Space Station: Frontier is a Sci-Fi RTS/tower defense game from Origin8, the same people that brought you Sentinel 2. Your job is to mine as much resources as possible while defending your station from attacks by unknown enemies. This game is exciting, challenging and polished, making for a high quality title.
There are three modes of play available to you. The survival and mining modes are endless and add some long-term replay value to the game. The campaign mode actually has a story behind it and takes you through several missions of progressively harder difficulty. The most important aspect of the game is the mining of crystal. Crystal is what makes the station run and powers every structure and weapon. There are several asteroids to mine from, each of varying sizes scattered around the station. Some are too far away for a miner to reach on its own, so power nodes will need to be built to connect the station to the mining structure to reach long distances. Once mining is under way, you’ll see your crystal start to rise. Crystal will also be used to build weapons and other necessary structures.
Enemies will eventually arrive and try to destroy your station. On their way, they will first attack whatever miners you have built, so weapons will be necessary to defend your structures. You can purchase new weapons from the shipyard with the credits you earn after each mission. The game includes a descent amount of weapon choices, but more options would certainly be welcome in the next update.
The weapons you build will automatically fire at nearby enemies, just as in any other tower defense game. So, all you need to do is figure out what to build and when to build it. To build, all you have to do is tap and hold on a structure on the bottom of the screen and drag it out to where you want to place it. A green color indicates a good location and a red color indicates a location impossible to build on. That’s basically the extent of the controls. Drag, drop and watch the carnage. You can also pinch to zoom in or out. You’ll find that you can expand your reach pretty far into space. If you use the right strategy, you can start attacking enemies well before they reach your station.
While zoomed in, you can start to appreciate the high quality graphics and animations put into this game. There are so many minor details in each structure that really make the game look great. It is clear that the developer took time to make everything look rich and smooth, from the structures, to the enemy fighter planes, to the explosions.
Overall, Space Station: Frontier is absolutely a game I recommend checking out. The presentation is top-notch, the controls are intuitive and the sound and music are high quality. If you’re an RTS fan, you’ll love it. If you’re a tower defense fan, you’ll love it. If you’re neither and are just looking for a great game, you’ll love it too.
