I downloaded this bear-obsessed comedy FPS to kill time before Doom: The Dark Ages and discovered the most underrated shooter on Steam

You can probably guess what my expectations were for Bears in Space. I’ll give you a clue: there were two of them and they both feature in the title. So I was surprised when, about an hour in, I was embroiled in a robot murder investigation. Having spent 60 minutes blasting the plasma-brained automatons that comprise the game’s basic enemies, suddenly I was among their ranks. Transported to a paper-strewn police station, I was asked to pick out a suspect in a perp lineup from behind a glass window.

Before you start thinking Bears in Space is a stealth sequel to Return of the Obra Dinn, I should point out its approach to deduction is slightly less refined than Lucas Pope’s classic mystery. The detective on the case states outright he’ll trust whatever decision I make because I look like I have a good eye. After 30 furious seconds of deliberation, I pick the robot with a cowboy hat and moustache, based on the principle that moustache = villain. The detective concurs, shouting “time to process this lot”. Moments later, a giant piston slams through the identification room, wiping out every robot in the lineup.

Honey, I blew up the robot

This was the first time I laughed out loud playing Bears in Space, and it was far from the last. I picked up this farcical FPS mainly to fill a gap in my gunplay calendar. The boomer shooter brigade has been short on ammo lately, having seemingly run out of ’90s classics to spiritually succeed, and we’re still a month out from Doom: The Dark Ages, the big FPS of 2025. Bears in Space, I figured, would deliver at least two things relevant to my interests. I didn’t expect to discover the most underrated shooter on Steam.