S.P.A.Z Review Part 1

Space Pirates and Zombies also known as S.P.A.Z is a top down space combat game. It does, however, involves some 4X strategy as you progress through the galaxy. With an entire galaxy to explore can this unusual mix of genre become an arcade space opera.

In S.P.A.Z you have a hub of operations where you siphon back materials in order to build various new ship models or additions to your mothership. In addition to this you also have goons. Goons are people who's ships you have shot down and have been "persuaded" to join you. Your Goons perform a variety of roles from manning additional ships to sitting on your mothership building stuff faster for you. So getting more of them is never a bad thing. Especially when you can sell of any additional Goons for money and other resources.

At any one time you can have multiple ships flying about performing different tasks but by going on the tactical screen you can direct what each ship does. While sticking to being a top down shooter this does bring in some elements of real time strategy and really gets you to make the best of each of your ship types. On top of this you can switch control of any ship at the press of a button so you can zip around a battlefield and play as different ships at any moment. A bit help if you just finished a skirmish at one half the map and need to help at one on the other.

S.P.A.Z has an upgrade system that lets you put skill points in the certain things such as increased firepower or shields when you level up. While there is nothing dazzling about it, it does serve it's purpose and makes you want to continue to level up so you can increase your spacely prowess.

End of part 1. Part 2 coming soon.

General Information

Game Name: S.P.A.Z
Genre: Action, Adventure, Strategy
Developer: MinMax Games
Release date: 15th Aug, 2011
Bundle: Humble Bundle 6

System Requirements
Windows
OS: Windows XP or later
Processor: 2.0 GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Graphics: 256 MB VRAM
Mac
OS: OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Processor: Intel 1.8 GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Graphics: 512 MB VRAM
Linux
Processor: 2.0 GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Graphics: 512 MB VRAM