From Space Is A Fun Shoot-em Up With Rough Edges
From Space is a top down action-shooter where players act as Earth’s last line of defense. Don’t be fooled by its cartoon art style, this is a fairly challenging game. There are various specialists to choose from, though the voices are hit or miss; sometimes sounding robotic. Players will also face many different enemy types and variations of those enemies. With its fast paced combat, From Space should be a hit across the board.
The combat is wave based with hordes of gelatinous aliens rushing players. While there is a solo option, the number of enemies on screen quickly grows overwhelming. Without knowing at least three other people or allowing (hopefully) benevolent players into a group, the game seems unfairly stacked in its own favor. Moving forward feels more like constantly running into a wall rather than making progress.
Each section consists of destroying alien eggs and drop pods, the latter starts an event that traps players in with the aliens. These will eventually have the chosen specialist face off against shielded aliens, ones that shoot poison, and even explode. Even with upgraded weapons this combination might lead to many resets. The save system can also lead to some frustration. Players will use radios in safe zones to create a checkpoint, but returning to this radio won’t create a new save. Drop pods and eggs do remain broken. The aliens will respawn so returning to a save point after clearing the area won’t change that.
From Space does weapons well. However briefly, a new weapon can drastically change how players approach combat. Suddenly it feels like we’re on equal ground and gameplay becomes satisfying again. This inevitably ends when the weapon that just melted every alien you came across, barely does any damage. And you’re still in the same area. As it stands unbalanced enemies, at least in solo gameplay, is From Space‘s biggest problem.
The story is pretty simple. Strange crystals land on earth. An alien invasion is close behind them. There are two factions with their own ideas of how to solve this. Players can choose to support The Crystal Path or the Military. If the campaign isn’t interesting, or players simply decide to move on, a horde mode has recently been added. Despite the shortcomings, From Space does allow players to shape their experience.
With time, the combat issues and bugs players had may be patched out. This is a promising indie title that’s a little rough around the edges. Fans of top-down games where there’s little time to pause, may want to keep an eye on From Space. Even the “safe” areas become less safe as players progress. When specialists constantly remind the player to “stay vigilant”, they mean it. The atmosphere constantly keeps you on your toes. There’s no doubt that the game succeeds at immersion. It could make for great solo and group game with friends in the future.
