ZeroSpace screenshot
Image: Starlance Studios & Ironward

It has been over sixteen years since StarCraft 2 defined the sci-fi RTS for the world. Ever since, dozens of imitators and contenders for the crown have attempted to dethrone Blizzard's enduring (if sometimes goofy) masterpiece. Few have survived long, with the recent implosion of Frost Giant Studios' Stormgate being especially notable. That hasn't stopped anyone from trying, though, and next up to bat is ZeroSpace, coming from new outfit Starlance Studios and Red Solstice developers Ironward. This one's had more than a little buzz surrounding it for a while, and it's making a big, confident step into Early Access today.

For starters, ZeroSpace is aiming a bit higher than StarCraft 2 on the factions front, with four playable sides, each with multiple sub-commanders with their own gimmicks and units. You've got the Protectorate (your baseline human army with chunky mechs), the Grell (a Zerg-esque swarm of sapient plants), the Legion (a conquering evil alien empire with a love of big, slow, heavily armed units), and the Xol, a faction of noodly-limbed but 'fiercely individualistic' sapient machines that have been hunted nearly to extinction by the Legion. Nice to see the robots being the plucky underdogs, for once, although the Xol are apparently still in beta in this initial release.

While an obviously StarCraft-inspired space RTS (and a solid one, based on what I've heard from players of the earlier, now-unavailable demo version), it does a few things differently. There's a bit of Mass Effect here, both in its cutscenes and in giving players dialog trees and Choices That Matter which promise to carry into missions in the story campaign. More ambitious still is the Galactic War mode, which allows your skirmish, co-op, and PvP matches to have an effect on a dynamic, persistent faction-war map.

Despite being in early access, today's release seems surprisingly full-featured, with Starlance Studios boasting a full 13 main story missions, another 10 co-op missions with procedural objectives and three of the four factions playable, including a first iteration of the Galactic War mode. A respectable slab of content, but represented in the game's price.

ZeroSpace is out now for £35.75/$40, with a 10% launch discount live until August 3rd. Current estimates are for early access to last around a year, with the price expected to rise as the game nears completion. More story missions are coming, multiple endings to work towards, additional co-op commanders, and further features planned for the Galactic War mode, assuming the game finds its footing. Given how hungry StarCraft fans have been for a new game to chew on for years, I've got my fingers crossed that this one can dig in and establish a base.