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It’s dangerous to get too excited about a new RTS. Just look at what happened to Stormgate. So I’ve been cautious with ZeroSpace. It’s an RTS built in the classic mould—think StarCraft 2—featuring proper basebuilding and potent hero units. So far, pretty familiar. But there’s more.
ZeroSpace also boasts an RPG campaign with dialogue trees and loyalty missions, evoking the likes of Mass Effect—albeit without those enviable production values. And then there’s the Galactic War, inspired by Helldivers 2’s dynamic conflict. My interest was piqued. Cautiously.
Let’s start with the good stuff. The campaign is shaping up nicely, though the early access build is limited to a handful of missions that form the first act. While the setup is a generic ‘humanity needs this rare resource that’s protected by horrible aliens’, ZeroSpace quickly establishes plenty of friction between your crew and sets up a complex political situation where it definitely seems like you shouldn’t trust your superiors.
The writing and performances are workmanlike, but my feelings towards the cast so far are at best neutral. Still, there’s definitely something here, and with a bit of polish the more cinematic, RPG-inspired side of ZeroSpace could really shine. At the moment, though, it’s a bit underbaked.
Between missions you can take a break and enjoy a blether with your crew and level up some of your colleagues, who back you up during missions. It’s obviously channelling Mass Effect, right down to the alien designs, but I never really felt like I was playing an RPG. That said, we’re playing an alpha build, and it’s a solid foundation.
This is also where you can spend resources on upgrading troops and buildings, and there’s a lot of potential here and some fun synergies—like expanding the range of your basic troops’ jetpacks, while also buffing their damage once they land, effectively letting you build Warhammer 40k-style assault marines.
The campaign missions call to mind StarCraft 2.
The campaign missions call to mind StarCraft 2 in terms of the variety of objectives and integration of story beats, but it’s significantly more streamlined. The micromanagement of troops and your economy is pretty effortless, letting you get into the action rapidly, and then stay there. I dig it, though the reduction in complexity might not sit well with everyone.
One thing I’m a really big fan of is the ability to draw a battle line when you’ve selected some units—it’s a quick, straightforward way to get your troops in an effective position or formation, and a smart evolution of the cover system pioneered by Relic all those years ago.
Unfortunately, the UI is ugly and at best functional, and it can be tricky to get a read on a given battle. When you’ve got units that are twice the size of your buildings, tiny soldiers running between them, and swarms of alien enemies filling the screen, you need a lot more clarity than what ZeroSpace offers.
And while Homeworld artist and Relic co-founder Aaron Kambeitz has been spearheading an art overhaul, I don’t think it’s quite there yet. Aesthetically, it’s a mix of Mass Effect and StarCraft 2, but on a budget, with only the ship and vehicle design approaching anything noteworthy.
Alongside the start of the campaign, ZeroSpace’s early access build offers quite a few ways to get your kicks: comp-stomps, co-op survival matches, 1v1 and 2v2 PvP brawls, and the option to create custom games. While ZeroSpace often feels very early access, the variety of modes is commendable, and that’s before we even get to the Galactic War.
The Galactic War is ZeroSpace’s big multiplayer hook, taking Helldivers 2’s dynamic campaigns and making them competitive. It’s an extremely cool concept, especially if you don’t care about competitive ladders but still want something to fight for. Each season will see you hop between worlds and battles as you try to swallow up the galaxy for your chosen faction, earning rewards along the way.
The Galactic War is ZeroSpace’s big multiplayer hook.
Unfortunately these rewards are just titles and portraits, which I doubt most people will really get excited about. Helldivers 2-style cosmetics would make me much more eager to die for the cause. Yes, I’m a very mercenary lad. Rewards aside, though, I think the system has a lot to offer an RTS and I’m looking forward to watching it evolve.
There’s just one problem: streamers.
What you might not realise when you pick your faction in the Galactic War is that you’re actually picking a streamer. Winter, Neo and uThermal each lead a faction, which might mean more to you than it does me—a man who has never watched a stream the whole way through and who refuses to watch YouTube videos unless they feature cute dogs.
We, the unwashed masses, are merely cannon fodder, fighting to earn our “chosen” streamer the title of Galactic Emperor. What are their policies? Where do they stand on devolution, nationalisation and renewable energy? Will they fix the NHS? Who knows?
Look, I get it, streamers can be a potent arm of a videogame’s marketing department, potentially bringing their audience to whatever game they’re advertising. But what am I getting out of it? Exclusive portraits and titles feel like a lacklustre reward compared to being crowned the ruler of the galaxy. Even if it’s a ceremonial role, I’d like a crown too.
Then there’s the ZeroSpace: First Contact Invitational, a tournament that will see 12 streamers and RTS pros duking it out over a $13,000 prize pool. An RTS kicking off with an invitational is not unusual, but it’s a massive turn off when a game begins its life by trying to enrich streamers instead of normal players.
The real issue with all this is that it speaks to the misapprehension that a surprising number of RTS developers labour under—that competitive multiplayer is king. In reality, most RTS players stick to the campaigns and comp-stomp skirmishes.
Most RTS players stick to the campaigns and comp-stomp skirmishes.
Competitive multiplayer can give an RTS an incredibly long tail, as we’ve seen with StarCraft and its sequel, but this early elevation of streamers that most of ZeroSpace’s potential audience will have never heard of kinda bums me out.
I’ve just been burned too many times by the assumption that streamers and competitive multiplayer are the most crucial components of an RTS, when that’s just not the case.
To be fair to ZeroSpace, it’s clearly giving a lot of love to its singleplayer elements, as well as co-op and comp stomps: This doesn’t actually feel like a game that’s prioritising competitive multiplayer over the campaign. Still, it’s unfortunate that developers Starlance Studios and Ironward are dedicating time and effort to getting the streamers on their side, when there are so many better things it could be doing.
I hope these will end up just being minor niggles once it hits 1.0, dwarfed by the quality of its campaign and the liveliness of the Galactic War. At the time of writing it’s just managed to pull itself out of a Mixed rating on Steam, and the bulk of complaints seem to be that this early access game is still a work in progress. That said, I still recommend waiting for this one. It’s got a lot of promise, but there’s plenty of work to be done.
