Buy The Spatials

***This review was written using a key provided by the Developer for review purposes***

The Spatials is a space station building sim crossed with an isometric ARPG meets Tycoon game which recently released on Steam. In The Spatials not only do you build a space station on an asteroid to satisfy guests and earn their hard earned cash you also take a crew of brave men and women on hundreds of missions across an expansive randomly generated galaxy. Completing missions earns you valuable resources and money which can be used back at your space station or, in the case of money, can be invested into planets where you have completed missions in order to regularly receive supplies.

+Simple and colourful graphics which suit the game well and look nice
+Easy to follow tutorials which are very helpful in teaching you the basics of the game
+Great UI which is very easy to navigate
+Building is very easy thanks to the grid that appears when building and it's also very easy to correct mistakes if you accidentally build something in the wrong place
+A reasonably sized Tech tree with a good variety of things to unlock over the course of your game
+The galaxy is randomly generated each time you start a new game and contains over 100 planets with increasingly challenging away missions
+Missions on planets have you go around completing objectives such as killing enemy pirates or destroying guard towers
+When on missions I found the combat to be fun though it seems not everyone would agree with me on that
+A good number of different room types and objects for your space station
+You're provided with a simple breakdown of what your staff as well as visitors want while they are at your space station
+After completing missions you are able to spend your money unlocking resource slots which then provide you with whatever resources that planet has every few minutes
+A large number of weapons and upgrades to be found on missions for your crew to use making them stronger
+Simple controls when on away missions

-It's very hard to earn money early on and I often found myself just sitting idle while I waited for more money to be spent in my space station so I could buy something
-It's not in the slightest bit challenging. Firstly, your crew can never die on an away mission, if they run out of HP they simple get beamed back to the ship and then they're perfectly fine for the next mission. Secondly, there's no environmental dangers or any enemies where your space station is nothing to slow your progress or make it harder like there are in similar games. Finally, even if your visitors are unhappy they still spend money while visiting your space station so it's impossible to ever run out of money

Verdict:
8

A great building/ARPG/Tycoon game with nice, colourful graphics and a wide variety of things to do while playing that's easy to get in to for new players.

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El K.

Note: This Review/First Impressions was done with a key obtained from the developer. The majority of playtime (6-8 hours) was done via the key obtained via the Humble bundle, but an additional key was released for Steam.

A mashup of Roller Coaster Tycoon, Star Trek, and some parts action RPG. It's not a game for people who need high energy and high actions, but more so for people who like micromanagement, with creating your perfect space station and the perfect crew who specialize in certain areas.

+:
Lots of Management options, in and out of missions.
Lots of building options, with different items and materials.
Crew management and upgrades adds a sense of improvement and experience that you don't see in a lot of simualtion games of this type.
Lots of variety all over the place.
Good bang for buck in terms of content.
Slow, methodical gameplay for those who like control.

-:
Action RPG portions can get boring, not enough variety in missions.
Lack of controls on away missions could be better.
UI elements could be added to provide better information to the end user.

For more first impressions and gameplay footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOn6N_7Edmc

My first impression of this game after 4 hours of play is pretty good. In spite of the kiddy graphics there's a surprising amount of depth to this game. Each game is randomly generated giving you a different experience each time. I haven't played too far into the game yet so I don't know how it develops later on, but I'm certainly enjoying the early game.

https://youtu.be/NVt57iFHjX8
The Spatials is basically split into two parts: first you have a base-building tycoon style game, second you have a real time RPG game where characters go on missions, level up and so on.

Base building is the core of the game, your goal is to build a large space station that will attract many visitors from different alien races, supply them with their needs and of course, make money out of them. To do this you'll not only need to build the station, but supply it with resources, and there are many different resources to be found on the hundred or so planets out there.

Research is necessary to unlock new room and equipment types and there's a tech tree that you progress through, making your station more advanced over time. To unlock new techs you need to gain research points by going on missions. This is also how you discover and acquire the resources you need.

Your station requires staff. There are five different types of characters, obviously modelled on Star Trek - the diplomat, the science officer, the doctor, the strategist and the engineer, each with colour coded uniforms making it easy to tell them apart. Not only do they work in the station but more importantly, they go on missions to various planets. This is where the real time RPG part of the game comes in.

Each character possesses different skills and items. Going on missions gains them experience which causes them to level up and further develop their skills. They also develop increasingly sophisticated needs that must be fulfilled, like certain foods for example. Oddly, their only need at the beginning of the game is sleep, apparently they don't even need to eat at the start, which is just as well, because you don't have any food or the means to cook it.

Missions consist of choosing five characters, landing on a planet and performing certain tasks, like destroying enemy bases and so on. The combat is pretty simple once you get the hang of it, with each character having a certain special skill that can be activated with a keypress (1-5). It's very important to keep pressing the 4 button to keep healing your characters. They can't actually die in combat, but if their health is reduced to zero they are put "in stasis", so they can no longer take part in the mission. If this happens to all your characters then you've failed the mission. You can easily try it again later though, perhaps with different characters and equipment.

Once you've won a mission you get certain rewards, such as resources and items, as well as experience and research points. You also have access to the planet's resources, which you can start harvesting, to add to your station inventory. You can upgrade your characters with new skills and new weapons to make them stronger in future missions.

You can also accept contracts which are like missions, but you don't actually play the mission, you just send up to three officers on the mission, pay a fee and get a result a few minutes later.

New staff members can be recruited at embassies, and every system has one career mission which unlocks a new star system. Over time, enemies grow stronger and your characters level up, making them stronger. All the while you have to keep growing your base and providing more and more services for the visiting aliens.

While the graphical style is a retro isometric view, it's detailed and colourful and serves its purpose. It won't win any prizes but that's not what the game is about. The gameplay is straightforward, easy to learn and enjoyable. It may become quite challenging to satisfy all of your visitor's needs once the station grows large enough, but I haven't got that far in the game yet.

My first impression though, is very good. It's a fun game, an interesting challenge, and very relaxing to play. I recommend it.

Hi folks! Been playing The Spatials for many months prior to the Steam launch (stoked that my save games transferred seamlessly).

As a DF9 refugee I have to say I'm loving The Spatials. It's not the same game DF9 was trying to be so don't think it's an exact replica. Main differences being the art style, you cannot explore directly outside your base (but you can perform away missions on planet) and most of all this game is actually complete!

The Spatials has more depth than you might initially think from a cursory glance. It's never a hard game but there is a bit of thinking and a bit of managment required. Mostly when it comes to leveling up your crew members so they can a.) fight tougher enemies in the away missions and b.) man the higher level embassies to speed up your resource production.

Equiping your mission team with a suprisingly large number of different abilities and special weapons is a fun and interesting dimension. I'm still finding new abilities (or new levels of power) that I didn't realise existed. Abilities are picked up as semi-random drops from completing missions.

Initially you may think money is your big hurdle but once you get a good tourist trade running (with the requisite food, drinks, merchanidise, beds and showers production lines running) money will not be an issue. Leveling your crew and opening up the tech tree will be.

Yes there is a (somewhat linear) tech tree which will gradually open up new rooms and items to start new production lines.

Have to also mention the two man team at Weird & Wry. Carlos is amazingly responsive to queries and feedback on the official Spatials forums and I couldn't fault the open communication, frank feedback and friendly rapport he has built with the community there. A note that The Spatials is released as a complete game and not Early Access. As such there is no feature roadmap to build out that I'm aware of. I don't mind, as the game is pretty darn good right now.

As I mentioned I've been playing for several months now (since Dec 2014) and haven't become bored (although some of the away missions do tend to repeat with increased difficulty). So for less money down than that other space base building, management game, The Spatials has more depth, missions, simple combat, a tech tree, deep chracter skills and abilities, a story line and fantastic devs.

Highly recommend for the price.

Finno

Game: The Spatials
Price: $13.99*
Genre: building/exploration/simulation
Time Played: 30 hours**
Personal Enjoyment Rating: ☺☺☺☺☻

Links I Found Helpful***
A YouTube let’s play by Blitzkriegsler. This video gives you a good idea of what the game is actually like to play as the narrator explores it, although there have been some improvements since the video was made on 14 Jan 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwTi-Vilyw8

A very fun and very reasonably priced little game. I think that there are a fair few “Spacebase Refugees” that have come to look at The Spatials. This is a completed game, although the devs seem to have ideas for improvement in the future. Speaking of the devs, Carlos is very good about responding to questions and concerns and generally communicating with the community.

The Spatials is a weird mix of activities, including base building, “dungeon” exploration, looting, production lines, economy simulation, and character simulation (meeting their needs/keeping them happy). Despite all of these different things sounding too disparate, the game does come together into a cohesive whole which is fun and different. I would say that there is room in the future to strengthen each segment of the game and expand upon them, but right now this is a completed game which (as all games should) stands to be improved upon.

The humour is delightful and it’s great to have a game where you don’t feel too much pressure (yet if you want to challenge yourself with low level characters on a high level planet you can!).

All in all, considering that I've played 30 hours of this game already, and I'm likely to play another 30 of it and get all the achievements now that it's on Steam - I'd say that it's a good game, a fun game, and a great buy. If this is your sort of thing, it will entertain you for ages too!

Most of your gameplay does consist of away missions, exploring the planet and defeating all the enemies. This gets a little monotonous after a while. There could be a tad more variety in the fauna, flora, and layout of planets as well as in the mission objectives.

Back at the asteroid though, you build up your base by choosing what to build and where to build it, albeit you probably want to eventually build at least one of everything. The idea is you need different sorts of rooms to provide goods to visitors (to earn money) and to your officers (to keep them happy). This includes things like sleep, hygiene, food variety, intellectual stimulation, and entertainment.

One fun feature of the game that is right up my alley is the inclusion of collectables. You have a garden and a museum room which allow you to show off your collectables, and you find the collectables whilst exploring planets. (Tip: they are generally found somewhere around the centre of a planet so that you don’t have to search every square inch of every planet).

I find mostly use the mouse, and it would be a little tricky to not use the mouse. On away missions there are hotkeys for using each character’s special ability.

There isn’t a story per se, however I’ve only got about halfway through the galaxy. There are hints at a storyline as you do major missions to unlock the next solar system, however this isn’t a story-driven sort of game.

Nothing amazing, nothing bad. The music is quite fun, although some tracks get on my personal nerves due to some repetitive high pitch noises. Meanwhile the phaser fire during fights can get quite monotonous. However this is a case of not being able to think of much to say about the sound, I just didn’t find it particularly remarkable.

I really enjoy the artwork in this game. It’s got a clear style and it sticks with it. The interesting thing is how the art style supports the game’s attitude of being a little bit of a star trek farce - it doesn’t take itself too seriously and doesn’t want the player to take it too seriously either.

I’ve had a lot of fun with the randomized portraits and my imagination to find characters that look vaguely like other characters. So far I’ve found a Locutus, Jean Luc Picard, Beverly Crusher, Geordi LaForge, Miles O’brien, The Doctor, Tom Paris, Katherine Janeway, Kes, Julian Bashir, B’elanna Torres, Wesley Crusher, and Lando Cairissian. I’ve also found a TARDIS collectable, which totally made my day.

+ complete and fun game to play
+ great potential, great concept
+ fun artwork
+ interesting universe
+ supportive devs
- sounds could use some work
- could use more depth
- some UI organization could be improved upon

Please
• give me constructive criticism in the comments - tell me why the review wasn’t helpful
• upvote my Steam review if you liked it so that others are more likely to find it too!

For those that are interested in seeing more of my reviews, I have set up an archive of them at an external website. I don't earn anything off of this at all, it's just a little side project that I add to when I can. Steam won't let me create a direct link though, so you'll need to make your own way to the URL I describe now: rothana dot weebly dot com

Footnotes
*Any prices that I mention are in CDN because that is what I see.
**I bought the game before its release on Steam. =)
***I will not be keeping an eye on whether the links are up to date, so if they are broken I apologise. Remember that these are external websites and I'm just trying to be helpful - I'm not responsible for the content on the other end.

Edit Log
30/03/2015 formatting
02/04/2015 typo corrections, thank you ilfar.drachadi

Honestly i did not expect that much - i was just looking for a small sim, not too expensive.

But i was really surprised by this game. First of all you get 4 games in one.

Simulation - Manage and build your base, train your crew and make your visitors happy.

Strategy - Decide which missions to do to get the different resources of the different planets.

Tactical realtime combat - You play with your 5 man landing crew on the planets to solve mission, fight bosses.

RPG - Decide how to develop your crew, equip them with stuff you find or get in missions. Control what they should do, and what not.

All these for parts of the game are more or less lite versions of each genre.

The simulation part makes fun, but it is not so hard - crew members can leave if they are unhappy, but in my game they did not yet. You gain money permanently, but you decide what to spend it on and when - so you should never reach 0. But still their is enough micromanagment possible to make your base work better and better.

They strategy part is nice to have, but easy to handle. If you level your crew up to fast, they demand goods you can only produce with later ressources. So you have to ensure to get this resources quick before your crewmembers leave. You have to decide, if you want to spend money on gather resource or put personal on the systems embassady, to maximize the output of the system.

The tactial realtime combat part makes a lot of fun, i easy at the start but get very difficult later. Each planet can be played in 3 levels, normal, hard and wtf. And if one crew member "dies", he just goes to stasis and can join you later after the mission - so its not so frustating, as you dont lose long trained crew members.

The RPG Part seems to be not so important, but later in the game the importance grows. You have 5 different types of crewclasses and each member has its own "carreer" to get better. Addionally each class hat 6 equipmentslots for equipment of a specific type. The carreer attributes can buff your abilites to work on the station or buff equipmentslots to get additional stats for the missions on the planet. This does not matter at the start. But in my game for example, i recognized with level 22 crew, that my doctor is always close to dying and has a lot less life then all the other crewmembers, even with the best equipment. When i checked his carreer i saw that this guy has 0 % bonus on life, where the other members had 50-90%. But therefor he was a perfect worker, so threw him out of the landing crew and picked up another doctor who was level 20, but had already 65% bonus life.

And in this more then 25 gaming hours i did not find a single bug.... this is really impressive. Ok the pathfinding is not perfect and the crew does not always the most clever thing, but everything work. And each option they a thought of while playing, is already there - but sometimes not easy to find (Sort crew by class would be nice - Ahhh, there is the button on the bottom of the list / Some statistic would be nice - Ahh, below the notifications there statistics to show me almost everything).

I bought this game just for some our between other really good games.... now i have more than 25 gaming hours in less then a week and dont play anything else. So i suggest to buy this game. For me it is PERFECT!

Update 6.4.2015: Played 50 hours now and finished the campaign at normal difficulty. On the 2nd run i will make a lot different - so here some hints:

- Visitors and crew always want to fulfill their highest demand. This means if food is on 40 and sleep on 39, they will run and get sleep, even if they are in the bistro and would be more clever to eat first. After sleeping the will run back to bistro, but wasted much time.
- Each person has different demand and craves. Later it makes sense to reduce rooms which fulfill demand on lower levels. Nevertheless you still need all of them, because some persons want special stuff from low level rooms. Example: Later i build about 10 suites all around the base and deleted my 3 baracks, but kept one. So i force the people to use the better beds to gain more sleep at a time. But some still need the low level soap, so i kept one barrack, without beds, but 2 showers.
- You can build large rooms (you really have enough space), but it makes no sense. You need to build more than one room of the same type at different locations, so people dont waste time to run around your whole base to fulfill 2 or more demands. So i built many small rooms of the same time everywhere.
- Use corridors and security gates. With this you can ensure that vistors and worker dont get into the same areas. This way you can optimize the paths between the rooms for both of them. If you ways go through rooms, this get more difficult and you need to change gate settings many times to build.
- Free your landing crew from production so they gain happiness faster, cause they fulfill demands faster and you can do mission after mission - but let them still be builder for rooms and so on. If they got stuck behind some security gates in the visitors area, they will be free after doing the next mission.
- Free the workers from building, so they dont run long ways between building and production.
- If you feel unpowered, use lemurian sniper rifle and rockets to kite your enemies - it take some time but you will be able too finish each fight successfully.

(Note: I spent many more hours on this game in the Humble Bundle version before they got to Steam.)

The Spatials is part tycoon game, part action game. The basic gameplay is that you build a space base to attract visitors, but to keep them happy you need to set up a production chain of food and items.
And in order to get resources for this, you need to send your crew out on missions.

The space building part functions much like any tycoon game: you lay out rooms and corridors, optimally in such a manner that nobody has to travel too far for it. You can also use decorative items to make the base prettier.

The missions are point and click: you get an objective such as "track the items" or "kill the pirates", and you click your crew through the world. You can kill enemies (and innocents) by clicking on them or by using your crew members' skills.
After you cleared a planet you will have earned some resources, and you can now also set it to automatically deliver resources to your base on each turn.

Back at the base you will be able to unlock more room types, increasing the types of things you can build, increasing the number of resources you need... you get the drill.

The game has a cute visual style and Star Trek-like music. It is quite easy to get into, but at the same time remains challenging and fun as you try out new base layouts and new missions.

Once in a great while a game comes along where you just want to play, and play, and play. Well for me this is it. I just want to keep trying to do all missions on all the Planets, upgrade my team the best I can, build my base till I get it going good, and reasearch all there is to know. Twenty Seven hours in, and I still am at it. This game is fun, and challenging. It took me about Six-Eight Hours to really get a good feel at what to do. Although I still am finding things out. It is kind of like playing a couple games in one. Buiding a base, but also building a good team to go on Missions. I will be playing alot more hours, and it is a good price for the gameplay. It reminds me of why I got into games in the first place, to just have fun.

this is what spacebase df-9 tried to be.

Good things first: The game looks great and the soundtrack is amazing. It has a really polished UI. At the beginning the game seems interesting and even though the tutorials don't teach you everything but leave a bit to discover (like removing items when your inventory gets full) it's quite easy to get.

Unfortunately that simplicity also is the root of the problem with the game. It's just too simple. There's no much strategy involved - you just need to build everything your visitors require. The game doesn't allow you to do much planning or optimization. Soon you also start to run out of resources, which can be helped with the away team and "diplomacy". Unfortunately there are also some weird requirements for materials you just don't have or will have in long time (like fibers). The campaign starts to feel one long linear path you're unlocking.

Speaking of the away teams and exploration mode. It's interesting, challening and funny at first, but becomes mundane quite soon. All the missions are basically variations of three architypes: find items, kill pirates, destroy buildings. After dozen of levels, you feel you've seen it all.

The difficulty levels in exploration is quite uneven. At first the missions are extremely easy (12 first planets or so), but the you hit a huge wall where completing a level becomes a true (much needed) challenge . Unfortunately the game still repeats the same pattern, and with no chance of strategy throw in, it becomes boring. The difficulty comes from the fact that enemies have more health and they do more damage. They always behave the same: go to the attack range and attack. No specific AI or anything. I was able to complete WTF difficulty boss just by running around in the room and sniping him in the head.

The game feels like a casual mobile game. Judging from the trello todo list they also wanted to target mobile, so that might explain it.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend the game in it's current form.

Some people have said that this is the game DF-9 was supposed to be, and now after playing the Spatials that certainly isn't a compliment :P

Here is my first "let's play" video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR6v1ax9cjg

This game is an outstanding Indie gem. It is deep, well balanced, well thought out, and runs very smooth. It also included a help screen and a tutorial assistant that can be closed until needed at any time. You will likely need to use the help resources a few times however as this game is very deep and complex. The brilliance comes with th games simplicity however. While it offers a lot to do, it never feels overwhelming and everything makes sense.

You start off with 5 random people as your crew in a tiny little room on some distant asteroid far, far away. Every crew member has a name and a purpose and starts off at level 1. At this early level their only needs to keep them happy and working for you is a place to sleep. Easy enough, just use your starting 10,000 credits to have them build on add on room and toss in some beds. They don't require micro-management and work without having to babysit them at all, which I love.

So now you got them a little space station started. Next room to build is a warehouse, get another warehouse room added on and toss in some storage vaults and a recycling machine to help keep your inventory clean and uncluttered.

Perfect. Now what?

Well, start exploring the vastness of this procedurally generated galaxy that is your game. Start by looking in your own system and clicking on other plants or asteroids to conquer. Conquer them by completing the missions given to you on said planet, usually killing mobs or boss mobs. Once you conquer the planet, you now have access that worlds rescources. Now use your points you've obtained conquering planets to research no technology on new stuff to make for your base. Add on more rooms and more cool stuff.

Pretty soon, you'll be ready to host aliens from other universes to come and stay at your base, and by supplying them with food, drink and items that want to buy, you'll make them happy and start acquiring money.

Rinse and repeat, as you start conquering and exploring planets further and further out, as the difficulty increases, and as your base grows in insane sizes.

It's a brilliant game that seems to offer a bewildering level of depth, explortation, and balance. But most importantly it is just plan FUN to play.

There isn't many Indie games that launch with the level of heart, soul, and quality that this little game contains in abundance.

This game is easily worth double it's asking price in my opinion because it is loaded with so much to do, so much to research, and so much to build. At its current price tag, this is a no brainer for any fan of simulation or RPG fans. Go click "Buy" and you'll thank me later.

My Early Rating... 88% out of 100. A great bang for your dollar!!

The Spatials is what would've happened if Starfleet cared about cash and tourists instead of exploration and peacekeeping! Your goal is simple. Spread your influence, and please your customers with the most efficient tourist attraction this side of the Milky Way!
In all, this Action/Tycoon game has enough to bite into and be enjoyed. However it does have a bit of a learning curve. Even with the tutorials your progression is simply up to you to figure out. (Don't worry about setting up your station at start and focus more on away missions right away.) Also The Spatials is a game that will require quite a bit of time investment to get anything really going. Making sure that you can meet the supply and demand of your ravenous guests. The game is a solid tycoon game but expect more of a relaxed experience then something fast paced. There really isn't a way to lose for that matter.
With little to no bugs to speak of. Spatials is very well put together. The only area it may lack is in replay. There really isn't much pushing you to make any station after you've gone through all that work. So if your looking for a factory/tycoon game with decent graphics, fun away missions and plenty of upgrades. An action element and relaxed gameplay. The Spatials is a solid choice.

I made a video review to show off some of the features and gameplay of this game!
https://youtu.be/SzNTuJgAlrs
I hope you enjoy!
Martyr

Fairly polished (text errors aside), looks nice, interface is good, the base building is interesting enough... but there is literally no risk, and virtually no challenge. They've basically built a really nice cow-clicker, which would be great if I actually wanted to play that sort of game.

Fantastic little game.
A Nutshell synopsis:

Build a space station.
Unlock new room types and items through research and money.
Travel to other planets to perform missions for research points and loot.
Use loot in your space station to supply stores and sell items to visitors for money.
Level up officers.
Keep officers happy. Officers become harder to please the higher their level.

Combat is a simple point and click affair, but fits the scope of the game.
Highly recommended.

Once in a while, you find a little gem in all those Indies these days.

This is one of them.

The combat feels a little like 1995 (that is not that bad, at least i was young back then), but it is good enough (albeit i really like turn based tactical battles, just saying^^).
That there even IS real combat in a space-station-building-game is nice.

And thats what this game is, a modern space station builder with a bunch of depth, alot of good ideas and a suprisingly fair price.
When you have a look at the horrible stuff for 20-30 bucks around, EA titles from that you know after a short look that the "game" will stay in EA for 2-5 years, this can't be mentioned enough.

I hope this game runs fine and don't gets lost like Lantern Forge.

Thanks to the devs for the great game already.
I know, i won't get turn based combat, but...
may i ask for the option to rename and maybe even alter the look of my crewmembers?

Anyway, worth every cent, thanks a bunch.

There's a lot about The Spatials to like, and a lot that falls flat. The away team leveling process is pretty cool and works reasonably well as a game mechanic. The base building and visitor attraction mechanic is a cool concept, though the economics of it are extremely simplistic and not really that interesting. There's also a big mismatch between when nodes in the research tree unlock and when the corresponding resources required to use the stuff you've researched unlocks. You end up with a substantial amount of time where you can't use anything you've researched. Worse, later on, once you hit level 13 or 14 officers, their vital needs get complex enough that if you happen to fail a mission and they become unhappy, you can't raise their happiness levels back up in time to keep them from leaving, even if they started at near-full before the mission began. And because you lose all their items when they leave, it's hard to replace people.

Essentially, there are major game balance issues right now that keep the game from reaching its full potential. But the game is also a diamond in the rough. Fixing the game balance issues really shouldn't really be that hard. A few of the planets around level 6 or 7 should get a couple of the more advanced resources sprinkled in to tide you over until level 10 or so when the advanced resources really start becoming available in bulk. The AI for officers should be smarter about fulfilling their vital needs and cravings more quickly so that they don't time out when unhappy through no fault of the player. It's certainly possible right now to get totally screwed by suboptimal base design, but you don't know the base design is suboptimal until you're frantically trying to make someone happy again with a timer ticking on you. And the game needs a lot more variety in the missions, particularly in terms of different types of enemies. Every mission is the same couple enemies with very little variety. After the 10000th pirate you kill, it gets a little monotonous.

If the game is on sale for < $5, or if they fix these issues, it's worth your time, otherwise, probably not.

Much better than the failure that was SpaceBase DF-9. Very etertaining, and worth your time to take a look.

What Space Base DF-9 should have been.

This game is almost perfect. It is one of those rare gems that you can run for hours and hours only to realize the sun has come up and you may need to sleep at school/work before putting in another night with this game.

The one big gripe I have with this game is that, while the developers have apparently made it in OpenGL and porting it to Linux should be fairly easy, they have stated it's not on their list of things to do right now. I hope they will put it on their to-do list fairly soon since I mainly use Linux.

Do I recommend this game? Yes.

There are, however, some issues that may affect gameplay:
1. While the soundtrack does a good job of being ambient enough to not be an immediate bother, it starts to get grating when you're playing it for several hours at a time. Grating as in there's this one track that sounds as if it's glitching and it gets annoying fast.
2. There is no way for tall objects (Like the spaceport) to become transparant while moused over or when using the wall-removal button, making it fairly difficult to see what may be built directly behind them.
3. Apparently you can't put corridors side-by-side, yet there's no obvious other room that could be used to make corridors which are two or more squares wide. Yet, when exploring planets somehow someway the people building there CAN add corridors side-by-side, making for some interesting doorway and hallway combinations.
4. You can't (de-)construct the initial teleport room, mostly because it's the only place where your officers spawn. But you can't build anything in there, not even ornaments, making it a fairly useless 3x3 square block. (5x5 if you consider you can't put rooms up against other rooms.) It's also the only place which has walls with big giant windows which I'm sure my visitors would enjoy seeing on the outer edges of my spaceport. From a glance at the research tree, there's also no way to unlock being able to (de-)construct this particular room type. I would welcome the opportunity to expand upon it and use it as a 3x3 hallway with ornaments, but alas.
5. Emptying your inventory during a crisis gives you 1C for stacks of 0~1999 units, 2C for stacks of 2000~2999 units, and so on. It's pretty much useless even while you'd imagine there's a bit more compensation for the hard work your officers put into making end-products as opposed to raw materials. This is not taken into account at all and all stacks are treated equally in this.
6. When sorting officers, the three category buttons do not have their expected behaviour. When all are turned off, one should see the entire list, which happens fine. But when sorting on only diplomats, one still sees the entire list. When sorting on only exploration crew, one still sees the entire list. It is confusing. A similar sorting option is lacking at the Diplomat screen, where I often have to scroll past my exploration team and already assigned diplomats before getting to the candidates I can actually put in the vacant slot I am trying to fill. This could use some optimization.
7.a. Officers will walk away from big building projects after they have only put down one piece of floor or an object instead of being automatically assigned the next build order since they are the closest worker to it. Especially in big projects this may lead to officers from the farthest reaches of your station to come wandering over, slowing down the build project immensely.
b. In a similar manner; officers will randomly decide to hop from one factory module to another without clear indication of what is behind their decision to do so. They would make one dessert only to hop over to the machine next to it and make another dessert at it, only to then walk over to another factory room and start making spare parts. And this is with enough officers in the station to occupy all of the factory objects simultaneously.

So yes, the game runs stable (Tested on Windows 7). It's playable. It's enjoyable. It could use some optimization, but there has never been a perfect game.
So, If you're happy enough dealing with the issues I listed in this review, by all means buy the game. It /is/ enjoyable to play and a decided timesink.

For all intents and purposes, this is what Double Fine's Spacebase DF-9 could have been. And it made me think of games like MuckyFoot's Startopia in terms of station-building, a real-time version of MicroProse's UFO/X-Com series in terms of planet-exploration/combat, and even Sierra's Alien Legacy which had attempted to combine the two elements before.

Here's hoping for a proper Linux port in the near future. ;)

nice price for a great game seriously

you build a base and explore for unlock new recipes weapons and skills like a good rpg, the people say the gameplay of the fights aren't so great but for me its really good

100 % recomended