From Space is the latest game by Triangle Studios, and it’s a remake/expansion on their 2015 game It came from space and ate our brains. A title that is a little unwieldy in comparison to the simplicity of From Space. This game is a twin-stick shooter with a focus on large hordes of enemies for you to mow down with a wide assortment of weapons, and you can do so in single-player or multiplayer.

From Space has a rather simple overall system of play. There are six classes to choose from, and each class has two specific combat types within in it. So, you choose between defensive, offensive, and support units, and they can be further subdivided into things like Flame Trooper for defense and a Combat Engineer for support.

Each of these specific classes has its own unique attributes that make them part of a good team, so From Space is focused on cooperative play. You should have a good mix of different types as you blaze your way through the hordes of pink aliens that attack you. It’s basically like an isometric version of Left 4 Dead or a slower, non-bullet hell version of something like the comparatively recent Wildcat Gun Machine.

This is why From Space is best played with some friends, but there also isn’t a matchmaking system. You have to play with friends who already own the game, and that can put a damper on things as the game would likely be a lot better and more entertaining if those multiplayer features were available. This is why our review does not look at the multiplayer component, as releasing a review on release day somewhat lowers the number of people who are currently playing the game. But judging by the rest of the game, it would be even more entertaining alongside some friends.

So, From Space throws you into world swarming with pink aliens who lend the aesthetic one hell of a kick. They burst into glorious pink and their color scheme is perfect against the mostly dark environments you traverse. In the beginning, you hardly pack a punch, but over time, you start to level up, and gain new upgrades, weapons, weapon slots, etc. In addition, this is great for those who want to have a good time rather than just grinding forever, because no matter which class you play, every one of your classes will upgrade at the same pace.

This means that if you’re at level six with the Shadow Sniper, then you’re at level six with the Lab Assistant too. This means that you can freely move between these different types without losing anything. You can switch between them at any safe zone within the more open-ended levels filled with aliens and give each of them a try to match your preferred play style. This means that From Space wants you to try everything out, but without forcing you down specific routes where you can never go back.

However, you likely will become accustomed to one of the types and use them endlessly rather than regularly switching, unless multiplayer games call for it. And as you shoot your way through the world, you do missions as you go, clear out alien nests, defeat alien bosses, and destroy their structures. All of this reduces the overall presence of the enemy in the area. Or at least this is what the game informs you, but in practice, the number of enemies never decreases. But why would you ever want them to decrease anyway!

From Space’s world is one filled with alien dangers, environmental dangers, and loot to find. The game wants you to explore every nook and cranny to keep up your supply of ammo, find new weapons, new traps to spring, and shortcuts to discover. You want to clear out buildings using a combination of your weapons, barbed wire, mines, and whatever else you can find. And in between these combat and exploration challenges, you find safe zones.

The safe zones allow you to heal, grab more ammo, buy things from merchants, upgrade your weapons, switch between characters, and save your game. Now, all of that is very usual video game stuff. You expect that kind of stuff. But saving the game’s progress is a bit of an issue. Or, more specifically, the saving with regards to playing From Space solo.

From Space was clearly made with cooperative play in mind, but co-op only works when there are players playing the game. And while playing co-op, the game is better with regard to death. Because, when you die while playing solo, you just die and go back to your last save, which can be a long time ago. However, if you die while playing with others, you go down and must be revived within a certain amount of time. This means that the game is simply harder when playing alone. The addition of AI companions throughout the game would have been great to counteract this.

There are missions where you must escort a character somewhere, but that is not the same as having AI companions stand in for players. This is something that can be done, such as in Left 4 Dead! There’s no reason to force a player into something solo unless they specifically want it. So, that would have been a nice feature to have, but it is always something that could, theoretically, be added in later. It would have made From Space just a little better to play, and a little more forgiving for those who either sadly don’t have friends or those who are playing the game after the playerbase has, inevitably, dropped off.

A game can live a long time with the addition of optional bots! But at least whenever you do get to team up with a random AI on an escort mission, many of them can handle themselves. Some can’t, like civilians, but the armed companions can definitely help out, and the game becomes more enjoyable during those moments. This also shows that the developers do have AI for combat companions, but they simply don’t let you have it throughout the game.

This is all to say that From Space is better with others, even if those others aren’t people. As for all the other non-people, the game’s NPCs are effectively there to serve as mission points for the most part. You go from one area to another doing whatever job someone asks you to do. It could mean escorting someone, clearing out an area, or fetching supplies. But these are delivered in a very transactional way. There’s no story here. It’s basically just completing one mission, getting the reward, jumping into another, rinse and repeat.

There’s nothing wrong with this, as From Space is better without an involved story, much like Left 4 Dead or Wildcat Gun Machine were best without involved stories, but it does mean that this is a game you should avoid if that is the kind of thing you play a game to receive. You are going to wind up disappointed. But for everyone else, you should have a great time with this thing.

From Space is a fun, intense experience that should keep you coming back for quite some time, especially if you can manage to wrangle a few friends together to play it. It has its downsides, but the gameplay is slick and smooth throughout. You could do a lot worse.

And as a final aside, twin-stick shooters are often recommended as controller-based games but playing this with mouse-and-keyboard is actually far more accurate than anything the controller can do. But that would be up to you! So, check it out if it sounds like your thing!
 

Justin van Huyssteen (@LC_Lupus)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed