you just want to be like Roslin and shoot some annoying people out the airlock? Either way, this game has you covered!