The Space Game: Missions
Back when The Space Game was released, casual real-time strategy lovers everywhere agreed that it was one of the very best such games you could play in a browser. It feels a little like an open-ended tower defense title, but lets you play more creatively, with the ability to place your mining platforms and laser banks anywhere in two-dimensional space. Thanks to the required network of energy relays and supporting structures, you end up building this amazing-looking spider creature of a base, tendrils splayed out around the asteroid belt, bursts of neon light pulsing through its veins, lashing out with highlight beams at the incoming swarms of space pirates. It's like Las Vegas in space. But cheaper.
The biggest criticism I had of the original The Space Game was its monotony. Real-life military space mining will probably be like that — just an endless slog through the solar system, pressing little buttons on your space remote to have the nanobot army build you another missile center — but here in this Earth video game, I wanted more variety in the missions, a story please. A goal beyond "Get you some money. Now you are the wealthiez!"
That's what The Space Game: Missions is. The main story path branches off into three sub-plots, each centered around some unique treasure you have to protect, or huge threat you have to face. With 8 missions on the backbone, and 13 more on the ribs, that's a meaty gameplay chowdown. While your own capabilities haven't changed from the first Space Game — your weapons are identical — your focus has to change quite a bit when you are, say, defending a moving rocket from attackers along the length of its flight path, or when you're limited to using the minerals from a single giant mining laser. The tight, balanced gameplay is the same; it's just more engaging this time.
The new missions are hard, even on the easiest setting, and you can unlock a total of four difficulty levels for each. Again, meaty. Even without any major gameplay shake-ups, this is a more than satisfying challenge for The Space Game veterans. Thanks to the in-game tutorial, newcomers should be able to appreciate it too, though you might want to try the first game before diving in here. This game is largely fan-service. We wanted a harder game with a stronger story, and that's what developer David Scott has given us. No multiplayer yet, but this is still a great update to The Space Game, the one and only.
Thanks for sending this one in, Jell and Philip!
You can also play the game at Kongregate
Just discovered this today, and it is great. But it does get hard sometimes. The main missions aren't outlandishly difficult, but the side ones seem a lot tougher.
I've tried five times to do the 'escort a moving ship' mission, and fail at the same point each time.
But I'd say this is exactly what an intense casual game should be. Excellence in every aspect.
Is the site down?
It doesn't seem to load.
O not casual collective again!
Their games just never load on my computer
I guess I can't enjoy this game even if it will be fun.......
my friend says this game is sooooooo fun and other games on the casual collective is fun, like minions and minions on ice or something but it never loads on my computer! arrg
The game is loading for me at the Casual Collective, but I've posted a link to the game at Kongregate, too.
Is there something I'm not getting for the last level? Not the main mission, but the side mission s at the very end. I can't even beat the first one, though I had no problems with everything else. The final boss is just too hard..
Otherwise, the game is just as great as it was last time!
If you have problem loading these games just check you have your ad blockers turned off as they sometimes block games that load in the way the CC games load.
Re: Final boss:
I'm playing on Easy because I like my games easy, but the same principles always apply. Start off by building a grid of solar stations and energy tanks. Then build a couple of missile towers, a couple of THEL beams - I find that a pair of these on a boss unit is the most effective and consistent weapon - and then a pointed barrier of regular pulsers at the front. Make sure everything is fully-upgraded. You probably want to leave a buffer of a few thousand minerals for missiles and in case anything goes wrong.
Really final boss:
The second one appears from behind, but a little later on, and you get a generous delay and maybe double the amount of minerals. Same as the first one, but more and bigger and symmetrical.
I really enjoyed this, but I wish there was a quiet, persistent mode. I just want to quietly mine and never stop.
Gawlly this game is good! It's so challenging. The new missions definitely expand on the original theme in a way that's new and exciting.
I'm surprised there are so few comments. What a wonderful game. I loved the original and the missions succeed in giving the game more depth. I also like the balance. I was able to beat every mission on "Crazy" except the last two, which I can only beat on easy!
Love the sound and graphics, love the hotkeys and challenge. 5 stars for sure, a TD milestone!
Here are some tips:
- Turn off missiles when fighting ring ships!
- Mine fast and mine often! Double-up on clusters of asteroids.
- THEL is overrated. Too much of a power drain.
- On the "follow the rocket" missions, you want to build right along its path and dismantle what is behind it for minerals.
The last of the side missions, Jumping to Warp, was incredibly hard, but I beat it on Crazy after about 50 tries. Here's the trick:
Build a long chain with a fork on the end where three fully upgraded missiles are on top, two fully upgraded missiles on the bottom. Use missiles judiciously. Spend everything else on upgraded basic lasers in between, they only have to be strong enough to handle the ring ship wave. The trick is to have the final wave of motherships zip in BEHIND your missile towers so the don't get distracted shooting down the mothership drones. It also helps to turn them on before the last wave so the "sky" is full of rockets when they zip in.
Well, I finally beat the supership on the last mission. Here was the strategy I used:
First, set up a network of power stations and energy towers. Once that's done, create a "fork" with five fully upgraded missiles on each side. Then branch out further, and further, building a network of energy towers along the supership's whole path, resplendent with non-upgraded basic lasers and non-upgraded repair stations. This will go down quickly, so keep building a lot of energy transmitters around it, to keep the attack ships' focus on them, thus slowing its advancement forward, giving your missiles time to do more damage. Just keep this up (and watch your mineral count!) until it finally goes down.
Wow, I can't even beat the third regular level. If anyone's still reading these comments, any tips?
People seem to forget that The Space Game is a casualized, well, rip-off of Oxeye's Harvest: Massive Encounter. They deserve the props for originality, The Space Game is largely derivative of their game.
Here is how I beat Response 3/4 and 4/4 (granted I was playing on easy, but I think it would work otherwise):
The key to my victory was realizing that the supership doesn't divert its attention until its target is destroyed.
So, I constructed an array of solar stations, then repair stations, then pulsers and finally missiles. I upgraded all of them -- though I don't think you need to upgrade the repair stations if your base is compact enough.
Then I constructed another pulser set apart from the bulk of the base using energy relays to use as bait. By using a multitude of repair stations, the supership was never able to destroy the bait, keeping it's massive laser occupied.
The pulsers and missiles take care of the smaller ships the supership spews out, and when they aren't dealing with the small ships, they attack the supership.
@Vandrovec :
The description text found on the game says :
"A RTS that is a cross between Harvest Massive Encounter and Vector TD!"
So it's not a rip-off, it even made me look into harvest and try it out myself. Sure the gameplay is similar, but hey, any RTS game is like Dune 2 huh ?
the only misson I fail is the one were two super ships attack you
Heck, THELs are WAYYYYYYYYYYY too overrated. They cost too much minerals, they need too much energy, and they fire so slow. Even pulsars or regular lasers can deal with the ring ships better then THELs.
This is one of the finest games. I have completed ALL of the Space Game Missions on the Hardest Setting (yes, it took a good 2 weeks of intensive gameplay). Below are my general tips and strategies:
BASIC vs UPGRADED
For the vast majority, if not all of the missions, this is the one rule that is going to make all the difference. ONLY build BASIC lasers and DON'T upgrade them (this does not apply to THELS).
The fact is, a basic laser can be sold at the exact cost of building it. This means you can position a vast dense field of basic lasers at the side of your structure facing the next approaching wave of enemies and then once the battle is concluded, sell the entire lot and rebuild elsewhere. (This is particularly useful for the "Defend the moving Rocket" missions).
The same applies to Repair Stations. Build them basic, let them repair lasers to full health to regain their full sale price, then sell them off at the purchase cost. This type of financial efficiency will enable you to present the enemy with a stronger resolve.
The exception to this rule is powerstations. Build them and upgrade them fully because they will always be needed and do not need to be sold and moved within any given mission.
MISSILE LAUNCHERS
Missile Launchers are, without doubt, one of your best assets in the majority of missions. Of course they do cost minerals to fire but dont let that deter you. Make sure you turn them off when the "O-Ring" ships approach (stick to basic lasers) but for the remainder of your foes, these weapons are a must. They particularly come into their own when attacked by a close-knit fleet of motherships. (Yes, THELS can work too but they take a lot more power and therefore money to construct and use. Furthermore, you dont get the spread damage of missiles).
THE FINAL LEVELS - Two Strategies:
> The Missile Launcher Strategy
This is probably the only strategy that is going to work on the final level on the hardest setting. Build two fully upgraded powerstations and then a few basic ones around them (around 6). Now build a tight ring of missile launchers around the powerbase and fully upgrade them until you leave a reasonable budget of minerals with which to use your weapons. I would recommend leaving around 9,000 minerals minimum.
Now sell off the basic powerstations. At this stage, your launchers will be firing at the oncoming enemy. If the main Mother Ship(s) close in a bit tight, you can distract them with some power relays as disposable fences but be aware that this will deplete your finances.
> The THEL Gun Strategy
This strategy works best on the penultimate level where you have to deal with just one Large Mothership (and her brood of course). This will work on the final level too but can only work up to "Hard". For the most difficult setting on the final level, this is unlikely to hold up.
To start, build a block of fully upgraded powerstations. It's been a while since I did this but from memory, around 18 - 22 of them is sufficient. Make the block just two powerstations wide and then 9 - 11 vertical. Now wait to see where the enemy comes from (it'll be left or right).
Once the enemy makes an appearance, pause the action and set to work. You now need to construct a "dish" of fully upgraded THELs on the side of your powerstations tower facing the enemy. The central THELs should be tight against your powerstations tower. The THELs then attached further towards the top and bottom of your power tower should gradually extend further and further outwards so that you end up with an inverted dome shape (like the inside of a spoon). Again, memory fails me on how many is optimum but I reckon around 9 will work.
Now you need to build some power storage tanks behind your power tower and upgrade them (again, the optimum number eludes me so just make an educated budget decision on this).
Finally, some fully upgraded lasers should be built extending between the gaps of the THELs in your dish and at the top and bottom of the power tower. You can also build a few repair stations behind your storage tanks to cover the entire structure.
Once the enemy closes in, this strategy becomes clear on why it is so successful. The "dome" shape to the THELs means that each one is roughly equidistant from the enemy when it approaches in the centre. As such, all of them will fire simultaneously to minimise killing time. This will hammer your power storage tanks but dont fear. They'll hold you to the end.
@SG Lover
I tried your trick with the thels for the second to last, didn't have enough resources to fully upgrade the thels, lost 8 of my 9 thels, last one just barely killed the boss.....
so could you post a screenshot of the thel strategy?
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