HomeNewsSpace Tales
Image credit:Saigon Dragon
Image credit:Saigon Dragon
Space Talesis a new real-timestrategygame from Vietnam-based Saigon Dragon, who worked with Numantian Games to develop the brilliantThey Are Billions. In They Are Billions, you scraped together walls and turrets to hold off a world’s worth of undead, and prolong the miserable lives of a tiny handful of non-zombified humans at your settlement’s core. Space Tales is breezier of demeanour - like the confusingly named 2014 RTSSpace Rogue, it takes inspiration from 1940s retro-futurism, with brightly coloured maps and chunky chrome unit design. But there are similarly grim overtones. The game puts you in charge of a Starship Troopers-esque expeditionary force, carving out secure nooks on very-much-inhabited alien planets and flogging them as holiday destinations.
Space Tales has justlaunched on Kickstarter. Providing Saigon Dragon hit their funding targets, it’ll offer a 16-mission campaign with optional side missions, in which you can research army improvements and build up a squad of side-characters.
Image credit:Saigon Dragon
It all feels veryStarcrafty. Battles mix together smaller rank-and-file with larger support units, and base structures are summoned from orbit. There’s the option of capturing rather than killing the aforesaid larger, initially non-hostile alien wildlife, allowing you to summon them as beasts of war. You can scry the team’s previous experience on There Are Billions in the wave-defence feel of the encounters, though the bodycount isn’t nearly as high - so far. Here’s the trailer.
Space Tales - Trailer “Are you ready to start your new life ?“Watch on YouTube
Space Tales - Trailer “Are you ready to start your new life ?”
Nic Reubendeemed There Are Billions one of the Bestest Best strategy games, not least for its exceedingly unpleasant atmosphere. “The people serve the colony and the colony serves the people like some horrific clockwork chicken and bronze egg situation,” he observed. “Farmers toil in the shadow of tall wooden palisades to feed the crew of gigantic ballistae and the pilots of flamethrower-wielding mechs.” I’m not sure what I’ve seen of Space Tales can match that - the satirical elements feel very cut-and-dried - but I like the retrofuturist HUD with its curving monitors, and I’m curious about the power hub system. What do you think? There’s no release date yet, but they’re aiming for 2024.
