Space Station: Frontier

It’s easy to see why the tower defence genre has gained such a following on mobile devices. Offering bitesize strategy gameplay that's perfectly portioned for gaming on the go, it strikes an admirable balance between depth and accessibility.

But this young genre has grown old before its time.

With so many tower defence games available, and such a static formula underpinning them, you could be forgiven for thinking that if you've seen one example then you've seen them all. Thankfully Space Station: Frontier brings plenty of fresh ideas to the table.

Developed by Origin8, the team behind Sentinel 3: Homeworld, Space Station: Frontier adds resource-gathering and management to the tower defence formula, as well as a renewed emphasis on strategy. The result is a potent genre-blend in which you defend a space station from a hostile alien race.

Enemies don't follow set paths, and there are no grid spaces on which to place your towers. Instead, you're free to position your defences as you see fit, the only restriction being that all of your structures must be connected to your base by power lines.

This makes outward development dangerous, and the loss of a single power line can have disastrous consequences if you don't replace it quickly. But outward growth is essential for the procurement of resources, as your income is mined from nearby meteors rather than awarded for defeating enemies.

To tap these celestial resources you’ll have to push out into the unknown, snaking supply lines toward your targets while diligently placing defences in preparation for the inevitable enemy raids. Frontier is an appropriate subtitle for a game which encourages constant, but faintly paranoid, expansion.

Difficulty spikes soon puncture the borderland atmosphere, though, with perfectly pitched campaign encounters often followed by punishingly difficult stages. Superior strategising and resource-management aren’t much help, and instead you have no choice but to upgrade your way out of trouble.

This forces you into Space Station’s extra game modes, as you grind out credits by replaying the Survival or Mining game types.

After loading up Survival mode for the third consecutive time, you’ll realise that it’s not enjoyment that’s keeping you playing but a grim determination to earn your way back into the fun part of the game.

If upgrades were a little less expensive or necessary, this wouldn’t be such a problem, and Space Station’s extra modes would be welcome additions rather than paid chores.

Ultimately, though, Frontier's take on mobile strategy is compelling enough to overshadow the upgrade tedium. At its best, the game's encounters are tense affairs that reward quick-thinking and strategic improvisation in a way that your typical tower defence title never comes close to.

Perhaps Frontier is best likened to a theme park, with periods of dull exasperation punctuated by bursts of exhilarating fun. You might come away just wishing there had been a slightly more favourable fun/monotony ratio, but you'll still be glad you made the trip.