RetroSpace

About RetroSpace

RetroSpace is a first-person immersive sim set in 2177 aboard Aurora 5, one of the city-sized stations of a fleet carrying a sleeping humanity in search of a new home. The station has been pulled into a sentient black hole, time on board keeps jumping between two periods, and the corridors are full of mutated creatures. You are not a soldier but one of the janitors who guard the sleepers, and you go looking for answers and a way out. It was made by The Wild Gentlemen and published by Kwalee, and came out on 1 October 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version still to come.

The makers list Half-Life, System Shock 2, Thief, Deus Ex, Prey, BioShock and Dead Space among their inspirations, and it shows. Aurora 5 is a large, interconnected station you open up a piece at a time, with shortcuts and secret paths back to a mostly quiet central hub. There are no quest markers, and the map is minimal: reviewers say you will get lost, though getting lost often turns up blueprints, lore or a shortcut. Each obstacle has more than one answer: sneak past, break the lights, crawl through a vent, hack security to turn turrets on your enemies, lure creatures into traps or set them on each other, or fight with guns and gadgets. GamingTrend's reviewer says the game can be finished without killing anyone. Mutamods add mutations for combat, stealth and movement, and the store warns that each may come with side effects.

Death is part of the loop. The station clones you after each death, and you go back to recover your gear from your previous body, while repeated cloning has its own consequences. The enemies each have their own patterns and weaknesses, which you can learn by watching and scanning them: insect-headed mothmen, pig-headed brutes in jumpsuits, grinning figures with glowing eyes. The screenshots show dim red and green corridors, bodies and blood on the floor and people floating in glowing tanks.

The makers say the world and main story are serious, served with a large dose of dry and dark humor, and the station's cheerful 70s design against its creatures is what reviewers single out. A PS5 review found the enemies easy to exploit from doorways and vents and noted some performance problems. There are four difficulty levels and free saving can be turned on at any of them. Fans of immersive sims who want a station to pick apart, with creatures that can still make them jump in a dark corridor, are who it suits best; anyone after unbroken dread will find more of it in SOMA or Alien: Isolation.

How to play RetroSpace

1. Pick one of the four difficulty levels; Normal is a fair start, and free saving can be enabled at any of them.
2. Wake as a janitor on Aurora 5 and explore on foot; there are no quest markers, so use terminals, notes and the mini-map to find your way.
3. Watch and scan each kind of creature before you engage it, then decide whether to sneak by, distract it, lure it into a trap or fight.
4. Hack security systems so cameras and turrets work for you instead of against you, or find a password or vent around them.
5. Install Mutamods to improve stealth, combat or movement, keeping their side effects in mind.
6. When you die, come back as a clone and return to your previous body to recover what you were carrying.

Tips

• Use the central hub as a safe place to regroup when an area gets too dangerous.
• Look for vents, stackable crates and alternate paths before forcing a fight; most rooms have more than one way in.
• Breaking lights makes sneaking easier, but it is permanent, so pick which ones.
• Your wrench can fix broken vending machines and terminals.
• Cleaning away blood with your janitor's kit can reveal hidden information.
• Inventory space is limited, so choose which weapons and items to carry.
• Recover your gear from your last body soon after you respawn.

Questions