At the beginning of the day, while at Brilliant Indie Treasures, knowing my recent love for narrative sims, my editor pointed me towards Degenerate Star – where a small whiteboard had been erected next to the station to keep track of who had taken a certain route during the demo. Intrigued, I asked to give it a go and the developer set me up.
As she set up the demo for me, she handed me a headset and encouraged me to crank the volume as high as I was comfortable, and within a few minutes I could see why. The ambient music and sounds were doing a lot of heavy lifting to add to the admittedly fantastic atmosphere that was being set up right from the get-go. We play as Tech, a part of a small crew sent out to investigate the S.S Vandermeer, which has stopped responding to hails after making a discovery of some sort. Short on details and assigned to a crew who are just as in the dark as you are, you set out with the Captain, Doc, and a youthful Pilot.
The further in we get, the worse the situation becomes. It makes mention of us having cybernetic implants that we use to interface with electrical panels, alluding to us being some sort of robot or cyborg, but does not expand on it. It treats you with respect and paying attention really means you catch small details. We eventually come to a gunk of sorts blocking the electrical components of a panel, preventing us from hacking it. Doc wants to move it, but collect samples first so they can study this gunk. Captain wants us to blast it away and continue, while our Pilot suggests finding an alternative route.
I ultimately decided to go with Doc. Freaky alien fungus we know nothing about? I’ve seen Alien, I don’t want an alien using my chest cavity as a breeding site! Turns out the fungus causes us to potentially hallucinate; probably wise to give it a wide berth. The demo ended shortly after this, but it had me firmly in its grips; I’ll be back when it’s fully released, that’s for sure!
Degenerate Star is due for release on Steam during November 2026.