Element Space

Transposes the turn-based shooter into a futuristic setting competently, but ultimately is far from essential. For genre completists only. [Issue#174, p.93]

There are some really cool ideas here, and potentially a really good game hidden under a mess that seems like it needed several more months of playtesting and hammering things out. There are just too many things like a lack of polish, a mess of a UI, the camera is hard to control, and bugs/glitches make the experience frustrating. It is sad because, while there are some cool things in here, it simply is not ready for release at this point. It needed way more time actually making sure the core experience is enjoyable, rather than fighting through nearly everything except for enemies.

When Element Space is bad, it’s bad to the point of having to fully close the game and lose anything from a few minutes to a few hours of progress. When it seems good, I began to wonder if it only felt that way because almost every other part of the port feels unfinished. Overall, I appreciate parts and pieces of Element Space, but it cannot hold its own within the genre. Element Space has potential, but potential often isn’t enough.

Element Space had choices that impacted the game like Mass Effect which I liked. Unfortunately, there were many bugs that caused the game time to be funny, frustrating, and annoying. A good game is there somewhere but the problems need to be fixed.

Though the combat holds up, it’s just too difficult to find a way to recommend Element: Space as a whole. There’s not much of interest from a narrative standpoint, while all of the good points about the gameplay are offset by the technical problems. It’s a shame, as there’s a good base underneath it, but even with giving leeway based on the small size of the development team, the annoyances currently outweigh the good.