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Space Haven review (early access)Red dwarf fortress
Red dwarf fortress
Colony simulators can be overwhelming. Games likeDwarf FortressandRimWorlduse migration as both a fuel and a pressure valve, delivering caravan after caravan of fresh colonists at regular intervals to ensure the centre of balance of your community is always tipping forwards.Space Haven, which is set not on the filthy ground but in that big empty boob we callspace, flip-turns the usual template upside down. You command a ship that quite literally is always moving forwards, resources are scavenged from passing derelict hulls, and fresh crew pilfered from other ships.
It’s a welcome change of pace, taking all of the complex, interconnected systems of a colony management simulator and sticking them in a big metal box that zooms through space. You’ve got the familiar and ruthlessly simulated wants and needs of your inhabitants to contend with. Each member of your crew is cursed with the ability to feel discomfort and sadness. They come with their own traits and skills, making them more or less proficient at operating parts of the ship and more or less compatible with their colleagues.
This is where Space Haven feels properly distinct from other colony builders. You can customise your ship to suit either scavenging or combat. Rather than plundering derelict ships like a roaming space coward, you can instead focus your efforts on building shield generators and gun turrets and taking the fight to the various AI-controlled ships you encounter. During ship to ship combat you can target your opponent’s engines and weapons to disable them, and if you can force another ship to surrender and you can take prisoners to be traded.
It’s a tough balance to strike, but occasionally Space Haven’s scarcity of resources manages to paint you into interesting corners. Your crew may be forced to eat a human foot to survive, or you might dismantle your generators for vital components and swing into low orbit around a sun to charge up on solar power. But for a colony simulator that’s untethered from the tedium of earth, and whose biggest potential is in filling the infinite vastness of space with interesting things to see and do, it too often feels like it may as well be taking place underground.
