Drifter Preview

Game players love their sandboxes, and there is no bigger sandbox to play in than outer space. Granted, space is a pretty cold sandbox, and if you hold your breath while you’re in it, your lungs will explode, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to have some fun. Celsius Game Studios is getting ready to let you frolic the vacuum with Drifter, an open-world trading game for iOS that may be coming to desktops as well.

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Build your intergalactic infamy or live like a space bum in Drifter

Game players love their sandboxes, and there is no bigger sandbox to play in than outer space. Granted, space is a pretty cold sandbox, and if you hold your breath while you’re in it, your lungs will explode, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to have some fun. Celsius Game Studios is getting ready to let you frolic the vacuum with Drifter, an open-world trading game for iOS that may be coming to desktops as well.

Everybody needs a purpose in life, and your goal in Drifter is to find yours. You can live as a simple space merchant, plunder said merchants as a pirate, become a bounty hunter, or sit back and drift to wherever the solar winds take you. The galaxy in Drifter is 100,000 light years across, and contains 10,000 stars. Working your way through the game is not exactly as easy as taking a walk down the block.

You probably don’t find yourself in such varied company when walk through your neighborhood, either. Drifter is populated by space pirates, miners, explorers, citizens, and even a cult that worships black holes (talk about a god that takes and takes, but gives nothing in return).

You begin Drifter in a humble star-traveling craft that can be utilized for simple trading jobs. As you build up your fortune, you can also build up your ship and its abilities—if that’s what you want to do. Again, it is wholly permissible to live in the spaceship equivalent of a van down by the river.

Drifter
Drifter

But life needs struggle, right? That’s why you can also engage in space battles with rivals for money and resources. Your epic clashes are punctuated with music by Danny Baranowsky, the master composer for games like Cave Story 3D and Super Meat Boy.

Drifter should make its way to iOS later this year, and the developers are seeking Kickstarter funding for the PC/Mac versions. Stay with Gamezebo for more information on upcoming spacetime shenanigans.

In the early aughts, Nadia fell into writing with the grace of a brain-dead bison stumbling into a chasm. Over the years, she's written for Nerve, GamePro, 1UP.com, USGamer, Pocket Gamer, Just Labs Magazine, and many other sites and magazines of fine repute. She's currently About.com's Guide to the Nintendo 3DS at ds.about.com.