Captain's Log, Star Date 2159. This is Space Crew. Its continuing mission: To defend Earth and humankind, to eliminate the extraterrestrial threat and to boldly go where no Crew has gone before. Enlist today and blast off to new heights. The United Defence Force will allow you to set across the galaxy on a campaign to defend Earth. It will be your responsibility to help stop all of humankind being wiped off the intergalactic stage by the mysterious extraterrestrial threat known as the Phasmids. The U.D.F. is doing their part, are you? Join the Space Crew today...!

Space Crew is a strategic space survival simulation that sees you take control of a starship and engage in missions to help Earth and mankind. Whether it's transporting supplies to far off colonies or heading out on a rescue mission, you are able to give orders to your crew to ensure that your weapons are fully manned or each command post has an officer standing by to ensure the mission goes smoothly.

For those of you who've played and loved Curve Digital's 2018 game Bomber Crew, you'll be right at home in Space Crew. Bomber Crew saw you having control of a World War II bomber and her crew as they go on daring missions. Space Crew uses that same basic premise, but transports it into space. This game is incredibly similar to Inertia Game Studios 2018 game Catastronauts, but slightly better realised.

The game opens with a fairly basic tutorial to help, you get your head around the controls, before opening up the first few missions. These too are really just extended tutorials to help you get to grips with some of the mechanics of the control system. Each of your crew has a different ability/skill and while all of the characters can do each others jobs, obviously the ones trained up are going to perform their actions better than other characters.

On most missions you have the option of choosing the safest or quickest route. The safest means less alien enemies will attack you. In the early stages it's probably best to opt for the safest passage, until you get adept at quickly choosing each crew member and assigning them to various tasks.

After each mission you'll return to your space station where you can hire new crew; change your existing crew's inventory (alter the equipment for each character or apply changes to all characters at the same time); hang out in the mess hall and pick up information on current events; or head off to the briefing room and choose your next mission.

Ship-to-ship combat is strategic. Your captain can opt to manoeuvre the ship into various positions depending on your game play style, while your engineer can alter power distribution between ship sections including weapons, shield and gravity. In amongst this chaos you must also manage your resources and crew abilities to stop ship invasions, repair systems, tackle fires and take evasive action.

Customisation is quite extensive. You can alter each crew members name, appearance, equipment and load outs, as well as personalise your spaceship by changing weapons, armour, engines, escape pods and liveries. But take care of your crew because if they die (and another officer doesn't quickly revive them) they are gone or good.

While it can be frustrating at time (by design) there is a lot of fun to be had here. In fact, I was so impressed that I've also picked up the first in the series, 2018's Bomber Crew.

9

Darren Rea