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Basement Is A Game That Lets You Get Closer To Being Walter White

Today Basement left early access on Steam and officially launched. While this might not seems like such big news, it really is because it marks the point at which the game has left development, albeit with the help of a community of what are effectively beta testers. I remember the game first emerging on Steam, after an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign, but to hear that it has been available for about 5 years shocks me, though when you see the game now and what it used to look like, the difference is astoundingly clear.

To celebrate the game finally being launched, and allowing players to live their not-so-sensible dreams of being Walter White of Breaking Bad, I thought it would be nice to delve into what exactly Basement is about.

Illegal Business

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At its heart, Basement is an illegal business simulator that has a deep level of management to it if you want to get stuck into the nitty gritty. Players start out by growing drugs and selling them in order to fund the development of their video game, but soon realise that what they’re doing is far more lucrative. After a while of selling plant-based narcotics, players can move on to more serious drugs, creating concoctions that you really would only find Walter White making.

Over the course of the game, players will move from a one man operation in a basement, to a multi-location empire. As the business grows, players can hire staff to protect their locations or make more drugs to sell. These staff can help them take over other illegal businesses, adding to both the number of drugs they can sell, as well as the types of drugs that they can create. However, while players can overtake nearby businesses, they can also be overtaken if they don’t put enough protection in place.

Long Term Development

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Since Basement launched in early access five years ago, the game has come a long way. The initial wave of YouTubers and streamers who were interested in the game were playing a title with one mode, sandbox, and it was as bare bones as you can get. The mode allowed players to create a few drugs, overtake some competing businesses, and explore the single level it was based in. While it was massively bare bones, the game had substance in the way the mechanics combined with the gameplay to provide an appropriately addictive title.

Now however, Basement has multiple levels, a storyline, the ability to sell drugs wholesale, weapons, research options, random events, and so much more to keep players occupied. The game provides dozens of hours of entertainment, and it’s really easy to drop in and out of as you try out other games.

Developer Halfbus has expressed their gratitude for the community’s help over the past five years in a blog post today. They say that without their fans they wouldn’t have gotten to where they are now, and they have many more plans to continue work on fixing bugs over the coming months. Though they haven’t said that they’ll also be bringing even more content to the game, it seems likely that they would given how popular the game has become. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing what Halfbus makes next.