Space Defender: Frontier Squadron

The frontier is falling. Hold the line.

Twin-stick arcade combat, a squadron to lead, a front that moves without you and a story you play in flight. Made by a solo French developer.

A real story, in four acts

Fly for Admiral Voss and Ilse Marin, with ARIA at your side. Scripted dialogue and events, voiced in six languages, played over the radio in the middle of the fight. Escort the Armada and face a choice at the Threshold, then go on to Kepler, the abandoned mining world of Act IV: gravity wells that pull everything in, descents into dark shafts, the port of Ferrum and four heavy ships from its yards. Several endings wait at the end of the war, and one of them only opens to pilots who dealt with the pirate captains in a certain way.

Play together

• Local co-op: a friend plugs in a second controller and flies a wingman at your side

• Works on one machine, or over the internet with Steam Remote Play Together

• You keep the command, they keep the guns

Hours of depth, not just a shooter

• 17 ships and over 60 pieces of equipment: lasers, railguns, flak, guided missiles, turrets, shields, generators

• Manage your energy: every item you fit changes how your ship flies and fights

• A research tree, plus mining, salvage, trade, refining and recycling

• 15 kinds of contracts with modifiers, and a signature mission in each galaxy

• Four difficulty levels, a Veteran mode and 3 save slots

• A directional dodge to slip past the attacks you see coming

Pirates and their captains

• One den per galaxy, raids on stations, ambushed freighters, kidnapped pilots and bounties on named lieutenants

• Four captains with their own story: Kessa Varn, Dorn Halvek, the Mask and Ilka Brann

• Spare them, enlist them or shoot them down: your choices follow you to the end

Step inside the spaceports

Dock at Horizon, Hephaistos, Sekhmet or Ferrum and walk into the bar, Command and the shipyard. Talk to the locals, buy rumors, take small jobs and earn their trust. Every pilot you lose for good joins the memorial.

Expeditions to the planets

Scan a planet, then send your crew down: 12 illustrated expeditions where your pilots' traits set the odds. Rewards, wounds, archives from before the war... and losses that are for real.

Lead your squadron

• Recruit pilots with 20 different traits that change how your ships fight

• Up to three wingmen: order them to attack, cover you, hold or break, and they answer on the radio

• Assign a crew to each ship and talk to every member: their bonuses fly with them

• A downed wingman ejects: recover the rescue pod before it is lost

A front that moves

In Perseus and Orionis the Drones push back: stations come under threat, then under siege, then fall if nobody defends them. Take them back.

Enemies you can read

Snipers keep their distance, minelayers leave traps, carriers launch fighters, jammers scramble your missiles. Every attack is announced: read it and dodge.

Play your way

• Full controller support, or mouse and keyboard

• English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Simplified Chinese

• Story and radio voiced in all six languages