DERELIKT preview: retro FPS survival horror with a PS1 look

DERELIKT is a retro-style sci-fi FPS with a clear survival horror streak running through it. You explore a damaged research station in orbit around Saturn, manage limited supplies, deal with hostile threats and try to work out what went wrong before things get even worse. It’s being developed by Visuwyg and published by Hyperstrange, with a PC release planned for 2026. The first thing you’ll notice is the look. DERELIKT leans hard into late-1990s 3D graphics, with chunky environments, warped textures and the kind of visual roughness you’d expect from a PlayStation-era horror game. So this isn’t trying to recreate every limitation of a 1990s shooter. It’s using that visual style as the setting for a newer game.

Something has gone very wrong

The game takes place aboard the Von Neumann Outpost, a remote research facility built into an abandoned asteroid near Saturn. By the time you arrive, the station is in bad shape. Power is failing. Parts of the facility are inaccessible. The remaining crew members don’t all agree on what happened, and you won’t be able to take everything they say at face value.

That gives DERELIKT more of a narrative focus than you might expect from a retro FPS. You’re not simply moving from corridor to corridor, clearing rooms and collecting ammunition. A big part of the game is figuring out what’s happening around you.

There are more than a dozen NPCs still aboard the station. They have their own motives, information and priorities, which means conversations could become just as important as finding another weapon or opening a locked section of the facility. Some people may help. Others may make things worse.

Exploration matters as much as shooting

DERELIKT mixes first-person combat with exploration, puzzles and resource management. You’ll move through laboratories, crew areas and sealed sections of the station while gradually gaining access to new places. Environmental puzzles block some routes, while other areas may require equipment, information or careful searching before you can continue. Inventory space is limited too.

That matters because ammunition, health supplies and useful equipment aren’t unlimited. You can’t simply carry everything you find, so the game regularly asks you to decide what’s worth taking and what can stay behind. That also changes the feel of combat.

Weapons are available, including conventional firearms and alien technology, but DERELIKT doesn’t appear to be built around firing constantly. Ammunition is something you’ll need to think about. A fight you avoid now might leave you better prepared for a much worse situation later. It gives the game a slower pace than the typical retro shooter.

The PS1 influence is impossible to miss

DERELIKT’s visual style is probably what will grab most people first. The game uses distorted geometry, texture warping, simple lighting and hand-painted vertex colours to recreate the feel of early 3D console graphics. It’s not subtle about the influence, and that seems to be the point. There are also CGI video sequences designed in the same late-1990s spirit.

The interesting part is that the retro look doesn’t extend to the controls. Movement and general usability are designed around current expectations, so players shouldn’t need to wrestle with awkward period-style input just to get the intended visual experience.

The developers list games such as System Shock 2, Alien Resurrection and Doom 3 among the influences. You can see why. There’s the enclosed sci-fi setting, the pressure of limited supplies, the uneasy exploration and the constant sense that the next room might contain something you’d rather not meet. Still, DERELIKT isn’t simply copying one of those games. It’s pulling familiar ideas together into its own first-person horror setup.

What DERELIKT is aiming for

If you follow retro FPS releases, DERELIKT stands out because it isn’t relying on fast shooting alone. Combat is only one part of the structure. You’ll also be searching rooms, solving puzzles, talking to survivors, managing supplies and deciding where to go next inside a station that doesn’t seem particularly interested in keeping you alive.

The game is currently planned as a single-player PC release in 2026. English interface text, subtitles and full audio are listed, while the available system requirements still appear to be placeholders rather than final specifications. There’s also no precise release date yet.

For now, DERELIKT looks like a mix of retro FPS design and survival horror, wrapped in a deliberately rough PS1-style presentation. The shooting matters, but so do the people you meet, the supplies you carry and the choices you make while exploring the Von Neumann Outpost. That combination could be what gives the game its identity when it arrives on PC.

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Something has gone very wrong

Exploration matters as much as shooting

The PS1 influence is impossible to miss

What DERELIKT is aiming for

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