Capital Spaceship Combat: Fractured Space

The three coolest things to pilot in space battles are, in no particular order: mecha; capital ships; and EVE Online's Rifter. Edge Case Games was formed by folks behind Strike Suit Zero so they've dabbled with the first, and that third is off-limits, so here they are with capital ships in Fractured Space, the first game from their new studio. It's a five-versus-five multiplayer capital ship throwdown with classes, customisation, and many explosions. Fractured Space warped onto Steam Early Access yesterday at the price of £6.99 and... oh, it'll turn free-to-play at launch. Bit of an enthusiasm-dampener, that.

Fractured Space throws capital classes from sneaky ships to flying guns into team-based shooty-shoots to control space and all that. It looks a bit MOBA-y to me, between the ship classes, skills, focus on teamplay and manouvering, and the grand goal of smashing someone else's base. Here, watch this video of folks playing the Early Access version and see for yourself.

Edge Case plan to launch Fractured Space as free-to-play in 2015, once they've added a load of new stuff and polished it up. I couldn't tell you how it sits with Valve's new Early Access guidelines.

Paying to test a free-to-play game always feels a little weird to me. Edge Case say they're very keen on using player feedback to shape the game, but free closed testing gives that too. I suppose people paying for a game will be more invested in it, want to offer more, and probably be more useful for feedback. And they give money too. Still, judging from Steam user reviews, some are quite happy to have paid.