[Disclaimer: I received a review key for Frontiers Reach through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators. The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience. Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]
Frontiers Reach
Release Date: March 1, 2023
Systems: Windows, Linux, Steam OS
Publisher: Blind Alien Productions
Developer: Blind Alien Productions
Time Spent: 5h 18m
Before we get to the actual gameplay of Frontiers Reach, let's delve a bit into the process of getting the game to play on the Steam Deck. But before we even get there, we have to acknowledge that developer Blind Alien Productions (Soliloquis) has stated on the Steam discussion pages that when playing Frontiers Reach in Linux, users should beware. Not being entirely knowledgeable about all that is entailed in Linux, some of what Soliloquis mentioned went over my head, but the takeaway from what they were saying was that playing on the Steam Deck was not going to be as stable as playing on a higher-end PC.
That was another thing, that Frontiers Reach is hardware intensive. Soliloquis goes into various descriptions about advised hardware in the discussion pages, again, some of which I didn't fully understand. I took all of this to mean that I shouldn't even try running in on my laptop out of fear of starting a low-level chemical fire. So the Steam Deck it was. At first. And only for a short moment.
Come with me on this journey.
Once I booted up the game, the first thing that stuck out to me was that the "Escape to Skip" text on the opening story was cropped. Then the opening menu was cropped too, and while I should have noticed the gear icon in the upper left corner of the screen, I missed it and just read about needing to have Nvidia Physx installed. I then found that while I could move the cursor around on the screen, I couldn't select anything with either the A button or the RT, or really any other button. I should also note that there was no video playing on the video screen, which I didn't notice this time around because I didn't know any different. So after shutting down the game via the Steam menu, I tried again with the same result. I then went into the compatibility settings and selected "Proton Experimental" having had good luck with it in the past. Now, the game booted up the same as before, the screens were still cropped, but I was able to click around to actually start playing. Sort of. I should note that in the actual levels, from what I could tell, the screen was at the correct resolution, so I figured I could live with a cropped menu screen for the time being.
When I clicked "New Pilot" it would bring up a menu to create a character, and I could select from several character background traits, but I could not actually name my character since wherever I clicked would not bring up the Steam keyboard and even when I brought it up manually, nothing happened when I typed. So I tried "Play Tutorial" which only made sense. Here you start out as the kid of a farmer about to make a crop dusting run as your Dad goes over a preflight safety check, which works somewhat well as a quick rundown on the the cockpit if you're in cockpit mode. Then the settlement you live in is attacked and you're sent out to defend the surrounding area. And then flight controls became an issue from that point until the present day. Yes, the Y-axis is properly inverted (unless you're looking around in the cockpit with the right joystick, then its regular up is up, down is down).
What I found to be a coordination problem for me was that while down was up and up was down (as it should be for camera controls, especially in flight sims, but that's just personal preference), but left/right made the plane roll in their respective directions. I've played several flight sims in the Ace-Combat franchise where there is a "simplified flight controls" option that allows for easier turning of the plane and there is automatic roll/pitch/yaw handling by the game unless you hold down a button for immediate use. What I found difficult about this configuration was that to turn the plane to the left, you need to roll the plane almost 90 degrees and then pull up, all while flying around the mid-high subsonic range. This made making small adjustments to the plane while trying to focus on stationary targets exceedingly difficult. Part of me feels like a jerk complaining about this because it does make sense that that is what a plane would need to do to perform a turn, but because this is a video game, albeit a flight-sim, I was not prepared for this steep of a learning curve on just the tutorial mission. This early on, after only a few minutes, I got the impression that this was a game that was developed by and for people who either already have a Thrustmaster HOTAS set-up or someone who could afford one as an accessory.
Thankfully in the tutorial though, your primary focus is on moving targets, other enemy aircraft, although there are flak guns that no one mentions or apparently wants you to concern yourself with even though after respawning, my ship had about 20% of its armor diminished by the time I took off after being peppered by enemy gunfire from all directions. Maybe this was my all fault because I didn't take out enough of the enemy fighters so they all converged on me when they saw a helpless ship wheel out of the hanger. Maybe it's just a Souls-like penalty for dying and respawning with less health until I learned to git gud. Whatever the reason, it felt realistic, but also unfair and I was not a fan.
Lastly, after my final time crashing and respawning in the hangar, there was an announcement that stated in more eloquent and lore-appropriate terminology, that I had failed the mission. I then sat with the ship still inside the hanger waiting for a "Try Again" or "You Died" or "You Failed" screen, but nothing. The game was still running, the ship was still sitting in the hangar and I could rotate the camera enough to see structures burning off in the distance. I tried pausing to bring up any kind of a menu, but nothing happened. Not quite a freeze, and not quite a game crash, but something in between that required me to force exit the game by opening the Steam menu and closing the game. This became a running theme for all but one time I played which we will cover in Part 2 on Friday.
So my first foray into Frontiers Reach while as plagued as it was by crashes, freezes, and unfamiliar controls, I still had high hopes for the rest of the game. Not going into the game expecting everything to run as smoothly as one that's optimized for the Steam Deck definitely helped to curb my enthusiasm throughout and not be disappointed or discouraged. Okay, maybe a little discouraged, but still hopeful for what we will be bringing you on Friday.
P.S. On a side note, I did map the "H" key to the L4 back button on the Steam Deck to remove the HUD, which I ended up doing a lot more when I played the main missions and the "Instant Action" option.
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