I just played Fractured Space

I was very excited when I booted up Steam last weekend and saw that Fractured Space was free to play. It's one of many space born in the space-sim boom created by Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous. I had read about this particular game in a couple “If you like spaceships try these games!” style articles and it looked really great for an Alpha. I had a lot of fun trying this game out but like a lot of the popular PC games these days, Fractured Space suffers from being an Alpha.

                I really liked Fractured Space, or at least I really want to like it. This game is a really neat blend of the MOBA and space ship genre. You are in control of a ship on a team of four other players trying to capture the base of the enemy team. There are two different lanes made up of stations that you are told to capture. The goal is to push lanes and capture stations until you are strong enough to capture the enemy team’s main base. It’s an intuitive premise but while I enjoy parts of the game the core gameplay doesn’t feel totally satisfying to me.

There are a lot of ships available at this stage of development but you only start with three, the rest can be unlocked with a couple games worth of grinding. Each ship fills a pretty clear MOBA role: one is an attack and carry type of ship, one is a slow tank, and the last is a support with shields, heals, and all that jazz. This is easily the most fleshed out part and generally my favorite element of Fractured Space. These ships, as well as the handful of unlockable ships are all beautifully designed and they handle fairly naturally. You can earn credits and faction experience which are used to buy better weapons or ships for use in your next match.

 As far as load outs go, there are a lot of abilities and weapons that keep things exciting. The flack on the corvette feels much different than the Cannons on the Hunter. My favorite ability was the Hunter's Blink, an instant teleport with a quick cool-down that allows you to really do damage in a fast attack role. Each ship has three variants for each weapon and ability type so you don’t get overwhelmed. I thought this was pretty cool and I definitely noticed a difference in the rhythm of combat after upgrading my cannons. The ships make sense and feel finished but the actual game mode is definitely lacking.

            

When you’re in a match you know you are supposed to push lanes because the game tells you too and it is the only logical thing to do aside from mindless combat, but there doesn’t seem to be any tangible motivation to capture your station. After a station is captured you do earn resources which eventually allow you to upgrade your ship. I know this upgrade is important and it makes your ship slightly stronger but since you don’t buy anything and nothing on the ship changes the changes from an upgrade aren’t particularly noticeable. Upgrades happen automatically, you don’t get to build anything like in most MOBAs, you just visit a station and are told you ship is stronger. I don’t have a problem with this but I also wish some visual changes took place at least. But I also really find immersion to be important in a game. 

 Capturing a station has no lasting effects because as soon as you leave the other team will pop in and re-capture it until eventually things devolve into a match of interstellar tug-of-war. Stations don’t do any damage so there is nothing to add tension or urgency to this exchange outside of the looming player vs player combat. This means that a lot of the npc or minion strategy that make other MOBAs challenging is rendered null and void in Fractured Space. I don’t know if this game would be better with some type of minion system but something about station capturing needs to change, it’s the heart of the game and it’s frankly a little boring.

I like a lot about Fractured Space but unfortunately the thing I don’t like is an essential element of actual gameplay. With that being said I still get into the games and have a lot of fun.  Definitely give this game a try if it’s free but keep in mind it is still a very young game and personally I wouldn’t pay for it until it has fleshed out a bit more.  Like a lot of Alpha games floating around the PC gaming world Fractured Space feels incomplete, it’s missing something and I’m not sure if I have any idea what that is. All I can do is throw out my opinions and maybe they will help others fill the gap. I’ve got my eye on Edge Case and I’m excited to see how Fractured Space grows, hopefully by the time its full release rolls around things are a bit complete.