CRYPTARK casts you as a privateer boarding decaying alien starships, where each raid is a push through a hostile, procedurally generated space-hulk. The objective is to reach and destroy the ship’s central System Core, overcoming defenses ranging from robotic security systems to cyborg monstrosities. Earnings from successful missions support the privateering enterprise, giving each target a financial stake as well as a combat challenge.
Its roguelike structure puts strategy alongside shooting: players choose improved equipment and weapons to tackle increasingly dangerous targets, while failure means losing the investment and profit. The arsenal spans more than seventy weapons and items, including frag-cannons, tractor-beams, flamethrowers and nukes. Procedural ship layouts make each boarding operation a fresh tactical problem, and the campaign is designed to test planning as well as reflexes. Leaderboards add a competitive measure to the challenge.
CRYPTARK is listed with single-player and multiplayer options, including PvP and co-op, with shared or split-screen play available for both. The result is a shooter whose appeal rests on risky, repeatable assaults and decisions about how much firepower to commit.
