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0 Skopje ’83 is a new first-person survival roguelite by indie developer Dark-1. Unravel the mysterious, time-warping clues about your surroundings and survive the mindless creatures outside your bus. The game is available now for PC via Steam and Epic Game Store with publishing by PM Studios, Inc. (Yooka-Replaylee, Hoa).
Skopje ’83 is Colourfully… Dull?
I took a look at Skopje ’83 in hopes of finding some sort of pseudo-Borderlands looter-shooter roguelite. Unfortunately, what I found was not what I was expecting. It’s just one of those things that happens, and as I’ll also note, it may honestly just be me. If you happen to pick it up and feel differently, please let me know! For now, let me explain through my review below.
Gameplay
Skopje ’83 is a first-person shooter with a mixture of additional genres. It has elements of survival, survivors-like, and roguelite origins. Starting the game with little knowledge of anything beyond a voice calling you Pioneer, explore the city in your mobile base of a bus. There is some banter between your handler and a military figure warning you of the seven days until you get a nuke for breakfast. Reaching this point in a run means you didn’t die and have to reset sooner. Upgrades found during runs whilst trying to deactivate towers across the map carry over to the next run. What is really going on is a mystery to solve – if you have the patience or intuition to do so.
I found myself in a rough place with Skopje ’83. I really thought I was going into more of a looter shooter type of game, where better weapons could be found by looting various places on the map. It was disappointing that after several hours of looting the areas immediately close to the spawn point (you only have so much time, after all) I came up with nothing. All I could find were the same things, and going to the next area over had the same result. I was also frustrated that, despite how open the world seems, the areas you can actually loot are fairly minimal. Everything just felt very bare and empty. At least, this was the case in the starting area where I was searching endlessly. To top it off, keeping ahead of hunger, thirst, and energy felt like a major chore, rather than an intuitive mechanic of the game.
Perks, I Guess
With no clear indication of how or where to get better gear, the perks I found felt underwhelming. Perks in Skopje ’83 are found when disabling towers, levelling, or sometimes randomly appearing as little orb growths on the ground. The impact they had on my ability to better fight the endless number of mobs went unnoticed. There are also active and passive upgrades you can unlock on DOM (the bus). However, I am at a point where the only unlocks available can’t be unlocked because I can’t find the upgrade, or whatever’s needed, for my workbench. This has been beyond frustrating. It was only after eight hours playing solo that I found I should have apparently been driving around so I could progress the narrative. I mention the solo aspect because you can play up to four player co-op, though, when I went to browse multiplayer servers I found one locked, and the other open with some colourful language in the title. Needless to say I didn’t experience the game co-op during my time with it.
Graphics & Audio
Skopje ’83 has a comic book art style that works well with the gameplay. But it also leads to a repetitive feeling environment. It’s not that the environment doesn’t have enough details, I think it is more of how the comic book palette tends to blend everything together. Being stuck in the same area, seeing the same things repeatedly, probably doesn’t help.
The game is currently only available on PC, and there area decent number of graphics options. Skopje ’83 is one that I didn’t get around to testing with my Steam Deck at all in addition to my PC, so I can’t say how well it runs there. I did have to adjust a few settings away from the defaults. This was mostly due to finding that after the release update I was having some kind of frame dropping, or something clashing with the art style. In combination with the constant looking around for loot, this lead to leaving the game with a headache each session until I changed settings.
Audio throughout Skopje ’83 was overall fine. Again, it just becomes repetitive when you hear the same dialogue over and over. Especially with little to no progression to show for it and it goes between two or maybe three tracks in and out of combat. I’m also not an expert in dialogue or accents, but I really wasn’t sure what I was hearing. Obviously it’s a fictional setting, though, so does it really matter? I guess not.
Longevity
Skopje ’83 could be more enjoyable with friends. Maybe if you can find things to unlock sooner rather than later? But with the time I’ve already spent in the game, not finding anything I could really move forward with, I’m struggling to see myself picking it up again. Looking through the 51 achievements, there seems to be a decent amount of content there though for anyone willing to stick to it. Not only that but maybe they provide more of a clue of how to obtain better weapons.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, my experience thus far with Skopje ’83 has been tedious, at best. My confusion trying to find any type of gear pick up, and lack of any direction, led to time looting sparse areas when I should have been trying to explore as much as possible. I don’t expect games to hold my hand, but some indication of where items and gear improvements could be found would have been helpful.
For many reasons, Skopje ’83 is getting the Thumb Culture Bronze Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
Want to check out what else I’ve been reviewing? You can do that here.
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