We’ve reached the third and final piece of Not So Massivey’s extensive impressions from the recent open beta of multiplayer RTS ZeroSpace. In my first piece, I tackled PvP and the issues around the complexity of the game’s core systems, and in the second, I covered the MMO-inspired Galactic War mode and other PvE activities.
In this last piece, I’m going to deep dive the game’s playable factions, as well as give my final thoughts on the game as a whole.
Right now, ZeroSpace has three primary playable factions: the human Protectorate, the insectoid Grell, and the Legion of Truth. There’s also a fourth faction yet to be implemented, and I’ll get to that, too.
At first, I took Protectorate to be a clone of StarCraft II‘s Terran, but while the aesthetic resemblance is strong, I found their playstyle significantly different. They emphasize the defensive and supportive aspects of Terran while having less focus on harassment and dirty tricks (sorry, Terran players, but you know it’s true).
This mechanical identity is expressed at almost all levels of the faction’s design. Like Stormgate‘s Vanguard, units have veterancy, making them more effective the longer they stay alive. Production structures can heal nearby units, and supply structures can be upgraded into turrets. Their ultimate units are a mobile bunker and a capital ship that heals nearby units. Although the flavour of the faction is standard military sci-fi tropes, the mechanics are very well thought out, and I enjoyed playing them a lot more than I expected to.
I had the opposite experience with the Grell, however. The lore around their having a symbiotic relationship with plants is interesting, and I expected them to be a fun and fresh take on a swarmy RTS faction. In practice, though, they’re just Zerg. Almost every Grell unit has a clear analogue in SC2‘s Zerg, with nearly identical mechanics and in many cases even similar unit models.
Grell does lack the larva mechanic, but that’s one of the more interesting parts of playing Zerg, so I’m not sure I’d call that a win, even if does make them a little different. They can also “infuse” units to permanently buff their stats, which is fun, but it doesn’t really have any synergy with the rest of their kit, so it feels like a bit of a random addition.
Grell have been one of my biggest disappointments with ZeroSpace so far. I think they need both a mechanical and an artistic overhaul. They look and feel far too similar to Zerg right now.
Visually, I would like to see their plant symbiosis made much more obvious. If Reavers had a layer of wildflowers growing on their carapace, for example, it would go a long way to make them not feel so much like an Ultralisk clone. I’m not sure how I would improve the mechanical identity of Grell, however.
The third currently available faction is another human faction, the Legion of Truth. While the other factions take their aesthetic cues from StarCraft, this one is pure Warhammer 40K.
The Legion is the most mechanically unique faction so far. Most RTS games have a “quality over quantity” faction that fields small numbers of expensive but powerful units and a “quantity over quality” faction that’s all about swarms of cheap units. The Legion is both at once. It can have three hero units at once instead of the usual one, and it can construct powerful super units in the form of Terror Tanks and Dreadnoughts, but all the rest of their forces are cheap, fragile fodder.
It’s definitely different. I’m not sure how much I like it, but I’m sure the Legion will have many fans. I think mostly I’m still hungry for a true quality over quantity faction. Protectorate and Legion can both kind of play this way depending on your build, but I’d like a faction that has it as a core identity from top to bottom.
As I mentioned, there is also one more main faction yet to be implemented, the Xol. Continuing the pattern of ZeroSpace‘s main factions drawing (uncomfortably) obvious inspiration from other sci-fi franchises, the robotic Xol are obviously based upon the Geth of Mass Effect. We also know that their mechanical hook is going to be combining units to create new ones.
I am a fan of high tech factions, so the Xol appeal to me strongly, and the concept art we’ve seen for them looks amazing. The “Voltroning your units” gimmick also sounds interesting, but I’m concerned it’s going to add a lot of complexity to what is already a highly complex game.
One of the biggest blows against my ability to enjoy Stormgate was the fact that Celestials were the only faction that appealed to me aesthetically, but their unusual mechanics made their learning curve absolutely brutal, and I was never able to love the faction the way I wanted to. I’m worried something similar might happen with the Xol.
Beyond the main three (soon four) factions, there are also the mercenary factions I mentioned in my first piece. The merc factions have a lot of creative flavour and aesthetic flair, but that does kind of throw the lack of such in the main factions into starker relief. I’d much rather play as Aztec-flavoured space-crab cultists or spooky alien void mages than good humans, evil humans, or Plant-Based Zerg Alternative.
The bottom line is two of the three current main factions have fun and well thought-out mechanics, but the third still needs work, and all three feel a little too derivative in their aesthetics and lore. The mercenary factions have a much better cool factor, but as discussed in previous pieces, they don’t yet have a clear role in the gameplay.
We’re three columns in, and I haven’t even gotten to the “beta is beta” issues. I randomly lost the tutorial halfway through without ever encountering an enemy. The balance of resources is off, with hexite (minerals) too plentiful and flux (gas) too scarce. Damage and armour types are supposed to be colour-coded on the unit cards to let you know what counters what, but every unit’s damage is coloured white. The “production is now idle” messages when you finish training a unit add too much auditory spam. Plus a multitude of bugs too small to mention here.
But I don’t want to be all doom and gloom. I’ve had a lot of criticisms, but that doesn’t mean my impression of ZeroSpace is negative overall. It’s a game that clearly needs more work, but there’s already a decent amount of fun to be had with it. When I tried Stormgate for the first time, I saw a looming disaster. In ZeroSpace I see a lot of good ideas that haven’t yet come together into a cohesive game, but there’s still time for that to happen.
Something I noticed during the beta weekend is that the developers are very active on Reddit, and they respond to feedback — even negative feedback — with a lot of care and humility. That’s a green flag, and it gives me hope that ZeroSpace is going to one day be polished into a solid game.
I am, however, a bit concerned that the current playerbase seems very heavily skewed towards the most hardcore elements of RTS fandom – and that the feedback developers receive will encourage them to double down on the game’s complexity. I’ve been playing RTS games for 30 years, and even I found this game overwhelming. I fear a WildStar situation where the game is so focused on catering to high-end players that it drives away the casual audience it needs to survive.
Overall, I’d put the beta of ZeroSpace in the “good, not great” category, but it could work itself up to great if the developers put in some serious work polishing and streamlining. I’m not sure it’s ever going to be the genre-defining breakthrough I’ve been hoping for, but maybe that was never a realistic expectation on my part, and it’s still probably the best hope RTS fans have for something fun and fresh in the near future.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s still a couple hours left in the beta at the time I’m writing this, and I need to go teach the Keeper Council some manners.
Not So Massively: Deep-diving ZeroSpace’s factions and final thoughts on the beta
Not So Massively: ZeroSpace’s MMO-inspired Galactic War and other PvE modes
Not So Massively: The dizzying complexity of ZeroSpace’s beta
Multiplayer RTS titles ZeroSpace and Immortal Gates of Pyre plan public tests this weekend
Not So Massively: ZeroSpace is the last hope for multiplayer RTS fans
The world of online gaming is changing. As the gray area between single-player and MMO becomes ever wider, Massively OP’s Tyler Edwards delves into this new and expanding frontier biweekly in Not So Massively, our column on battle royales, OARPGs, looter-shooters, and other multiplayer online titles that aren’t quite MMORPGs.
