The Desolate Hope

The Desolate Hope follows Coffee, a small service robot and the last mobile resident of the Lun Infinus station. Built by an unmanned research vessel on a distant planet, the station was meant to run five years of simulations exploring human colonization if Earth became uninhabitable. The project was abandoned as interest faded, and Earth’s last transmission came more than thirty years ago.

The Derelicts

Five sentient computers, called Derelicts, were built with some mobility so they could relocate in an emergency. Each was meant to develop a colonization plan through thousands of hours of simulations, which have grown elaborate and bizarre over the years. A mysterious virus of unknown origin is ravaging them, forcing the station to devote more processing power to antivirus measures and leaving less for the simulations.

Coffee keeps the station and the Derelicts operational. To fight the virus while conserving CPU power, he created digital helpers called D-Cos, or “Digital Counterparts,” using less vital CPUs in devices around the station. After the virus overcomes each one, Coffee builds D-Co 9 using the code of a simple computer game. He dedicates his own CPU to the main simulations and puts D-Co 9 in charge of moving his body around the station, attending to the Derelicts and fighting virus attacks.

Three styles of play

On the station and within simulations, you play through platforming sections, shooting enemies, collecting powerups and bits, and upgrading yourself and your virtual battlers. Mini-simulations use old arcade-style screens and shift to 8-bit overhead dungeon crawling, where you can earn money and unlock options for customizing battles. These sections include walls you can walk through or destroy.

When you face a virus boss, the game switches to a JRPG-style battle. You use the mouse to select from your available options. Most activities outside these fights let you upgrade abilities and increase stats for the battles, which are the game’s main challenge.