Explore the weird web, or dive into a retro shooter
2019’s Hypnospace Outlaw sent players into the sleepy internet, where dreams played out like ’90s internet web pages. Today, publisher No More Robots announced two new games in the same universe: a spiritual sequel to Hypnospace Outlaw called Dreamsettler, plus another new game with a little more action.
The first, Dreamsettler, looks to be a clear follow-up to Hypnospace Outlaw. This one sees developer Tendershoot head into the early ’00s internet, where players take on the role of a Sleepnet Private Investigator. Explore pages, download apps, build playlists, and attach files.
Dreamsettler looks to be much of the same concoction of surreal nostalgia, moving the timeline forward to 2003 in the process. Today’s stream showed off some cool desktop options that will make users of the ’00s-era internet feel like they’ve fallen back through time.
For a different kind of nostalgia, there’s Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayer from Big Z Studios Inc. It’s a retro-revival FPS, a.k.a. boomer shooter, made by Hypnospace Outlaw character Zane Lofton. It’s a Doom-alike, with bobbing head, crunchy graphics, and maps where you can “blow up everything.”
It definitely has the look and feel of a Doom WAD, which I think is the general idea. Either way, the Hypnospace universe continues to dive deep into the nostalgia hole.
Both games have Steam pages up, with Slayers X targeting a release date “soon” while Dreamsettler has nothing set as of yet. They’re definitely both a bit out there. But the original Hypnospace was a wild, wacky dive into internet history with a side of detective work. I’d be hard-pressed to not be intrigued in what the developers do with the ‘net of the 2000s.
