After a tumultuous development period featuring two Kickstarter campaigns and more than a few missed deadlines, Star Command has finally graced the screens of Android devices. Developed by indie outfit Warballoon, the game is designed to be a sort of space simulation/management game, a cross between The Sims and Game Dev Story, and you’ll encounter aliens and engage in space battles as you explore galaxies apart from our own. Let’s dive in and see what all the fuss is about.
Story
The story in Star Command sets you as the Captain of a Star Command ship, part of a military/exploratory fleet, not unlike Starfleet Command in Star Trek. You’ll get to choose your Captain’s appearance as well as the type and name of the ship you will have command over.
While the customization choices appear to be a sufficient selection, it does expose one of the more disappointing trends in Star Command, which is that your customization choices are usually (and sometimes confusingly) actually quite limited. One such example of this is that when customizing your Captain’s appearance, you can choose from either a fair-skinned Captain, or a darker-skinned Captain. The interesting thing is that the hair colour options for the fair-skinned Captain (5) are different to the available choices for the darker-skinned Captain (2). It’s obviously not a dealbreaker, but it’s almost as if some extra-strength political correctness was unnecessarily employed here, rather than giving the same options for both cases and letting the player customize as they see fit.
The tutorial at the beginning of the game gives a good overview of the game and its controls, and though is quite slow paced at times, does give you a good chance to come to grips with all the game mechanics and what you might experience over the course of the game. The tutorial is a bit buggy at times though, with some of the tool-tips pointing in incorrect HUD locations and in one specific instance, if you happen to build a room not suggested by the tutorial, the game may crash and you will have to start again from square one.
That’s not where it is…
Star Command does have an overarching story, which is carried out in a pseudo-linear way; while you are given a few ‘choices’ as to where you want to go next, there is a linear storyline that you are following and its progression gets triggered whenever you have completed a certain number of the ‘choice’ missions.
There’s also some diplomacy at play in Star Command as several alien races in the game will have predisposed prejudices against other races and allying yourself with one race or another will net you trouble with their mortal enemies. While having these galactic nuances is a nice touch to make you feel like you’re ‘part of something bigger’, it ultimately feels a little contrived as you are forced to make certain decisions and diplomacy never occurs in a verbal manner, only through heated battle. Unfortunately, yet another case of seeming like you have choices when you actually don’t. That said, there are a fair number of alien races to come across and although they do seem to all be out to get you, you really do get the sense that you are but one part of a universal community.
There are inklings of having diplomatic influence, though: for instance, in the tutorial, you are greeted with a hostile party, and if you decided to taunt your opponent, his weapons will charge slower than they otherwise would do. Unfortunately, as far as I have seen in my current play through, this ability to influence the battle through the rudimentary conversation system has not reared its head again. This leaves most of the conversations feeling a bit hollow, especially as you know it’s going to lead to a battle regardless of what stance you take (and often, you’ll only be given conversation options that provoke your opponent).
Gameplay
There’s a few levels to the gameplay in Star Command: once you’ve received your orders, or suggestions of where to explore, you’ll jump to the location where you’ll most likely encounter a hostile party. After some angry (and often hilarious) exposition, you’ll be dropped into a battle with your assailants and begin a battle instance.
In this battle instance, you’ll have to manage your crew members and ship functions as you try and destroy your enemies’ ship while also repelling boarding parties. All your ship’s functions will be time based, requiring time to charge up before you can use them; likewise, your enemies’ weapons and boarding parties must also charge up before they can be used.
It then becomes a waiting game to see if you can manage your ship better than your enemy can, though surprisingly, no matter how battered your ship gets (even to 0% hull health), your ship will not be destroyed; the only losing conditions are if your Captain, or certain special guests on your ship, are killed in battle.
The controls in Star Command are very good, which you might not have expected from a mobile strategy-based game. The HUD allows you to zoom quite close to the ship deck, as well as all the way out to the ship view where you can survey the battlefield battlespace in real-time, all without so much as a stutter. Likewise, moving your crew members is as easy as selecting with a tap, and tapping to select their location, however their path-finding skills, and general AI, could do with some brushing up; crew members will often take unusual paths to their destinations with absolute commitment, even if there is a gaping hole into space along the way.
The game does a good job of changing up most of the missions to feature varied scenarios such as zombie encounters and enemy ships with different characteristics. For the most part, the gameplay is great, and although battles can drag on quite early in the game due to slow charging times, once your ship gets decked out with all the bells and whistles and you’re fully crewed, the battles get far more intense and require a hefty amount of micromanaging. You really do get quite a sense of relief and accomplishment after defeating a particularly nasty opponent after 15 minutes of intense battle and holes gaping in your hull, though you may feel that the battles get a bit tedious if you play a few of them in one sitting.
Presentation
There’s no two ways about it: Star Command has some of the most unique graphics in mobile gaming to date. From the pixelated crew to the detailed ships, the art style gives Star Command a refreshing look in the mobile gaming world, appearing retro without looking dated. If anything, it’s almost a shame there aren’t more different ships and races in the game to see what other ships Warballoon (and its Kickstarter backers) can come up with as the attention to detail and design of these ships is truly incredible, though luckily there will likely be add-ons in the near future.
Ships and crew aside, the background art is also amazing, from the onboard backgrounds from ship-to-ship communications to the planet floating in the distance as you arrive at your destination. If there’s only one complaint to be had about the graphics in Star Command, it’s that in ship-to-ship communications, the foreground will generally be pixelated and the background will be incredibly detailed, creating an occasionally jarring contrast. The art style and attention to detail extends to the menu and loading screens where Warballoon appears to have poured massive efforts into to make it unique and entertaining.
Overall – 4/5
Star Command is a very solid game: niggling issues aside and although I wish there was more freedom, the gameplay is great and will keep you coming back for more if you love that simulation/management style of game. The art in the game is unique and refreshing and hopefully will be updated with even more ship models and missions in the near future. The restrictive story and choices are the main downsides to the game experience, but what is there is still good enough to keep you enthralled and occupied. And really, that’s all you could ask for in a single-player, mobile game that costs $2.99.
Unfortunately, there are still a few bugs and issues, which when considering that the iOS version has been out for 5 months already, it’s a bit disappointing that the more pedestrian bugs haven’t been addressed or picked up in beta testing. All the same, regardless of whether you buy into the infamous Kickstarter stories or not, Star Command is still a great mobile space romp which adopts a great theme, great gameplay and will keep you busy for quite a few hours if you let it. If you’re interested in picking Star Command up, hit the Play Store links below, and live long and prosper.
Game: Star Command
Price: $2.99