Space Station: Frontier (iPhone)

iPhone integration (About)

Save state: Yes
iPod music: Yes
Status bar: No

App Store Links: Purchase

Version: 1.0.0
Price as reviewed: £1.79
by Origin8

There has been a glut of tower defence games for the iPhone and the genre has seen little innovation beyond the basic characteristics of most titles. Sure, we’ve had them set in 3D but that hasn’t changed how they work. Origin8 with the Sentinel series have created some new gameplay twists but it is in Space Station: Frontier that things start to get interesting.

This title plays more like a real time strategy game and that’s thanks to power lines that you can connect to form a grid of structures. Initially, you’ll only be able to construct mining devices and defensive laser turrets, but through earning credits from the campaign and other modes you will gain access to more powerful defences and other structures that aid in collecting as much crystal as you can. Crystal is the ingame resource that allows you to build new extensions to your mining empire, and it is mined from many asteroids that are scattered about the galaxy.

The game has quite a bit of strategy in where you choose to build miners and defences as larger rocks yield more crystal. Some defences can be upgraded with crystal, making them stronger with a greater attack range. Eventually the enemy will get too strong for your defences, and generally does a good job of finding the weak points—what would have been nice would have been to have the ability to build ships of your own to combat these craft and destroy an enemy base.

It is interesting that the campaign cannot be completed unless you’re willing to spend a few rounds in survival, to get the credits needed for a better toolkit. But it is an effective way to keep you playing the game, and so it is easy to lose hours in this mode so that you can upgrade your capabilities and survive for longer periods of time.

Space Station: Frontier uses the same control scheme as most iPhone tower defence games, with simple tap drag operations and the ubiquitous pinch to zoom control. You can tap structures to upgrade them and it also comes with a speed control. A nice touch is that the whole structures tab is collapsible, freeing up screen area for when you don’t need to build anything.

Like all Origin8 games, it looks fantastic. The data displays are slickly presented but credit should go to the in game environments, units, buildings and particularly the effects which look fantastic. Enemy vessels explode with a satisfying fireball that gets more fearsome as ships increase in size and power, crystal visibly depletes from rocky surfaces and the weapon fire is very impressive.

Certainly, this is a big leap forward for the now somewhat stale tower defence genre and is very fun as a result. You will get many hours out of it especially as nearly everything is upgradeable, and it certainly beats the fixed path style of prior games hands down. If you’re looking for a slick defence game that's something different, then this is it.