If there’s one rule about space travel is should probably be Don’t. Everything is up there, from riches beyond anything dreamt of on Earth to nightmares darker than anyone has ever imagined. It doesn’t help that most of the time the worst the universe has to offer is amplified by the people who should be fighting it, as in the case of Ripout. Humanity reached for the stars, found an alien threat and went all techbro on the solution. A bioengineered cell gave soldiers the ability to regenerate damage and integrate cybernetics, but the 1.0 version really should have been more an 0.5 model. The cell mutated out of control, chasing humans and aliens from any section of space it infected, and now the only haven is a planet called Sanctuary. The people who didn’t make it there during humanity’s exodus are searching for this lost world, but all that seems to be out there are the derelict ships overrun with the cell’s corruption.
While the cell may have wiped out everything living on the ships, the data remains intact, so there’s still good reason to go exploring. Each sector of space in Ripout has a number of missions on a number of derelicts available at any given moment, each with its own rewards for completion. The cash payout is nice, but the real bonus comes in the form of schematics, letting you build and upgrade the primary gun, modifications, armor and secondary weapons. Each mission is a careful trip into hostile territory, shooting through the twisted bio-freaks that have made each ship their home, but you never have to do it alone.
While on first look Ripout is your basic Doom 3-style FPS, dark and atmospheric like nobody in all of space can afford a decent light bulb, the main thing that sets it apart is that the primary weapon is as much a pet as it is a gun. It initially starts out as your basic assault rifle, but can be changed to different types before each mission like shotgun, railgun, flamethrower, etc., but that’s only the most basic of its abilities. Switching to targeting mode, you can set it free to attack an enemy for major damage while you back it up with firepower from the spare handgun. Despite being a creepy insectoid weapon, it doesn’t take long at all to form an attachment to it, seeing as survival involves using all its abilities.
While the pet gun is the main weapon it’s also used to gain supplemental abilities, in the form of smaller, mostly harmless mutated critters running around the ship. These can be targeted the same as the big enemies, but instead of attacking, the pet gun brings them back and sets one on your left shoulder, providing an extra ability for as long as the mutant lasts. Different gun types, shield, short-range teleportation and more are scurrying about the ships, but the problem is the enemies can use them the same as you. A reanimated corpse goes down with a single shot and isn’t much of a problem, but one with a vortex-gun on its head needs to be prioritized as an actual threat. The smaller mutants can frequently be found in packs, allowing the bigger enemies that can attach more than one to change up the nature of the threat. All enemies have their weak points, though, and once you’ve learned where they are it doesn’t matter how many attachments they have so long as you can target them properly.
The final ability of the pet gun is its three mod slots, which add passive and active abilities depending on what you choose. More damage is nice, but the tech scanner is invaluable, sending out a ping that highlights light switches, the mod stations that provide a choice of three random perks for the rest of the run, and any supply chests found in the current area. For multiplayer there’s also a healing ability to support your teammates, and if up to three players aren’t enough, activating the turret mod sets up the pet gun as powerful stationary support firepower. While versatile weapons aren’t all that uncommon, the pet gun is memorable not because it’s a useful tool, but rather a helpful weird companion.
Ripout has only recently entered Early Access, but debuted with a strong showing, balancing atmosphere and action in a sci-fi horror FPS that’s got the basics down nicely even if there’s balancing needs ahead. One of the materials needed to create items, machine parts, gets used much more quickly than everything else, and enemy weak spots are also too easy to exploit, but the shooting is good and there’s a lot of variety in the ways to attack each level thanks to the pet gun’s abilities. Space is dark, deep and hostile, overrun by biomechanical horrors accidentally created by corporations that thought the testing phase was optional, but with a pet gun by your side it may be possible to escape to the sanctuary of a new homeworld.
