Spacebase Startopia

[b]Spacebase Startopia[/b] is a colourful sci-fi management game and a spiritual successor/remake of the cult classic [i]Startopia[/i]. It combines space-station construction, economic management, alien population control and light RTS combat across three interconnected decks. The [i]Extended Edition[/i] adds cosmetic extras and the soundtrack, but does not fundamentally change the core game. The three-deck structure is probably the game's strongest design idea. It gives the station a genuine sense of verticality and forces you to think about logistics and priorities rather than simply filling a flat map with buildings. There is also a reasonable mixture of economy, construction, research, staff management, trading and combat. Pirates and rival factions can interfere with your operation, while mech units provide a basic RTS component. Unfortunately, combat is considerably less sophisticated than the management side. Visually, [b]Spacebase Startopia[/b] is colourful and busy. Watching aliens wandering around, droids transporting supplies and visitors enjoying the entertainment facilities gives the station plenty of personality. The problem is the humour. [i]VAL[/i], the station's [i]AI[/i] narrator, is supposed to be one of the game's major comedic attractions, but the writing and delivery are considerably weaker than the original game's dry humour. The result is a decent but frustrating space-station management game. Its underlying concept is still good, and there is fun to be had in constructing and operating your bizarre alien resort. But it feels much more like an attractive modernised interpretation of [i]Startopia[/i] than a substantial evolution of the formula. [h1]7/10[/h1] DISASTER | BAD | MEDIOCRE | OKAY | [b][u]GOOD[/u][/b] | GREAT |AMAZING| MASTERPIECE [quote] Reviewed on: Win11 Home 64-bit, Intel i5-11600K, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB PRIME, 32GB DDR4-3600 RAM, 2 x Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, Internet Broadband 1000/1000 Mbit [/quote] [quote] If you like this review, then please consider giving it a thumbs up. I've also reviewed other games that you might find interesting. If so please follow [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27418263/] Top of the Chart.[/url][/u] [/quote]

I was looking for a nostalgic update to the original and sometimes it feels good. But, there are some serious bugs that make playing rather annoying. The various controls sometimes get turned off or the bumper button is always on and I have to quit the game to reset. Not optimized for the Steam Deck as is claimed. Needs work and it won't get it apparently. Last update was 2021...

First of all, this is based on startopia, but its way different, bio-dome generates goods all the time on its own, but the bots can't keep up with your processing. and you are required to actually grab things and clean up even though there are garbage bots. And it seems like the game can't handle its own mechanics. Unlocked maybe 1/6th of the station and its stuttering alot, going into any menu to search for visitors freezes the game for a second or two, it miscalculates guests and employees, and the experience is way different than Startopia. Which is a shame, as i hoped to see original game upgraded and maybe expanded, not re-thinked entirely, on top of that, the questionable performance so early on in sandbox experience is a deal breaker for me, do not buy for full price.

Long story short the devs are Hacks. Never ever buy this game at full price as they couldn't be assed giving you a full game. I am a massive fan off startopia from back in the day. Space base is borderline just cashing in. Basically you could get AI to overlay the old graphics and then strip out the games soul. Everything that set it apart from the rest, is gone. The economy is junk, the research is worthless, the biosphere bloated and generic. You'd think with everything they killed from the classic original they would atleast have some innovations but there is little to be impressed with. Star quakes and solar flares are just a 'oh i guessed it happened' pop up. Research is now little more than a upgrade station for skuzzers. And their blueprints suck.. spewed across my screen instead of empty for me to fill and undeleteable garbage. There is a bug where the sound drops out and you need to open the menu and close it to get it back.. They couldn't even be bothered fixing it. Consider yourself failures. A disgraceful adaptation. As i said, never ever buy this game at full price. Thank god I knew they would suck. If you've never played startopia you'd be happy with the game, the glados style voice is fitting and you wouldn't mind the almost generic play. If not for the very few things of the original they left in. 3.5/10 And the levels are just the original too, I do like the original levels but again they show no innovation. They could have done so much with this, instead it seems they did as little as possible. The things I loved most about startopia were scrapped in this version and for what...? Oh and who was the idiot that thought locking out zoom when trying to build was a good idea And. You want door? Door? I place door? Here, door? Door

This game has more bugs and issues then a bug farm.

I wanted to like this, I tried real hard to. but its a wish version of the original. the humor falls flat, the tech advancement is boring compared to the original, the controls are awkward, the employee management is barley there, the mech security is so out of place. who wants giant robot battles on a space station. Save your money and go buy the original on GOG.

It's tough, reimplementing a game that will be compared to the original. As a lover of the original, I really tried to enjoy this. I tried to treat it as a new game. But unfortunately it failed to deliver, and halfway through the missions I installed the original StarTopia and played that instead. A major problem was that I couldn't finish a mission in one sitting without some serious memory leak making the game unplayable. Over a half hour it would slow down massively and the UI would bug out, failing to register clicks in the right place. I don't want to relaunch the game 3 times to finish one level. The comedy is a big miss for me. Instead of a helpful but judgemental companion, you get charmless and annoying robot who just insults you all the time. They did try a few changes that I think were well intentioned, and a few QoL features, like the biodeck harvesting itself. They mostly dropped the money=power system. But the trading and cargo bays don't work together and slow things down, the crafting and mech systems are a slog, and some easy UI features that improve hiring and promoting staff are missing. The blueprints system doesn't save across games, making it pretty useless, and the merging of sleep, food and cleaning systems felt unnecessary. Either drop it all and just have one system, or keep the separate buildings. The rooms all feel clunky, and it's much harder to customise with small decorations due to the large equipment. Combat was probably the worst part of the old game, so trying to replace it with a new system was in theory a good move. But the new system is buggy and hard to control, and mostly comes down to just lining up all your mechs (assuming they can navigate correctly) and letting them duke it out. There might be a little more to get out of it, but with the play issues it was pretty basic. Ultimately, it felt like it was trying to be StarTopia without the love or understanding of what was (and wasn't) fun about it. It fails as a remake, and it's not really good enough to succeed as its own game, so I'd say stay away!

Compared to the original, this game is such a disappointment. All of the charm in the previous one is lacking here. Not wrothy of purchase at anything less than a 90% discount.