Spacebase Startopia

Spacebase Startopia is a complex management-sim, but once everything clicks there's plenty of fun to be had. It'll take time to learn everything, and the camera can be annoying, but it's still enjoyable.

56%Game Brain Score

gameplay, graphics

story, optimization

47% User Score Based on 726 reviews

Critic Score 65%Based on 11 reviews

Platforms

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About

In Spacebase Startopia, manage a space station and its diverse alien inhabitants, maintaining operational efficiency and peace among them. Experience a blend of base-building, real-time strategy, and simulation, as you oversee various facilities, including living quarters, recreational areas, and production rooms. Engage in entertaining missions, face adversaries, and make crucial decisions that will determine the fate of your thriving intergalactic community.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

+32

47%

Audience ScoreBased on 737 reviews

gameplay42 positive mentions

story15 negative mentions

The game captures the charm of the original Startopia with colorful graphics and engaging gameplay.
Quality of life improvements, such as room blueprints and multi-pickup mechanics, enhance the overall experience.
The game offers a nostalgic feel for fans of the original while introducing new elements like mechs and a more detailed biodeck.

The AI assistant's voice is annoying and lacks the wit and charm of the original, often delivering repetitive and unfunny dialogue.
Gameplay suffers from pacing issues, with too much micromanagement and a lack of meaningful interactions, leading to frustration.
Numerous bugs and performance issues, including sound cutting out and UI glitches, detract from the overall experience.

story
259 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
90%
6%
The story aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players noting that the campaign missions feel repetitive and largely a copy of the original game's structure, lacking depth and engaging narrative. While some missions introduce new elements and challenges, others are criticized for being too short and not allowing players to fully immerse themselves in the gameplay or story. Additionally, the humor and character interactions that were charming in the original are seen as lacking, with some players finding the AI assistant's remarks more annoying than entertaining. Overall, the campaign is viewed as a basic tutorial rather than a compelling narrative experience.
- “Things were coming to life before my eyes mission by mission, and slowly the core of the game came out and before I knew it I was well and truly hooked. There really is something satisfying about playing this game.”
- “In the original, there were missions for every alien race, so you understood what they wanted and how they acted.”
- “The campaign of Startopia consists of chained narrative missions where you get introduced to the different aspects of the game, starting with recycling garbage, then setting up med bays, and so on.”
- “The campaign is, mission for mission, just a copy/paste of the original game's missions; in the first mission you recycle, in the second you build a hospital, in the third you establish prisons, etc. In addition, you can clearly tell which aliens are supposed to be their counterparts from the original.”
- “There is barely any story or dialogue in the game, and what little there is is simply awful, especially the ending.”
- “The campaign is on the short side, which I do find a little lacking as the original was, after all, single-player campaign and story-driven.”
gameplay
202 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
66%
13%
The gameplay of Spacebase Startopia has received mixed reviews, with many players citing fundamental issues such as bugs, poor mechanics, and frustrating micromanagement. While some appreciate the nostalgic elements and new mechanics, others find the experience repetitive and lacking the charm of the original game. Overall, the gameplay is seen as accessible yet flawed, with significant room for improvement in design and execution.
- “The gameplay is accessible to a wide audience, including more casual players who don't have the time, patience, or interest in more detailed management sims.”
- “The gameplay though is fun and kept me engaged, and I'm looking forward to see what else lies ahead, since I haven't unlocked everything yet.”
- “The underlying gameplay is actually pretty good and I won’t deny I had a bit of fun with it; it’s just the mountain of smaller issues on top of that that really make it a hard sell.”
- “Overall, as a game this isn't fun to play, the difficulty spike and micromanagement are dreadful (especially since there's no pause to enable making the micromanagement less overwhelming when things get complex), it's riddled with bugs, a whole bunch of shockingly bad game design choices, mechanics, UX and UI abominations.”
- “What a let down, confusing, not funny and totally meh gameplay, would not recommend.”
- “The lift ruins so much of the gameplay; expect things to take forever to construct because your bots are all in queue on the first floor (and moving them doesn't fix them to work on a task; they return to the queue!), watch your resources decay to useless trash, in fact watch your place turn into a trash heap because no one is moving... oh yeah, and everyone's angry... because they can't address their needs.”
graphics
189 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
57%
10%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with some praising the vibrant and cute art style, while others criticize it for being overly simplistic or lacking charm compared to the original. Many players noted issues with graphical glitches and performance problems, suggesting that despite the visual upgrades, the overall execution feels like a downgrade. Overall, while the graphics are generally considered appealing, they are often overshadowed by gameplay and technical issues.
- “The graphics and animations in Spacebase Startopia are great!”
- “The visuals are fantastic; it's a lot of fun to zoom in and watch the aliens and critters walk around, pet cats, or throw tantrums.”
- “The graphics are absolutely stunning, as are the animations of the creatures and buildings alike.”
- “The graphics have been bumped up, but simultaneously lost all their charm.”
- “The game offers some okay-ish graphics, although some incredibly ugly glitches here and there. It's okay to say the least, but in terms of animations and such, it's incredibly poor and lazy, and for a 40 EUR game that is not considered an indie game, this is just sad...”
- “The fluro unicorn color scheme and the toddler graphics style were so distracting, off-putting, and confusing that I gave up within a few minutes.”
humor
156 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
88%
12%
The humor in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players feeling it falls flat compared to the original. Critics highlight that the new AI character, Val, often resorts to condescending insults rather than clever or entertaining quips, leading to a lack of charm and wit. While some appreciate the attempts at humor, others find it forced and unfunny, detracting from the overall experience.
- “It had a lot of heart, goofy British humor, and really fun scenarios.”
- “Very chill game, the comments of the AI are hilarious and a bit offensive (but mostly hilarious).”
- “Val is so goddamn funny, I'm constantly chuckling and on occasion, full on laughing out loud because of an insult-compliment she's thrown my way.”
- “Val is breathtakingly unfunny and basically only has one joke, namely that you are bad at your job and slow and stupid.”
- “The AI keeps talking without end in a cringy and unfunny way and often interrupts itself because its 20 seconds long pointless monologue doesn't end before the next pointless monologue starts.”
- “I hate to say it, but the opening cutscene was forced and unfunny.”
music
92 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
74%
4%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the catchy tunes and funky beats, particularly from the fun deck, while others criticize the overall quality and variety compared to the original game's soundtrack. Many users report significant sound bugs, including music cutting out or fading unexpectedly, which detracts from the experience. Despite these issues, some players find themselves humming the tracks outside of the game, indicating that the music has a memorable quality, even if it feels unfinished.
- “And I can't deny that I've been humming the music while outside; the fun deck beats have burrowed deep into my ears at this point.”
- “I kind of fell in love with the fun deck's music as well.”
- “Sound effects are awesome, music is top notch and fitting.”
- “Overall, the design, voices, music, and gameplay felt unfinished, almost like a pre-beta version.”
- “Unfortunately trying this out, I was left feeling incredibly disappointed. The short summary of my experience is that it feels completely 'soulless'. It fails to capture pretty much anything about the feel and look of the old game; the aesthetics, sounds, music, etc. all feel worse.”
- “The voice-over work and music are incredibly poor and lazy, especially with the voice-overs.”
optimization
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
5%
61%
34%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting severe performance issues, particularly as the game progresses and bases grow larger. Many users experience lag, stuttering, and unresponsive controls, which detracts significantly from the overall experience. Despite some potential in the game's design, the lack of ongoing support for optimization and quality of life improvements has left many feeling frustrated and unable to recommend it.
- “Research improves the performance of facilities rather than just simply making them cheaper to produce.”
- “With this pacing, the game could really have done with some customizability and optimization tools for us to fiddle, or ways to interact with the station visitors and residents while waiting for the various subsystems like trade and research to come into play.”
- “Personally, I really like this game and think there was great potential, but I am irritated that they decided not to continue work on this project to fix some of the performance issues and add some quality of life improvements to it.”
- “This game has terrible optimization issues where the whole game chugs trying to access your employee menu.”
- “It's been more than half a year and it's still very poorly optimized.”
- “Though as soon as your base gets large, performance will make it almost unplayable.”
stability
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting frequent crashes, laggy interfaces, and numerous audio and graphical glitches. Many players describe the experience as unresponsive and buggy, suggesting that it feels more like an early access title rather than a polished release. Overall, the game's performance issues significantly detract from the gameplay experience, making it frustrating for those sensitive to bugs.
- “However, I've found the game extremely buggy with random crashes happening a lot more than expected.”
- “It's just not that stable, quite buggy and will crash a bit; tired of being kicked to desktop.”
- “I should also note that this game is still quite buggy and really should still be considered early access.”
grinding
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly when managing station operations and fulfilling the needs of employees and guests. While the visuals are praised, the similarity in mechanics and mission structure can lead to monotony during extended play sessions. However, breaking the game into shorter sessions can make the experience more enjoyable, as each mission introduces slight variations despite the overall grind.
- “Now it's the same - but now with mechs killing as many mechs as possible in the first attack - then grinding to the core, before they build more of them.”
- “It does grow a little tedious and repetitive if you play a marathon session, but if you take it in chunks, each mission brings a little extra to the game.”
- “The missions are very much the same, but expand on new things, which is okay, but I find the whole unlocking thing tedious.”
atmosphere
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
58%
25%
The atmosphere of the game is described as colorful and visually appealing, with commendable sound effects and animation reminiscent of the original Startopia. However, many reviewers criticize the new atmosphere system as superficial and the campaign as lacking depth, leading to a perception of an overly busy and distracting environment. Overall, while some elements enhance the atmosphere, others detract from the experience, resulting in mixed feelings among players.
- “The original Startopia was not a perfect game but was still a masterpiece in terms of sound effects, narration, animation, and atmosphere.”
- “There is a colorful atmosphere.”
- “This game does nothing to iterate on the formula besides a slapped on atmosphere system and better combat (which sandbox players probably turned off anyways).”
- “The graphics are cute, but I find some parts are just too interactive - don't get me wrong, I don't mind the atmosphere cleanser to move and wiggle and blow clouds, but not everything in that station has to move and wiggle and blink... even the doors of the lift keep wiggling... a bit much?!”
- “It has a different atmosphere and gameplay.”
monetization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy of the game has been criticized as a low-quality cash grab, with users expressing frustration over its overpriced nature and the presence of ads through a problematic launcher. While some acknowledge that effort has been made in the game's development, the overall sentiment is that it feels rushed and disrespectful to fans of the original title.
- “This game is a low quality cash grab.”
- “The graphics are nice and the game runs fairly smoothly, but this is what it is, another Kalypso cash grab released too early, full of bugs and pacing issues and horrendously overpriced.”
- “The game feels like a quick cash grab and a slap in the face of the fans from the original game.”
replayability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players find it charming and capable of offering thousands of hours of play, others criticize its limited single-player replay value due to repetitive building mechanics and a lack of character control. Overall, outside of the campaign, the experience can feel monotonous as players often follow the same build-order each time.
- “Incredibly detailed with 1000's of hours of replay value!!”
- “It's charming, and extremely replayable.”
- “Replayability (in single player at least) is minimal in my opinion since you again make 1 of each building and...voila.”
- “Outside of the campaign, the game has very little replayability as you're building the same buildings in the same build order every game and have very limited character control.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players express a strong emotional response to the game's design choices, feeling frustrated and hurt by the limitations imposed by invisible walls and intangible bulkheads. This blend of nostalgia for the original Startopia and disappointment with the new mechanics creates a conflicting emotional experience. Overall, the emotional impact is marked by a sense of loss and frustration rather than fulfillment.
- “Many of the design choices that were made hurt me both emotionally and physically; it still feels and plays like the old Startopia.”

65%Critics’ scoreBased on 11 critic reviews

Buy Spacebase Startopia

12h Median play time

24h Average play time

4-14h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 12 analyzed playthroughs

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