Space RTS Falling Frontier evokes The Expanse in latest gameplay deep-dive

A tiny smidge of Warhammer 40,000 on top

Slated for a 2025 release on PC, Falling Frontier is still one FTL jump away, but developer Stutter Fox Studios and publisher Hooded Horse have just published another extended look at what the upcoming space RTS game will have to offer – and with almost 14 minutes of gameplay, there’s a lot to look at.

Check out the latest look at the game with the Might of Mars trailer below:

Sporting a newly unified and really sleek looking UI, Falling Frontier definitely has a sci-fi look to it across all sections of the game now. Aside from that eye candy, the Might of Mars trailer showed off four new ship types. The Berwick-class frigate is a scout ship that can lay mines, if equipped with the right modules, making it perfect for keeping watch on your borders. The Coventry-class frigate is an armed escort ship for your convoys, while the York-class combines some of those defensive qualities with the sensors of the Berwick-class. Finally, the Faslane-class frigate is a stealth ship equipped with missiles and support drones.

In the trailer, we got to see a look at the ship designer, where players can customize the modules installed on each of these ship classes, tailoring their capabilities to their needs and tastes. Work on some really immersive features has been done as well: Resource pods are being unloaded in space and then sent down to a planet’s surface, after which they get added to a player’s pool of available goods. Ships, too, first need to enter orbit after being built planetside.

A Coventry-class frigate in all its glory :: Stutter Fox Studios / Hooded Horse

As always when Falling Frontier is the topic, the comparison to The Expanse is an easy one – in terms of how many of the ships look and how combat seems to play out, the game really brings home those same vibes of a very “grounded” sci-fi experience.

But there’s some more fancy stuff as well: Those new animations when making FTL jumps? Do my eyes deceive or are these ships ripping a hole into reality to enter and exit the Warp? There’s a little dose of Warhammer 40,000 in there for sure, and I love it. Speaking of which – 40k surely doesn’t have a trademark on orbital bombardments, but when that ship let it rain missiles on the poor colony below at the end of the trailer, that screamed Exterminatus to me.

Upcoming strategy games in 2024