Review anarchistica 3/5 · Dec 29, 2020
Perfectly Average Tower Defense Game
Intro
Space Run is a Tower Defense game. At the start of each mission you have to place your engine and you cargo on your hexgrid ship, which always has a different shape. During the game you build towers on the remaining hexes. Enemies come from all sides and eventually move off if not destroyed. Each mission has a timer …
Intro
Space Run is a Tower Defense game. At the start of each mission you have to place your engine and you cargo on your hexgrid ship, which always has a different shape. During the game you build towers on the remaining hexes. Enemies come from all sides and eventually move off if not destroyed. Each mission has a timer and you get bonuses for faster and much faster deliveries.
The Good
Space Run takes a well-known concept and changes it enough to be unique in the genre. There are a bunch of different weapons, shield generators, engines, power generators, etc. to unlock and most of them will stay useful throughout the game. The various dynamics are really well done. For instance, most towers have special abilities with power requirements that exceed their basic ones. Do you place another generator, another weapon or a shield in an available hex?
The types of cargo start out simple ("take up x hexes") but grow increasingly complicated. Passengers want a view. AI wants to connect to the command module. Other cargo drains energy from nearby towers. Et cetera. They were really creative with this simple concept.
I also appreciate that you can complete a scenario without any cargo surviving as long as you arrive in time. You won't get paid but at least you can advance through the campaign.
The Bad
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They should have given players the option to select the difficulty for each level individually, rather than for an entire profile.
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Upgrades are too expensive. I completed the game but i hadn't even unlocked everything.
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Some of the bigger non-weapon towers can almost never be placed without compromising combat ability.
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The dialogue between missions sucks. You have the same conversation with the same two pirates a dozen times.
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There are only 3 types of weapons.
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The AI nodes are too hard to spot. I lost out on stars because i didn't see not all of them were linked.
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No option to automatically skip the launching cinematic.
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You can't pick the shape of your ship or adjust it. Really seems like a missed opportunity. They could've done a tradeoff where smaller ships are faster.
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No different pilots, game modes or whatever.
Conclusion
Space Run is a fine game that could've been a whole lot better if there were more options. After 7-8 hours you're basically done with it.