Developer: PixFroze
Publisher: Blowfish Studios, Gamera Game
Platform: Switch, PC, Mac, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Tested on: PC
Base One – Review
Space. The final frontier. Where in the past it mostly was a sentence that invited the mind to go on an imaginary trip of possibilities, these days it’s more about the survival of mankind and the possible colonization of other planets. Games also reflect this sentiment. That’s why Base One has a slightly more realistic approach to the future and what we would actually need to survive in this new environment.
Story
Base One sets a precedent for a believable future. A future where, one way or another, the Earth gets compromised and we are forced to send mankind to find another sustainable way of life. In this case, the moon slowly gets destroyed by an increasing black hole, causing great catastrophes to happen on the Earth itself. This includes tidal waves and other disasters. To save the existence of mankind, the Earth created a “Solution” space force. You are part of it, as you command and oversee the creation of mobile space bases.
The story is paced very well, making it approachable for all to play. If you don’t have any knowledge or skills in games, this is a simulator/base builder that you could still play easily as the tutorial and campaign are built from the ground up to learn you one thing at a time. This also feels quite limiting sometimes, as there might be little to do at certain points in the game. Luckily, there’s also a custom (sandbox-type) mode available. Where the campaign mode might be a bit slow in overall progression, the custom games lack story and have quite little going on aside from you building a base. Luckily, at least the view around you is something you can always rely on.
Graphics
Graphically, from the introductory footage showing the developer and publisher and beyond, the game looks as tight as anything. This game is made with cutting-edge precision, meaning there is a lot to gawk at and barely anything to annoyed by. That being said, the backgrounds don’t change that much, so most things happen inside and around your base. While that’s forgivable, when you are looking around in the depths of space, the thing that’s most annoying is how the camera is fixed vertically. You can rotate it horizontally and zoom or re-coordinate the camera, but sometimes there are situations where moving vertically (or zooming out further) would be very much appreciated.
Sound
In space, generally, there’s little sound present. This is because space is a vacuum with no way for sound to travel. This can make space music and/or sounds a challenge. Luckily, years of sci-fi content have paved the way for stuff that works. In Base One, this results in atmospheric, dreamy background music. The sounds that you will hear are mostly those of beeping machines and thrusters from ships or space suits, which give the entirety a rather realistic feeling. There’s honestly not much that could be improved in this department, and the game even has decent voice-overs whenever somebody calls you in the story.
Gameplay
Base One is fairly simple in its approach. It’s a bit like any base builder/management/simulation game. You build whatever you need to sustain people, fix an issue, or expand your base. Then, you build stuff such as beds or a battery in the designated rooms. While the campaign is really gradual and slow-moving in how it develops, a custom game gives you access to virtually all content and asks you to start gathering science points. With these science points, you can choose what you want to unlock from a giant field of upgrades. Once unlocked, you can start expanding with i.e. improved modules or a gym for your “units”.
While we refer to them as “units”, you can’t really control your characters like in an RTS. They automatically get assigned classes and tasks depending on what you build and what your base is compiled of. This is one of the biggest things that feels a bit off about Base One. Perhaps providing RTS mechanics would suit the game better, because it often feels like you have little control over what’s going on. When the game gives you some control over i.e. a missile device meant to destroy incoming asteroids, the field of view and the controls don’t feel nice. It’s basically like the game has the basic base building elements down, but anything outside of it feels like there’s still a lot of work to do.
Eventually, while it’s a game that has a proper foundation, the negative sides come down to not having enough to do or not having enough control over the things you’d like to do. It’s an interesting project though, and it deserves some attention, but it’s not the glorious game that it could be. With some more polish, better pacing and more control over your actual units, this one could truly be a great game.
Conclusion
While Base One is, at its base, a solid attempt at creating a new type of space-themed game, it lacks the difficulty and the player’s control to really be a satisfying product with enough to do. If anything, it’s a bit of a simple, casual management game that might be fine for a broad audience. That it doesn’t go further than that is fine, but it’s also frustrating to see a game holding itself back like this. Especially when it has the graphics, the sound, and most of the essentials to be better.
Base One - Review,
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