If you fantasize about going on vacation to a space station, well, it still seems like an unattainable dream, but here is Spacebase Startopia so you can create a vacation paradise in the stars from home. Sequel to the classic Startopia, in this analysis we review the pros and cons of this strategy and management game for PC, Xbox and PlayStation.
You take care of even the smallest detail. Each room, each corridor, each decorative object is there ready to make happy visitors from another world who have decided to stop and enjoy life in your great space station . But then the worst happens: a plague, tons of garbage piling up everywhere, terrorists blowing everything up, or even the competition sabotaging your hard work. And chaos arrives. And what was once peace and harmony is now a festival of wailing, screaming and cursing words that go on and on. “What the hell happened here?” You ask yourself as you watch your empire crumble. But it is too late; bankruptcy has arrived. Goodbye to the dream of building a paradise in the stars. A wonderful idea, especially if you once enjoyed the legendary Theme Hospital or Dungeon Keeper like I did, but Spacebase Startopia does not always make this management experience as fun and exciting as it could be.
I won’t deny that I’ve had a great time dealing with this particular hell, but the sequel to my beloved Startopia can also be quite frustrating and confusing as things get complicated. It is the grace of these games, some of you will tell me, and you are right; but when you feel like you’ve lost control of things and can hardly do anything to avoid ruin … that’s when the Realmforge Studios gameshows its worst face. One of the things I appreciate most in these management games is the opportunity to sit still and look at my work. I don’t care if they’re hospital patients, amusement park visitors, or tentacular aliens; I want to see you enjoy everything I have built and this is not something that Spacebase Startopia allows you to do with such joy. Tourists arrive incessantly with more demands, with new problems, collapsing in minutes everything you have created. And they get mad, of course, because they have to wait to take an elevator, or because the garbage surrounds them, or what do I know, because there are not enough doctors to heal so many patients.
My point is that, in the end, in Spacebase Startopia there is so much to do in such a short time, that you hardly enjoy managing your space station. You go from here to there like a madman building without order or concert; trying to make things work minimally well … even if you don’t win an award for best design. And it’s a shame. The Startopia sequel has enormous potential, and it certainly knows how to amuse itself with its challenges and the many management options it puts at your fingertips, but as I was saying, the experience can be frustrating and even stressful. Even so, I would tell you to accept the challenge and build your own space station because as you will see in this Spacebase Startopia review, it is a challenging experience that is worth it.
Strategy, management and mayhem at Spacebase lo Startopia
Strategy, management and a lot of chaos in this Spacebase Startopia gameplay
One of the peculiarities of this management video game is that it forces you to work simultaneously on three different decks , each with its own peculiarities but, of course, totally related to each other. In practice this means that you are going to move a lot, a lot, in order to keep visitors happy so that they spend more and more money, here energy, which you will use to build better facilities. But your work at Spacebase Startopia does not end here, because you must also generate essential resources and raw materials to build and develop new leisure spaces designed for the most snobbish tourists … without pissing off the rest, because unfortunately for you, many times, the wishes of one are opposed to those of other aliens. So chaos is guaranteed, but when everything works with the precision of a clock it is chaos that is enjoyed and motivates you to give your best. Why then did you say that the experience becomes stressful? It’s hard to find a moment of relaxation.
If there is garbage everywhere, giant roaches will start to emerge. You can’t step on them, but you can spray them with a laser beam
Every time he started a new game, he did so by measuring the distances between one and the other leisure areas to the millimeter; I took care of the details, I tried to make everything look nice with the many decorative objects that you have at your fingertips … until an invasion of tourists brought me back to harsh reality. There is no time to waste, forget the aesthetics! Be functional because in a matter of minutes, everything can go to hell. If the air you breathe is not pure, people will get pissed off; If they have to wait longer than necessary to enjoy an attraction, they will become enraged and with it, they will also piss off the employees who will become more and more stressed. The more tourists there are in your space station, the more trash will accumulate and, therefore, you will have to dedicate more resources to building and improving the robots in charge of cleaning. And thenCrime grows, increase the attacks of space pirates, and even generate radioactive waste to which you must pay special care … also worrying that your robots do not stop collecting the raw materials that are generated in the biological cover, where you must create different biomes to satisfy tourists, but above all, to generate precious resources with which to make new objects or trade with other aliens.
There is so much to do in such a short time, that you hardly enjoy the managementI love that there are so many options, it is something that I value very much, but instead of enjoying them in the end I was overwhelmed thinking about everything I had to do and how little time I had. In other games of the style it is common for chaos to take over the stage at specific moments of the game; that you have to face situations that are beyond your control … until you master them and everything returns to normal. Spacebase Startopia lives in a permanent state of chaos that does not allow you to relax for a moment: as you build new rooms you must also worry that the factorybe sure to create more and better resources to trade with or, late in the game, meet the needs of the most elite tourists as well. And in between, you can’t stop researching new technologies and improving existing ones, because your rivals are going for it all, and this means that they will harass you with bombs or artifacts that you must search manually if you don’t want to suffer more than necessary.
The combat isn’t very deep, but there are several tech trees that you can research to make a difference in fighting pirates and other enemies.
You yourself can investigate sabotage actions to, from the police station, hinder the progress of other stations by stealing energy, throwing garbage or even sending inspectors to temporarily stop some of their rooms. As you can see, Spacebase Startopia is a management game with a wide range of options, so it is easy to have a great time overcoming the missions of its campaign mode, who always find a way to face new challenges that force you to take advantage of all the tools at your fingertips. There is an advanced mission, for example, in which you must accumulate more energy than the rival, which obviously forces you to work with a different thought than you would follow if your objective, for example, is to attract wealthy tourists to whom you only you will conquer with the best restaurants, hotels and party rooms. There are even challenges linked to religion, with preachers who will walk around the space station trying to get more faithful … or bomb if they have radicalized, because they hate nothing more than nightclubs and entertainment areas.
Play Spacebase Startopia with a controllerIn addition to PC, the game is available on Xbox, PS4 and PS5 (it will come to Switch later), how does it play with a controller? The user interface is quite comfortable with shortcuts based on the combination of buttons, and how it is possible to use existing plans of rooms, or create and save them calmly, when building, you can create your space base in a matter of minutes . The problem comes when you have to do many things in a short time, since you do not have the precision of the keyboard and mouse, nor do you have the option to pause the game, which would have been great. Still, with practice, you can do well in Starbase Startopia using a controller.
Spacebase Startopia expands the options of the classic so that it feels a faithful experience to it but, also, with its own personality. And although there are game elements that have ended up frustrating me more than having fun, it must be recognized that it is a good management game that tries by all means to always offer something new with which to challenge you. There are even battles between drones and mechs , which are quite simple, but in general, they serve to break a bit with the routine of building and managing resources. After the campaign, which can take you around 20 hours , Spacebase Startopia still has more to offer, because apart from the sandbox mode where you can freely create your space station, there are options available toCooperative and competitive multiplayer for up to four players. If playing tricks on a rival controlled by artificial intelligence is extremely satisfying, imagine now condemning a friend with a huge ball of garbage thrown directly at their station.
I think that Spacebase Startopia has failed to take the management of the space station more calmly so that you can delight in the small details; so you have that little moment of enjoyment watching the aliens enjoy the attractions on the entertainment deck, or decorating the station with plants, sculptures and other eye-catching objects. More being this such a colorful game with a fun aestheticthat cries out for you to stop and observe. When notices of bombs, garbage accumulation, tourists who die or employees who leave pissed off … it is truly stressful. Precisely for this reason, it would also have made him great that you could automate certain tasks without having to be so on top of them because in the end, all that is time you waste doing things that end up becoming monotonous.
Spacebase Startopia lives in a permanent state of chaos that does not allow you to relax for a momentIn addition, the artificial intelligence of tourists and employees can be quite capricious at times, since not infrequently I have found people raging for not having access to services that were available, and well cared for! As a final note, the soundtrack is not bad, but there is hardly any variety in the melodies, so very soon you will be tired of listening to the same theme over and over again. Luckily we have the unfriendly IA Val speaking in Spanish to liven up the action with insults, taunts and other funny comments … although sometimes also somewhat loaded.
“Good, but stressful”
Spacebase Startopia
The sequel to Startopia is a good management video game that has everything to make you enjoy its strategic action. The problem is that as things get complicated, the construction and management of this resort becomes more and more stressful, with little time to relax and enjoy a job well done. Spacebase Startopia knows how to surprise you with new challenges that force you to think differently, to act differently, but that permanent chaos in which you live most of the time takes it away from the greatest of the genre. With its sandbox mode and multiplayer options, here you have a game for a while, and although it is not the best, it is a highly recommended option if your thing is to build and manage resources.
5 things you should know:
- It is the sequel to Startopia, a 2001 game developed by former Bullfrog.
- There are quite a few building and research options, with a factory to even create resources to trade with
- You can build multiple mechs and upgrade them, but combat is pretty straightforward.
- The game would have been good to take things slower, as it can overwhelm you with too many things to do in a short time
- With voices in Spanish, the AI Val will guide your steps between insults and a lot of humor
Duration: 18-20 hours (+ multiplayer)
Players: 1-4 (Competitive: Online / Cooperative: Online)
Language: Texts in Spanish and voices in Spanish and English
