
“ | This game has multiple genres, an '80s sci-fi flick art style, and a coffee pot. | „ |
~ Gamespot |
The Desolate Hope is a PC game made by Scott Cawthon using Multimedia Fusion and is a follow up to the previous game, The Desolate Room.
It was created on April 2012 for the Windows platform and was available on the developer's website for free until the game was greenlit and released on May 5, 2014 on the Steam platform. The current version of the game is 1.35.
Plot
On a distant edge of an unknown planet, an abandoned structure sits in silence. Constructed by an unmanned research vessel sent from Earth, the Lun Infinus station was designed to run simulations for a five year period, exploring possibilities of human colonization in the case that Earth became uninhabitable. Developed during an age of ambition and wealth, the project was quickly abandoned when interest faded in the following years. The last transmission from Earth occurred more than thirty years ago.
The Lun Infinus station contained five sentient computers, Derelicts, built with certain levels of mobility in the case of emergency or need for relocation. Each of these Derelicts was to formulate their own plan for colonization based on thousands of hours of simulations. Given the amount of time that has passed however, the simulations have become very elaborate and bizarre. Meanwhile however, a mysterious computer virus has emerged. The virus of unknown origins has been slowly ravaging the Derelicts. Because of this, more and more CPU processing power has been needed for anti-virus measures, leaving less power for the simulations.
Coffee is the last mobile resident of the station, a small service robot who spends his days keeping the station and the Derelicts operational as they perform their daily tasks. Since CPU power is slim, Coffee has been cutting corners to find ways around the virus. By using small subsystems and less vital CPU's scattered through the station in lesser devices, Coffee has designed a line of digital helpers, each simply called a D-Co, or "Digital Counterpart", to assist him in fighting the virus and keeping the station operational. Eventually the virus gets the best of each D-Co, and Coffee tries to create an improved D-Co using a different CPU. The latest is D-Co 9, built using the code of a simple computer game. Coffee dedicates his own CPU to be used for the main simulations, putting D-Co in charge of moving his body throughout the station, taking care of the needs of the Derelicts, and fighting off virus attacks when they occur.[1]
Gameplay
The Desolate Hope mixes several gameplay styles.
On the station, there are four simulations. When the player enters one, the game becomes a platformer in which he must shoot enemies, collects powerups and bits to upgrade himself and his virtual battlers. Inside of those simulations, there are sub-games which are 8-bit overhead dungeon crawler similar to the old arcade style screens. There, he can farm bits and gain more options to customize his battle experiences. When he encounter a virus boss in each simulation, the game shifts to a J-RPG style battle where he must use the mouse to select his various options to defeat the opponent. Almost everything outside of these battles is aimed at upgrading the player's abilities and increasing his stats for these fights which are the real challenge of the game.[2]
Characters
Viruses
Vendors
Enemies
- Macerbot
- Wreckerbot
- Cogcut
- Sawspin
- Evil Box
- Robochnid
- Skullocopter
- Skelecopter
- Robo Wasp
- Jolly Spring
- Pink Puncher
- Meta Brain
- Beta Brain
- Cranky Totem
- Mechahead
- Manic Tank
- Gizmos
Sub-game enemies
- Fissure Guard
- Blorgus
- Sub-Square
- Sub-Shot
- Sub-Circle
- Sub-Geist
- Chedzar
- Bubblebyte
- Sub-Star
- 8-Bat
- Sub-Skull
Reception
Controversy

After its release, The Desolate Hope has been criticized for its ending which contained a message that has been reputed to be pro-life and anti-abortion due to Scott Cawthon's Christian beliefs. It was mostly made due to people's misinterpretation; the message has been removed since in order to avoid people interpreting it the wrong way.
On the comment section of an article from Gaming Symmetry,[3] Scott explained what was the purpose of this message. He pointed out that it must be read as the way it is, without any afterthought and also explained that he dedicated this game to children that could no more experience a childhood, mostly to children of his friends and family members who have passed away.
Trivia
- The Desolate Hope is a follow up to a previous game of Scott Cawthon's, The Desolate Room. The player controls Coffee , an autonomous coffee dispensing robot, who must help a beta version of Alphus and his three friends Tool, Defect, and Derelict by taking part in a fight against a mysterious virus that broke them a long time ago.
- Before considering making the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, Scott Cawthon was hesitating between creating a sequel to The Desolate Hope (known as The Desolate Abandon), a remake of The Legacy of Flan (one of his old games) and a new idea about "animatronics and security cameras".
- The game was made in 2012, but it was released on Steam on May 5, 2014, more than two years later.
- The Desolate Hope is the only ScottGames title to be successfully released on Steam.
- The Desolate Hope barely met the Steam requirements.[4]
References
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The Series |
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Main series |
The Desolate Room • The Desolate Hope • The Desolate Abandon |
Misc. |
Golden Galaxy • Scott's Fantasy Slots |