Space Raiders in Space

Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Players: 1

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Review:

Space Raiders in Space (sometimes rendered as Space Raiders in Spaaace) is a Real-Time Strategy game released on PC in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. Though for all intents and purposes, this game plays like a Tower Defense game… without the towers. Players take the role of a small group of spacefaring heroes trying to figure out what happened after much of humanity fell to a horde of bug-like aliens that suddenly went from docile to violent.

The presentation here is excellent featuring cel-shaded visuals with high-contrast colors framed in a comic book art style that really sets this game apart. This is joined by cinematic music, and some absurdly over-the-top melodramatic voice acting. Everything works together to create this exaggerated look and feel that works really well for the game.

There’s some good strategy here, too. Players need to find a healthy balance between scrounging for resources and building defenses. The game lets players build barriers wherever they want, giving a lot of freedom to put extra defenses on vulnerable spots, or use the layout to create a trap.

However, what doesn’t work here is the control layout, which is an absolute nightmare. I repeatedly found myself instinctively pressing the wrong button and having to backtrack through multiple other menus to get back to where I was. Thankfully the game pauses the action while you’re in menus, or this issue alone would have killed me. The game’s interface seems like the sort of thing that would work better using a touchscreen, only… well, this game doesn’t support the use of a touchscreen. In fact, this game is far worse in portable mode because the text size is so tiny that it’s often impossible to read on the small screen.

Even beyond the poor control interface, the game also has other control issues. Namely, players don’t have any ability to direct their characters to a specific position, only to vague activities like “attack”, “defend” and so on. What’s more, even this doesn’t always work right – tell your characters to scavenge, and one of them may very well decide to not bother listening to you. In a game about Strategy, having your units see your commands as only mere suggestions can be infuriating.

Despite its terrible control issues, Space Raiders in Space is still an entertaining take on the Strategy genre that does something new with the Tower Defense-style game by doing away with the towers. It’s just a shame that those control issues make for so much unnecessary frustration, because without that problem, this could have been a much better game.

tl;dr – Space Raiders in Space is a Real-Time Strategy game that plays like a Tower Defense game without towers. Players command a small group of characters fighting off a horde of angry aliens, and this game’s unique approach to the genre and great presentation both make this really appealing… until you get your hands on the terrible controls, which will fight you every step of the way. Without this problem, this would be a fantastic and original Strategy game. As-is, it’s still something Strategy fans may want to play, but only if they can be patient with the sort of flaws this game has.

Grade: C-

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