Ancient Frontier

About

Ancient Frontier is a single player tactical role playing game with fantasy, dark fantasy and science fiction themes. It was developed by Fair Weather Studios and was released on September 21, 2017. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Ancient Frontier is a turn-based strategy RPG set in the far future. You command the fleet. Players will explore, conquer, pillage, or liberate the frontiers of space. Take control of massive fleets of capital ships and support craft as you play through multiple campaigns.

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63%

Audience ScoreBased on 106 reviews

story16 positive mentions

grinding4 negative mentions

Detailed and attractive graphics with zoomable ship models and nice special effects.
Deep ship customization, fleet management, and persistent RPG progression including leveling ships and crew leadership.
Two extensive campaigns with different factions, unique ship types, and strategic turn-based combat that appeals to tactical game fans.

Repetitive and grind-heavy gameplay with many similar missions leading to boredom and lack of engaging variety.
Poor and cheesy voice acting with weak, cringe-worthy story/dialogue detracting from immersion.
Technical issues including crashes, unstable save system with forced ironman mode, lack of manual saving, and occasional UI/bug problems.

story
223 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
87%
6%
The story in this game is generally regarded as basic and cheesy, with weak writing and forgettable dialogue, especially early on, though some players find it improves and becomes more engaging as the campaign progresses. The campaigns offer a lengthy and linear narrative with around 30 missions each, supplemented by optional side missions, but the repetitive mission structure and slow pacing can detract from the storytelling experience. While the fully voiced story missions add flavor, many players view the plot and characters as uninspired, making the story a secondary aspect behind the tactical gameplay and progression systems.
- “I thought the story started out very weak, but by about 10 missions in it had improved considerably, and the emotional hits late in the campaign really had some punch to them.”
- “The story missions are fully voiced with a lot of flavor in the banter between the different characters.”
- “The story missions drive the campaigns forward, but players can choose up to two bonus or training missions in between each story mission to gain additional experience or resources.”
- “The writing makes all the characters unsympathetic, but it's the plot of the campaign that makes me want to flip the table here.”
- “The storyteller is not playing fair with the characters, and cancels their work - it's essentially a 'negadungeon', where the most winning outcome is not playing at all.”
- “Combined with the fact that the storyline and dialog is horribly cheesy and forgettable, the game starts to feel more like a chore than something keeping the player engaged.”
gameplay
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
56%
22%
The gameplay offers solid turn-based space combat and fleet management with a decent difficulty curve and tactical depth, though it tends to be repetitive and slow-paced, leading some players to boredom. While some appreciate its engaging mechanics and lengthy campaign, others find it basic, marred by RNG issues and artificial lengthening. Overall, it provides a familiar yet slightly unique experience, but lacks innovation and polish in several areas.
- “Battle mechanics are fun.”
- “The graphics are crisp and readable, the sound is great (excellent voice artists, and a kickass soundtrack along with plenty of satisfying combat sounds), and the gameplay engaging, with sufficient difficulty curve on veteran to make things challenging.”
- “The mechanics of gradually building, equipping, crewing and upgrading a fleet work reasonably well, though not terribly original.”
- “The game is not a bad turn-based strategy mechanically, but it is very basic and has a lot of minor frustrations and the storyline is entirely forgettable.”
- “The reason I can't recommend it is because the gameplay is very repetitive.”
- “This repetitive gameplay just led to me putting the game down out of boredom.”
graphics
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
44%
15%
The graphics are generally praised for being detailed, crisp, and well-polished, with high production value, particularly in ship modeling and battle animations. While some users note occasional texture loading issues and consider the visuals modest compared to modern 3D standards, most agree they complement the game's atmosphere effectively. Overall, the combination of graphics with sound, voice acting, and music creates an engaging experience despite some limitations in graphical complexity.
- “I enjoyed the general look of the game with the graphics quality being top notch.”
- “The graphics are crisp and readable, the sound is great (excellent voice actors, and a kickass soundtrack along with plenty of satisfying combat sounds), and the gameplay engaging, with sufficient difficulty curve on veteran to make things challenging.”
- “For an indie developer this game has high production value with crisp graphics, peaceful music, voice acting and clear instructions with tooltips for everything.”
- “Graphics are poor for its age, gameplay is slow.”
- “Some of the textures of the ships occasionally don't load and leave you with weird blocky designs, but I partially blame this on me adjusting the graphics mid game.”
- “Writing is terrible, graphics are meh, gameplay is inspired by something rehashed from the 1990's and I was bored with the game before I finished the first mission.”
music
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
44%
The music in the game is consistently praised for being engaging, well-composed, and effectively enhancing gameplay. Alongside quality sound effects and voice acting, the soundtrack adds to the overall immersive and polished experience, especially notable given its indie development background.
- “Amazingly, the soundtrack is very nice to listen to.”
- “The sound design and music well complement the gameplay, and are excellent (especially for an indie release where such things can be tossed aside in favor of just getting the game to work, which is a common concern with indie developers).”
- “For an indie developer, this game has high production value with crisp graphics, peaceful music, voice acting, and clear instructions with tooltips for everything.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the grinding in the game to be slow, tedious, and overly repetitive, particularly due to lengthy missions and the necessity to level up ships through constant combat. This results in a grind-heavy experience that can become frustrating over time.
- “Grinding is really grindy as hell.”
- “After a point, it can get grindy—you need to level your ships through combat, otherwise progress stalls.”
- “Through compulsory grinding in slow and tedious thirty-minute missions several times over.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers strong replayability driven by numerous random elements and polished execution, making it addictive despite being developed by a small company. Its engaging content and ongoing development contribute to sustained player interest beyond initial playthroughs.
- “There's a lot of random elements that can happen, so there's replayability too.”
- “What you can't tell from the store page is how slickly done it all is, especially for a game from a very small company, or that it's fairly addicting and has some nice replay value.”
- “The game offers good replayability with varied random elements that keep each session fresh and engaging.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The optimization aspect receives criticism for poor pacing and engagement, with the tutorial and character performances described as dull and tedious, negatively impacting the overall experience.
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's stability is mixed, with some users experiencing frequent freezes and crashes after missions, while others report a largely bug-free experience without major issues impacting gameplay.
- “Buggy, game freezes, or crashes after every mission”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional impact of the game is initially weak but grows stronger mid-campaign, delivering meaningful moments later on. However, some characters lack emotional connection due to limited involvement, affecting overall attachment.
- “I thought the story started out very weak, but by about 10 missions in it had improved considerably, and the emotional hits late in the campaign really had some punch to them.”