Preview: Sovietborgs

Nearly three years on since the release of the fabulous Xenocider, Spanish indie development studio Retro Sumus have released more tantalising details about their follow-up Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis offering, Sovietborgs. Retro Sumus have taken something of a diversion with Sovietborgs though - as you can probably tell from the screenshots dotted throughout this article - moving away from the polygonal splendour of Xara's 2021 Sin & Punishment homage, and instead channelled the likes of The Chaos Engine (and possibly early PlayStation shooter Loaded) with this latest project.

For the record, the images here are taken from a very early demo of the Mega Drive version of Sovietborgs (releases for both SEGA platforms were announced simultaneously), and the Dreamcast version promises visual and audio enhancements, more of which you can read about in the short interview below. But first, you may well be asking yourself: what the hell is a Sovietborg and why should I give a damn?!

According the official lore of Sovietborgs (um...Retro Sumus' Twitter account), the story goes a little something like this:

On November 9, 1989, 11:14 pm, the KGB's glorious electronic brain, Tovarishch-Prime, became self-aware, and immediately managed to take control of Arpanet, triggering the detonation of all capitalist thermo-nuclear devices inside their own silos. 

25 years later, the West remains a nuclear wasteland. But like cockroaches, there are still pockets of resistance and free-thinking threatening our workers' paradise. In these forsaken locations, new mutant races emerged due to radiation and their sickening capitalist mind. Fortunately, the Soviet People have developed a new unit of the illustrious Red Army, the Sovietborgs. 

Half man, half machine, all proletarian, they can go where no one else can, inmune to radiation, and liberate all new capitalist races from their pitiful existence. Join the Sovietborgs. Become a part of their prestigious present and future, travel the world pacifying all hotbeds of belligerence. Let the dream world of our venerable Tovarishch-Prime finally become a reality for all.

So yeah, something about capitalists and cyborgs. And guns. Lots of guns. We've played the limited demo of Sovietborgs and found it to be a rather enjoyable explore-and-shoot-stuff style romp, where you control the lead 'borg (designated by a little hat, naturally), while two AI controlled 'borgs follow you around and do your bidding. Any by 'bidding' I mean shoot stuff. 

The demo is really only a single level, but it gives a good idea of what we can expect in the final game, with you controlling the squad as you move through ruined landscapes wiping out hordes of zombies which burst through randomly appearing portals with a taste for human brains; spider things that erupt from puddles of green ooze; and...er...mutant chickens which cluck forth from eggs that descend from the heavens. You need to destroy the delivery methods from which these unspeakable bastards all spring too, otherwise they'll just keep coming. This can be a bit problematic on a technical level as the demo does suffer a little with slow down when the hordes get a bit big, but we have no doubt this will be sorted in the final game and opens up the Dreamcast version for some absolutely enormous crowds of enemies streaming towards your squad. Nice.

When it comes to out-manoeuvring the beings that want to eat your cyborg teams' faces, you can move in 8 directions, and can fire from either a fixed point in any direction or by strafing and facing in a single direction. It seems a little limiting at first, but once you get the hang of it, the strafe firing becomes useful as you can fan your team out and widen the spread of your projectiles. This is a tactic you'll no doubt need in the final game if this demo is anything to go by, as at times the enemy count can become overwhelming as you are backed into a corner with nothing but hot lead (or a well-placed grenade) standing between victory and certain death.

Since we enjoyed the (admittedly limited) demo so much, we thought it was well worth catching up with Carlos Oliveros from Retro Sumus to pose some probing questions about Sovietborgs. Here for your pleasure are the answers to those questions:

DCJY: Hi Carlos, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. So, Sovietborgs is a top down shooter with exploration elements - can you give us an idea of some of the titles you took inspiration from when coming up with the design of your latest game?

Carlos Oliveros: Definitely The Chaos Engine and a little Cannon Fodder. But then, aesthetically and musically, the Command & Conquer Red Alert games are an important influence. Games like Speedball 2 have been an inspiration for the rendering/perspective of the main characters and the way they move.

Some friends commented on how they got “vibes” from Shock Troopers for Neo Geo (which, let’s admit is a bit more flattering than realistic, for the time being anyway) and Knightmare for MSX. We’re not sure about that but hey, let’s try to make them happy too.

Your last Dreamcast release was Xenocider - a game we loved for its fantastic use of 3D visuals. Why did you decide to revert to a more 'retro' inspired game with Sovietborgs? Obviously there's the whole 'it's on Mega Drive' aspect, but I'm curious to know more about the change in style from your previous game.

Sure. So while we wanted to stay loyal to the master race (by which I mean the Dreamcast) we also felt like creating something that would feel “properly retro” for more audiences. And for those audiences, a disc is not retro enough. But a cartridge? That’s a different story. We love the Mega Drive and we wanted to have a chance to do our bit and add to its ever growing indie catalogue. Hey, you can love them both, can’t you?

Besides, pretty much everything you see in the demo is 3D rendered first! Then adapted to the Mega Drive palettes and resolution. For the Dreamcast version, we won’t have the same restrictions of course.

Rendered beasties courtesy of Retro Sumus

Interesting. Naturally, the build we've played is very early and so there are features not yet implemented. Can you tell us anything about some of the intended features that will be added?

There will be other item boxes not present in the demo, probably with extra weapons or even traps. Also, when the ship picks you up after you complete the mission, you start a sort-of shmup bonus stage while you shoot from that ship, trying to kill as many Chernobugs (because why not?) as you can. Every territory you, well, pacify, will also feature a boss fight in a separate mini-stage. There will be several territories, aka “pockets of resistance” for you to, ahem, liberate.

Different territories/countries mean different ecosystems and with them come different enemies, of course. We’re still taking suggestions!

Just sticking with the topic of extra features for a moment, Xenocider was packed with secrets and unlockables. Can we expect the same with Sovietborgs?

We’ll see as development goes, but secrets and unlockables became kind of our thing so they have to be there as well, absolutely. We may end up including achievements, on the Dreamcast again and even the Mega Drive version. But it’s a bit too early to reveal more.

Artwork courtesy of Retro Sumus

You've already touched on the limitations of the Mega Drive when put alongside the Dreamcast, but are you able to give us any further info on potential enhancements the Dreamcast version may have over the 16-bit release?

For the Dreamcast version, the fully arranged music will be featured, most likely with the option to choose between that and the chiptune one, with extra voice samples and most likely some exclusive game mode. Of course, we don’t have to stick to the Mega Drive palette limitations which will be nice!

Also I think it’s safe to assume Twin Stick compatibility because, quite frankly, it’s awesome.

Another Twin Stick compatible indie release would be awesome! Can you tell us more about who you have working on Sovietborgs and what they bring to the development team?

Just like last time, Daniel Lancha aka Chui is coding, Abel del Dedo is designing/3D modelling, and I’m on PR/marketing and will do some dialogue writing when the time comes. Also we may bring in a special guest to give us a hand with the Kickstarter campaign if and when that happens.

Juanjo Martín, who created the soundtrack for Xenocider and who is now the keyboardist and musical director for the Colombian band Morat is on board again and is super excited with the whole setting and mechanics for the game. Agustín Padilla (Green Arrow, Transformers, Borderlands) is back too, drawing the wraparound cover artwork as I’m writing these lines.

Salvador Perugorria will be adapting the music for the Mega Drive chip and contributing some tunes of his own. Also, some very nice concept art was provided by Vicente Cifuentes (Nightwing, Batgirl, Book of Shadows).

And then of course we have none other than Adam Koralik, who seems to be having fun with the whole fake Russian accent, as our voice talent!

Adam Koralik? Never heard of him. Anyway, a slightly political question here. Do you have any thoughts on how the game might be viewed in certain circles, what with the name and theme, especially considering what's going on in Ukraine?

Oh yes, it’s important for us to make it clear that this game in no way involves an endorsement of any kind of authoritarianism, war conflict, dictatorship or totalitarian regime. Of any kind. We are aware that it may come at a somewhat inconvenient time, but the truth is Sovietborgs is meant to be a shameless parody that, far from praising war or communism, actually laughs at what all these regimes used to promise. Well, they keep promising.

Sovietborgs on display at Retro Barcelona

Indeed. Moving on to the most important question now: will the zombies ever actually get to taste the brains they cry out for?

We haven’t yet decided on what the Game Over screen should look like! That could be a good time to show the zombies surrounding and even trying to devour the dying ‘borgs. Hmmm….

I'll take a credit for that, cheers. Finally, when do you envisage Dreamcast owners will get the chance to own Sovietborgs?

As you know, we don’t like making promises we don’t know for sure we can keep. There’s way too much of that, in the videogame industry and in the wider world. But we’ve always offered total transparency, always keep communication open.

Anyway, let’s say at least one year after the Kickstarter succeeds, if it does. Sorry we can’t be more precise at the moment!

***

Thanks to Carlos, as ever, for answering our questions. So there you have it. Another Dreamcast game is coming at some point in the future and its name is Sovietborgs. We don't know when it's coming and we don't know whether it'll be Kickstarter-funded or not, but we do know that it's good fun from what we've played so far. Visually it perfectly nails the vibe it is going for, and we wait with baited breath to see what the enhanced Dreamcast version will look like further down the line.

Simply going off previous releases from Retro Sumus, we have no doubts that Sovietborgs will be another worthy addition to the Dreamcast's bursting indie catalogue, but we'll have to wait and see how the project pans out. As ever, the team here at the Junkyard will be here to spread the good word of Tovarishch-Prime once we get it! Oh, and if you'd like to see Sovietborgs in action rather than read words (yes I'm aware you've probably just waded through all that), here's a video from The SEGA Guru on the alpha build:

Thoughts on Sovietborgs? What would you like to see in the final game? Leave your musings in the comments, folks!