Spacebase DF-9

 Hello everyone and welcome to my review on the game Spacebase DF-9.

Well, first off it is made by Double Fine Productions. Who are Double Fine Productions? Good question considering I hadn't heard of them before so I did a little bit of digging and as it turns out, they seem to be behind titles like Costume Quest 1 and 2, Stacking, Psychonaughts, Iron Brigade, Broken Age and something that if it true, I am highly looking forward to, Grim Fandango Remastered. If you have no idea what Grim Fandango is then you need to watch Yogscast Duncan's play through, it is an old school adventure game that tells an amazing story and a game I highly recommend anyone play if you love good characters and interesting stories.

Anyway, back to the game that is the focus of this review, Spacebase DF-9. It is a base building game taking place after some sort of collapse, I have no idea what this collapse is or what happened but from playing the game, I'm guessing it was some sort of world ending tragedy that resulted in "seeds" holding three astronauts being flung to another system entirely to create a new base and survive basically.

You start off the game with only three citizens and the seed they were housed in. With only 2000 matter and 8 minutes of oxygen, you have to set up a basic base for your citizens to survive in and expand.

Personally through my experience in the game, I find a 3x3 airlock, 4x4 refinery, 6x6 life support and 6x6 generator seems to be a pretty good way to build your starter base. Make sure you add in the normal doors so they can move between the rooms. It is worth saying that your citizens will not build anything unless they are builders, to change one of your citizens into a builder you simply press R to bring up the citizen roster and then click on Builder.

Each citizen has a personality and mood, some will enjoy certain jobs while others wont but early game, no matter what, it is needed that you have all 3 as builders to build your base quickly. With your starter base built and powered, you can then assign your citizens to any of the other roles, one that is preferable to that certain citizen.

However, once again at the start you may need to compromise as you'll need a technician to keep your machines running and a miner to gain matter from the asteroids in the sector.

The game is challenging as there isn't any difficultly setting, meaning you either get good or you get lucky, the game is a challenge and in a world with games that are either easy as straw to win or just plain short. Spacebase DF-9 is a challenge and it is only amplified as everything is random, nothing is ever the same so it adds an aura of unpredictability to the game.

Another thing is the lack of a graphics option, the game only has one graphic option but it is a beautiful look and while the actually character models look a little dated, the building models which you'll be spending most of your time looking at are beautifully made and are pleasing to look at.

Now you'll probably be thinking to yourself "I've played city and base builders before, what makes Spacebase DF-9 any different."

Well, each of your citizens in unique and there are even alien citizen models, I remember I played a game where one of them was a Humanoid-Chicken. You can also change the names of any of your citizens, I actually changed the Humanoid-Chicken to me for the hell of it and added my friend Jake or TheCrimsonWolf in for the laughs of it. It does add a layer of personal connection to the game, not on the same level of lets say XCOM but it does make you feel when either you or one of your closet friends or hated enemies you put in the game dies.

And your citizens will die, from a number of things. Raiders, being sucked out into space, hunger, illness, each other, or god forbid you encounter the dreaded Parasite.

I was playing a game where one of my citizens had a parasite and it was like something out Alien or XCOM. This bug like alien burst out of his chest and started to kill everyone, it was horrible and the worse thing is, no matter what, the game is random so you can either be lucky or unlucky.

As far as I can tell, there isn't an ending to the game as I usually die before I get to it. I do know there is a sort of final boss in the form of the Pirate Fleet which will attack your base with wave after wave of Raiders when your base seems to take care of itself.

Meaning the game will constantly present you with a challenge to keep you interested in it.

Through everything, Spacebase DF-9 is a challenge and it is a great game for the genre and the idea behind it. I would like to see what the Steam Community can come up with for this game, I would love to see some Mods that add new races or possibly even new enemies.

Anyway guys, this has been OniOfTaint and this has been my review on Spacebase DF-9. Let me know what you think of the game and if there is anything you believe I have missed, then let me know. For now, Spacebase DF-9 scores a 7/10, it is a great game but I do feel it isn't worthy of being a legendary game currently, perhaps after some extensions by Double Fine then maybe. Anyway, take care and goodnight everyone.

Yogscast Duncan's Playthrough of Grim Fandango: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBuMtIpVlq8&list=PLGN8WikMb4WG3vk2sRoIlQJvMMJjuK2Ur