Hijinks Reviews: Space Station: Frontier HD

Publisher: Origin8 Technologies Ltd.
Platform: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
Cost: $4.99 [iTunes Link]
Version Reviewed: 1.1.0

Space Station: Frontier HD is the love child of a tower defense game and a real time strategy game. Understandably, SS:FHD grew up with some issues. It had upgradable towers, but not the selection of a true tower defense game. It had resource management and RTS-like mission objectives, but lacked that second layer of micromanagment that true strategy games have.  So, SS:FHD grew up with something missing, something it couldn’t put its finger on. When it made the jump to the iPad there was hope SS:FHD would mature a little bit; perhaps grow out of all the genre confusion. Unfortunately, all it did was get the standard iPad “graphical enlargement” surgery. While increasing SS:FHD’s confidence, it did nothing to improve his game.

The single player structure is broken down into a 15 mission campaign and three endless modes: Survival, Mining, and Protect. Survival is what it sounds like. Survive for as long as possible until the waves of enemy ships finally kill you. Mining consists of gathering as many resources as you can before you die. Protect is survival mode with two points you have to defend. I’d like to say that this gives the game enough variety to keep playingSS:FHD starts out fun. Aaron and I played the game for a couple hours straight after we first downloaded it. We were excited about the upgrade system that allows you to purchase new buildings and upgrades for your space station using currency you earn playing any of the game modes. While it sounds good in theory, you can get all these upgrades after 3-4 hours of game time, and after that the monotony really sets in.

The multiplayer has the potential to be this game’s saving grace. Currently, its the single player game with the ability to send ships to your opponents screen. The problem with the multiplayer as it stands is the only interaction you have with your opponent is a little bar that shows you their power/health and the number of structures they currently have. There is no feedback telling you when or if the ships you send get destroyed, or what kind of defenses your opponent has so you can better plan your attack. One of the fundementals of any competative strategy game is being able to respond to your opponent’s moves and counter with your own. When you eliminate that, it just becomes a race to see who can launch dreadnaughts the fastest.

Space Station: Frontier is not a bad game. If you consider 4 hours of entertainment worth your $4.99 then I’d even recommend buying it. If you have a friend to play with you can extend that another couple hours. The TD/RTS genre is relatively untapped, so Origin hit a good niche with this release. If it had more depth and variety it would easily replace Small World as my most played iPad game. I realize I won’t be satisfied until I get Starcraft for the iPad, but dang it, I want something to hold me over until hell freezes over and that actually happens. Come on people, get on that for me.

Here’s what I hope they do in future updates:

• Add co-op multiplayer.
• Add a notification when your ships are destroyed in head-to-head multiplayer.
• Add a “Scout” class ship that will tell you exact numbers and types of towers your opponent has in head-to-head.
• Add more towers/upgrades to unlock so there is incentive to continue playing the single player.