Ultimate Space Commando

About

Ultimate Space Commando is a single player and multiplayer tactical role playing game. It was developed by Angry Cat Studios and was released on May 12, 2015. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

USC is a turn-based, top-down view tactics game in which you control the crew of a stranded recon vessel in a "first contact war" for survival, featuring a detailed combat system with RPG elements, fully interactive randomized maps, unique weapons and gadgets, crafting, and custom multiplayer modes.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Skip User Reviews

77%

Audience ScoreBased on 43 reviews

gameplay9 positive mentions

stability3 negative mentions

Deep and complex turn-based tactical gameplay with many mechanics and strategic options, appealing to fans of old-school tactics games like XCOM and Laser Squad.
Dynamic, interactive environments and destructible terrain add significant tactical depth and immersion to battles.
Strong developer support and community engagement, including regular updates, multiplayer modes, and extensive game content.

Frequent crashes, bugs, and slow load times negatively impact the gameplay experience and reliability.
Cluttered and unintuitive user interface with poor tutorials, making learning the game challenging for new players.
Graphics and animations are minimal and sometimes amateurish, which may detract from immersion for players expecting modern visuals.

story
65 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
84%
8%
The game's story is generally seen as serviceable but not outstanding, offering a coherent narrative that progresses throughout a lengthy campaign with some meaningful choices. While the writing and dialogue are considered thin and occasionally unengaging, the story provides enough context and motivation to complement the strong tactical gameplay. Players appreciate the presence of multiple endings and the integration of story elements within missions, though the main narrative tends to remain generic and secondary to the combat experience.
- “The story is good for this kind of game - for one, it actually exists, and for two, it's reasonably coherent.”
- “You'll upgrade your gear on the way, meet increasingly scary monsters matched only in their deadly-ness by their ugliness, and uncover little bits of a surprisingly well translated story on the way.”
- “The randomized elements, different game modes (single mission with different challenges), the big campaign (with meaningful choices), and defend the base all feel unique and will keep the experience fresh and make you come back for more.”
- “It has single player campaign with the story (which sucks, but who cares about it with this kind of gameplay?).”
- “The story in USC is pretty generic considering the theme and there are few meaningful choices in the midst of the campaign.”
- “The story of the game seems rather well done, but... the actual words used to convey the story?”
gameplay
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
64%
9%
The gameplay offers deep, challenging turn-based tactical combat with intricate mechanics like ammo and inventory management, squad skills, and interactive environments, delivering a polished and balanced experience reminiscent of classic XCOM-style games. Despite some bugs and slow pacing, it provides significant replayability through multiple modes, strategic choices, and varied combat scenarios, making it highly satisfying for fans of tactical RPGs who prioritize gameplay depth over graphics.
- “The great combats, the organic gameplay of the missions, the great economy, ammo and inventory management, all of this makes a great tactical game, easily among the best I ever played.”
- “The game sells its theme through its gameplay very effectively, with every fight a battle for position to avoid getting surrounded, opening and closing doors to move through cramped corridors safely, enemies breaking down walls and doors to reach you, there is a lot of tension and uncertainty.”
- “Ultimate Space Commando is a massive game stuffed to the brim with a large campaign and tons of content in the other game modes along with richly complex gameplay mechanisms supporting them.”
- “Ultimate Space Commando is a turn-based tactical RPG/strategy game that is completely old school in both good and bad ways: unique, intricate game mechanisms with lots of meat, but also extremely slow-moving and unforgiving gameplay.”
- “Also, it takes some time to get used to the interface, the firing patterns, and the various gameplay elements.”
- “Gameplay is tough as nails on the hard difficulty, exactly how I like it.”
graphics
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
58%
21%
The graphics are generally simplistic and functional, featuring a retro, board game-like style with well-drawn alien sprites but less polished soldier designs. While some find the visuals cluttered or lacking variety, most agree the graphic quality suits the game's challenging gameplay and indie nature, though it may not appeal to those prioritizing high visual fidelity.
- “Graphically the game is a bit of a mixed bag. I love the way the map tiles look like they came straight from a Fantasy Flight board game (as do the procedural map layouts).”
- “Graphics are in pure 2D, the alien sprites and the backgrounds are well drawn, your soldiers not as much.”
- “The visuals are what you'd expect from a one-person project, but combat and gameplay trump everything, and the game has damn good combat.”
- “Graphically the game is a bit of a mixed bag. I love the way the map tiles look like they came straight from a Fantasy Flight board game (as do the procedural map layouts), but on the other hand the marines are serviceable but obvious knock-off 40k marines, and I find a few of the alien designs a bit samey.”
- “The name sounds like a weird Japanime crossover thing that's gotta be horribly translated, and the graphics are kinda ugly, even for a retro-esque game like this.”
- “Everything is graphically cluttered: the interface, the levels which are totally full of stuff and frequent narrow corridors (reminiscent of Space Hulk).”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The music effectively establishes atmosphere in the main menu with a space-themed tone, but the in-game soundtrack is overly simplistic and detracts from immersion. Overall, the music does its basic job but fails to enhance the gameplay experience.
- “Sound and music do the job.”
- “Aside from some help with things like soundtrack, it was pretty much a one man game.”
- “The music of the main menu sets the right atmosphere.”
- “The music is space-y but too simplistic.”
- “The music of the main menu sets the right atmosphere, but the in-game music does everything it can to ruin it.”
- “Immersion isn't too good, mostly because of the lacking music and the thin background story.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game successfully creates a dark, tense atmosphere enhanced by limited visibility and suspenseful encounters, effectively immersing players in a foreboding environment. While the main menu music complements this mood well, the in-game music detracts from the overall atmosphere.
- “And nails the atmosphere and experience, imho.”
- “The dark, foreboding atmosphere lit only by your active scanners and field of vision sets a perfect stage for your wary approach into the unknown, where monsters may suddenly swarm you or even start chewing through the walls to get to your tasty team.”
- “The music of the main menu sets the right atmosphere.”
- “The music of the main menu sets the right atmosphere, but the in-game music does everything it can to ruin it.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is poor, with frequent crashes, freezes, and black screens significantly impacting the experience. Additionally, a buggy and confusing tutorial further contributes to the negative impression.
- “Constant freezes, crashes, and black screens result in a negative review.”
- “Frequent crashes and screen freezes are very common.”
- “The tutorial is pretty buggy and hard to follow.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers strong replayability through its extensive 30+ hour campaign and multiplayer modes, including hotseat and online play. However, players focused on graphics and presentation may find it less appealing despite its lasting gameplay value.
- “It's cheap, has hotseat and online multiplayer, great gameplay, and tons of replayability.”
- “The campaign itself is around 30 hours or more, the replay value is also quite good.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is generally seen as tedious and frustrating due to manual item collection, particularly for small crafting materials, and a looting system that can feel trolling and may even lead to campaign restarts. Players find it more annoying than enjoyable, especially outside of specific mission types.
- “This feature is slightly annoying because you have to manually pick everything up, making it tedious especially for screws and other crafting materials.”
- “Tedious, at times infuriating looting system that trolls you and can cause campaign restarts.”
- “Unless the mission is some sort of hold out as long as possible (and it wasn't), this is more tedious than it is fun.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The character development is closely tied to stats and equipment, allowing for customizable growth and progression. Players appreciate the ability to enhance their characters through various gear and attribute improvements.
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by a chaotic, simulation-style vibe combined with a fun, gamey, and darkly humorous tone that players find enjoyable.

Skip Game Offers

Buy Ultimate Space Commando

1h Median play time

1h Average play time

1-1h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs

Skip Videos

Videos

Skip Games Like Ultimate Space Commando

65%181reviews

USC: Counterforce

2024

Tactical Role Playing

85%8.8kreviews

Jagged Alliance 3

2023

Tactical Role Playing

77%629reviews

Classified: France '44

2024

Role Playing

81%6.2kreviews

Wasteland 2

2014

Open World Role Playing

+10

73%2.1kreviews

Hard West

2015

Open World Role Playing

More games like Ultimate Space Commando

Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Ultimate Space Commando is a tactical role playing game.

Ultimate Space Commando is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 1 hours playing Ultimate Space Commando.

Ultimate Space Commando was released on May 12, 2015.

Ultimate Space Commando was developed by Angry Cat Studios.

Ultimate Space Commando has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Ultimate Space Commando for its gameplay but disliked it for its story.

Ultimate Space Commando is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include USC: Counterforce, Jagged Alliance 3, Classified: France '44, Wasteland 2, Hard West and others.

Ultimate Space Commando

Platforms

Buy Ultimate Space Commando