Star Traders: Frontiers is a space trading and tactical role-playing game designed by Trese Brothers, a two-man indie game studio. Star Traders: Frontiers left early access on August 1, 2018. However, it has received nearly constant updates since then which is frankly bonkers and awesome.
I'd liken it almost to a bit of a board game and I imagine they influenced it at the very least. I'll preface this review immediately by saying this is one of my favourite sandbox space games (alongside Starsector.) So, with that out of the way, what is it exactly?
You take the role of a titular Star Trader in their adventure through space after receiving your charter of trade taking over from another family member. You then set off into the stars, exploring, trading, doing missions getting involved in wars, spying and fighting in space and on the ground.
What you choose to do and how you do it is pretty much entirely up to you. Whether you want to be combat-focused in space or on the ground? Trading, spying, exploring, joining factions... There's a lot to do hidden beneath the game's simpler presentation.
Character Creation
The game starts off, as many RPGs do, by dropping you into the character creation screen though Star Traders handles it a little differently than most. The first thing you do is choose a template or customise your own, these templates determine priorities for various aspects of your character. Want to start off with a bigger ship? Bump the ship options priority up higher along the list at the cost of something else. If you want to start at a higher level or have more skills, nudge those up. It's quite a clever way of doing it. I'd recommend sticking to the templates that are already done for your first game or two.
Your character's jobs give skills and talents used for various skill checks in space, on the ground or in any other game aspect. Your captain can level up in three jobs, your officers in two and the rest of your crew have only one. There are a lot of ways to play and build your crew, and going into it here would take too long. Suffice it to say, you have plenty of options and many ways to approach the game depending on how you build your character. One of the best quality-of-life features I've found is that it tells you if you or anyone in your crew knows a talent or skill, meaning you can plan things without having to dig through menu's or memorise everything.
One thing to note is that while skills can improve via training in various jobs your attributes are set at the start which is why I recommend using one of the pre-made templates for your first run or two. Once you have your head around the numbers and gameplay systems I found tinkering with my own templates was a lot of fun too!
For example, I always like having a bigger ship to begin with and lots of contacts for missions and special recruits, so I focus on those factors. You might want to be a smuggler or favour ground combat and boarding, the choice is yours and there really isn't a wrong way to play the game.
Both characters and ships have their vast array of equipment too, from new guns to fighter bays, better engines and the like. Again, too many things to go into here suffice to say this game is deeper than it looks at first glance. This leads us neatly to the next point.
Visual customisation is a bit basic, choose a uniform, choose a head, opt for a masculine or feminine appearance and that about sums it up. I'll go into more in the graphics part but suffice to say graphics aren't where this game focuses its attention.
Gameplay
As I alluded to not so subtly above, the game has a lot more depth than its simple and almost board-game-like appearance would lead you to believe. This game has been a favourite of mine since I first got it simply because of the vast number of ways you can approach it. Space sandbox games will always be a favourite game type for me and this is definitely a good one in my opinion!
Much of the game is played on the map screen, moving between planets and then using jump points to switch star systems. There is a default map, an improved default and an option to randomise the entire thing. The random option ensures you can always keep a new run fresh and vastly increases replay value. You ply the stars, buy cargo, keep refuelled, engage with missions, and trade on various planets. You can even opt not to get involved with story missions if you choose and just roam the galaxy instead.
Bounty hunting and faction wars were something I greatly enjoyed delving into and upgrading my ship and crew for. There are just so many things you can do it's honestly impressive from spying and salvaging to exploration or piracy. You can also get missions from contacts, either simple ones or actual story missions with branching choices. The mission system even has some nice quality of life, letting you set a waypoint to the next step right from the mission log, awesome!
Aside from the galaxy map and planet screens where you will spend the bulk of your time, there are a few other gameplay systems you will find yourself interacting with in one way or another. Planets are where you refuel, repair, hire or heal crew, buy new ships or ship parts or just fill your cargo bay with goods to trade somewhere else (or sell goods you have.) They also host the contacts you'll need for missions and other useful things. I'll go over the other systems briefly, as I did promise my reviews would be concise after all!
Patrols, salvaging, exploration, spying and the like all use a card system with your captain and crew's skills mitigating bad cards and making good cards more likely. It's a little quirky but once you figure out how to do it you'll be well away, it's a non-combat system but it can lead to combat.
For combat, there are two kinds which make up the remaining two gameplay systems both of which are turn-based. Space combat sees you trying to not only maintain optimal range for your ship's weapons but also try to destroy (or board) enemy ships. You can even just attempt to flee though make sure you have a fast ship for that! Then there is ground combat usually on planets or during boarding actions in space where your captain and chosen crew members fight usually 4 on 4. Both systems use a mix of buffing, debuffing, attacks and heals as you'd expect though I feel like space combat is by far the deeper of the two simply because ships have more to them.
While I am not entirely sure how much of a living galaxy the game is under the hood it does at least feel like one when playing. Wars, pirates, alien attacks and story missions can resolve themselves in different ways depending on your level of involvement. Making it feel like you really are in some chaotic sector of space trying to make your mark (or just survive in my case!)
Story & Setting
Obviously, I'll avoid spoilers but this game is set after Templar Battleforce yet in the same universe after the Exodus and a long time after the sector had been settled. The Templar are still around though seemingly staying out of the political turmoil that is beginning to engulf the settled systems.
The various factions are all jostling for dominance via trade, battle or assassins and there are various story arcs both big and small you can get yourself involved in. Despite the amount of hours I've put into the game I haven't seen them all but I like all of them, They feel very Dune-like in the best possible way. Even if this setting isn't perhaps quite as bleak, if I were to describe it best it's a bit like Dune and Firefly mixed together.
The setting is a strong point and I really hope they continue to build on it in future titles.
Graphics
The graphics are simple yet good for what they are and lend themselves well to the board game feel the game has. On the plus side, it's not going to melt your GPU which these days I see as a definite win given how pricey a graphics card is.
The art is generally good though only slightly let down by some of the character portraits, though they aren't that bad I just wish there was a lot more variety <mods>. Other than that, watching your crew battling Xeno or your ship hammering an enemy vessel with missiles and plasma cannons is satisfying, as are some of the higher-end skills.
Sound and Music
The sound effects and music are as with Templar Battleforce before, decent given the side of the studio. The music fits the game's atmosphere, whether you are playing trade routes and dodging pirates or fending off Xenos or smugglers on the ground. The sound effects for ground combat can be a little generic but I don't find that much of a big deal to be honest, sure they could be better but they aren't bad.
There is no voice acting present in Star Traders and given how small the dev studio is I would honestly never expect there to be. That is perfectly fine
UI and Controls
The game is mostly mouse-driven, and the UI is generally pretty solid. However, it will take some time to learn the various menus and how to navigate them. There's a lot going on, so make sure to read the tooltips. Said tooltips are actually very good at presenting information, though expect to do a fair bit of reading all the same if you want to understand what is going on.
Hotkeys are also available and can be re-bound as you see fit although oddly enough only from the main menu and not in the game. A minor nuisance but I mostly played with the mouse and had no issues at all.
Overall
As I said right at the start, this is among my favourite sandbox space games due in no small part to the sheer variety of ways you can play and things you can do. Sure, many systems are similar, using either the dice or cards in some way, but that ensures you'll not get lost during different activities once you've picked up on those systems.
I think the aspect of Star Traders I enjoy the most is the sheer range of things you can do and be. Sure, a lot of them have similar mechanics like patrolling isn't all that different to blockading for example but you can go do anything. Be a pirate? Go for it! Explore remote and dangerous worlds for loot. Sure! Do the quest and story arcs, help your favourite faction? It still feels like I am scratching its surface in the best way possible.
If you want a sandbox space RPG but don't want something as CPU-melting as X4 or PvP-heavy as EVE I think this will more than scratch that itch!
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