Space Frontier. – Review – Be the top real estate developer of the future

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By: DIGITALFROG

Version #: 1.0.1

Date Released: 2011-12-09

Developer: Digitalfrog

Price: 3.99

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Those uninitiated in the new universal iOS app Space Frontier. will probably think it’s yet another shooting game set in outer space. Going into Space Frontier. for the first time, though, they will be proven wrong. They will probably be even glad to find not another shooting game set in outer space but rather a strategy game in the tradition of the world-famous Sims.

Space Frontier. is grounded (the pun presented itself) on the premise that our dear little blue planet, in the year 2150, isn’t as blue as it used to be. Earth is no longer suitable to live in for reasons no doubt caused by our own carelessness, and we, equipped with our knowledge of interplanetary travel, must now take to the skies and beyond to build new habitats in other planets in other universes. Space Frontier., then, requires you, the player, to build new worlds one step at a time.

The steps in being a top player in Space Frontier. may seem complicated at first, especially if you’re new to games of its ilk, but thankfully there’s Runa the lady android to guide you through the very helpful tutorial as well as through the game proper. Space Frontier. ships with two game modes, story mode and casual (endless) mode, the latter unlocked once you traverse all the levels in the former, but both governed by the same basic mechanics.

You play as a sort of futuristic real estate builder and developer, and you advance from one planet to the next after completing various quests involving various tasks. These tasks range from building a certain number of houses of a certain type (simple “Rocketman,” multistory, etc.) to reaching a certain level of O2 or air supply. Money is, of course, part of the equation, and here the currency is gold. You earn gold by selling your completed houses or collecting the rent income from them. With gold you can assemble new robots and replenish your minerals to enable you to build and manage your houses. (There’s also an in-app shop where you can purchase, with your real-world dollars, special items to make your tasks a bit easier, including process boosters and cancelers.) This cyclical pattern is where much of the strategy part of the gameplay is incorporated.

A strategy game that lets you build colonies in previously uncharted territories is only as good as the rendering of the new world in which it is set. The developer of Space Frontier. might have kept this in mind while designing the game, since the result is an amalgamation of 3D graphics whose use is not merely for show and music and sound effects whose inclusion adds to the space-operatic feel of the game. Most important, the controls and the placement of the functions of the initially confusing onscreen console are just right for the job, giving you a sense of being in a real high-tech control board in the year 2150.