I’m probably going to get into trouble for this. But I’m going to say it anyway. And I’m going to say it because I want newcomers to understand what Frontiers Reach is, and what it is not.
Steve Jobs once said “people don’t know what they want until we show them”, but I would prefer to say it another way.
Most people, only want more of the things they already know that they love.
Frontiers Reach is not a traditional space game. It is not an Ace Combat or Project Wingman fan game. It does not care to even try to compete with a game like Star Citizen. In fact, I’ve actually made jokes that most of the missions in Frontiers Reach are quick and intense enough that you could play them while on downtime waiting for your friends to group up in Star Citizen.
(insert “I heard you like space games so I made space game you could play while you play space games” meme)
I’ll be 40 years old in the next few years. Making games has been my passion since I was kid, even when they didn’t make any money. And I grew up in a family that believed games, especially computer games and console games, were a waste of time and money and as an adult now myself I can kind of see their point. But working on games has opened doors for me that would have otherwise been closed. So even when they didn’t make money directly, other opportunities came along.
When I started Frontiers Reach I was definitely inspired by past games. But I also had reached a point of exhaustion. At that time I had played Elite Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, Freelancer, Darkstar One, and dabbled around with games like the X series, Battlecruiser, Everspace 2, EVE Online, and I:war2, and I watched long plays of all the Wing Commander games. And I’m sick and tired of looking at the same design aesthetic and playing with the same game mechanics in the space game genre.
In the past 30 years the most innovative thing anyone has to offer is No Man’s Sky with some awesome procedural generation tech to fill out an entire universe. Yeah I’ll give Star Citizen some props for doing large planets with a massive city or 2 but as far as I’m concerned, NMS beat everyone to the dream game and they did it with a studio that was a fraction of the size of most. And that’s despite the rocky start. And I’m still not convinced that procedurally generating a whole universe is necessary or worth it. But Sean Murray and his team deserve props for being the absolute mad lads and lasses that they are for both taking the risk to make it happen and actually pulling it off.
But I’m still tired of playing what are essentially re-skins of the same game. Whether they be a survival space game, a looter shooter space game, or a traditional space sim.
So if you want more of what Everspace 2 has, I recommend playing Everspace 2 and giving your support to those devs, they work very hard on that game and they deserve every ounce of loyalty their fan base gives them.
And if you want more Ace Combat or Project Wingman, go give your support to those teams. They also work very hard on their games. I’ve played both of them, but as an older person I just can’t get into them like younger people do. And then there is Project Red Sun, I’ve given some small advice to the dev on that game and we’ve worked together in the past. That project should be your next target if you’re looking for more Arcade Shooter games.
If you’re looking for something more like No Man’s Sky, I would recommend either sticking with No Man’s Sky because they are still updating the game, or checking out Terrene; it’s basically NMS in 2D and very fun and accessible if want a universe in your pocket.
If you want the traditional space trucker experience I highly recommend tuning into some tracks from the band Deep Purple and downloading Star Trucker. It’s literally just that. Like, from the videos I’ve seen it may as well be American Truck Simulator, Space Edition.
And if you want 2nd life in space, well, I guess they’re supposed to release Star Citizen at some point.
Reality is Frontiers Reach is none of those games. And maybe it’s a game that nobody asked for, but I am indeed nobody, and yes I did ask for this game. I asked for a military retro-scifi space and atmospheric combat sim with game mechanics and an art style inspired by the early to mid Cold War fighter jets and aerial conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union. I tried something that leaned more towards the arcade side of things with a different team early on, but when things didn’t work out, I went my own way and leaned more towards simulation.
But this isn’t just a simulation in respect to having a lot of physics interactions going on. Nor is it a pure aerodynamic simulation because that would actually make some of the fighters I designed literally unflyable. Part of the simulation is that you’re one of the underdogs in an asymmetrical conflict where your goal isn’t really to win the war, but to get out of it. And you won’t have the luxury of an entire military behind you either. You’ll need to do your own recon, strategize on the fly, and learn to identify friend from foe on a battlefield where civilians and military alike are struggling for control and stability. And you’ll have to do it all in a world you don’t really understand and will have to learn.
If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Frontiers Reach is a space/flight sim made by me and I’m the type of person who has a pretty long history of playing space/flight games and sims. So it’s not really made for the casual gamer, and if your heart isn’t really in it, then I recommend playing something else. You won’t hurt my feelings by doing so.
With that aside, those of you who are here for it can rest assured that updates to Frontiers Reach are still coming. The Uncharted Worlds exploration themed content will be getting a revamp here soon and I’ll be looking to begin work on multiplayer.
Yes, that’s right. We’re looking to add multiplayer to Frontiers Reach. I say we, because I met someone last year who was kind enough to take time out of their day to put together a simplified multiplayer setup for Frontiers Reach where you will play WARMAP missions as a singular player and when you complete missions you’re completion data will be calculated across the network so every player connected to the internet will see your progress affect their maps and vice-versa. There is still a lot of work to do on that front but we’ve already gotten it working in the test environment.
Till next time pilots, happy hooning!