Each expedition requires multiple rocket ships to safely land on the surface to be considered a success. This may sound simple, but the planet is constantly rotating, and you need to land your rockets in a safe location and avoid the mountainous terrain of the planet. Add a collection of orbiting satellites, moons and other objects and Space Settlers Pro provides a challenging test of your timing and luck.
Space Settlers Pro includes four galaxies and hundreds of planets waiting for you to explore. Available for Windows 10 Mobile, Space Settlers Pro is currently priced at $1.99 with a free, ad-supported version also available. It is a fun Windows 10 game to spend a little down time with and to see how good of a rocket man you can become.
Space Settlers Pro has a minimalist design, both with its main menu and game screens. The main menu offers you the option to mute the game's sound, access the game's settings, view a series of tutorial windows and visit the game's social networks (Twitter and Facebook). Gameplay is spread out across four galaxies that are progressively unlocked as you accumulate safely-landed rockets.
Each galaxy contains a vast assortment of planets that vary in size, rotation speed and orbiting satellites. Some planets have wide-open landing zones, while others require a more precise landing. Space Settlers Pro's game screen displays the number of rockets landed during the game and your health stats across the top of the display and the number of rockets needed to colonize the planet in the bottom-left corner of the display.
Your expedition rockets are dispatched from the bottom of the game screen. To launch a rocket you just tap the screen. Timing is the key to success, where you must launch your rockets to avoid satellites and moons orbiting the planet and then find a safe landing spot on the planet's surface. You also need to be careful not to land your rockets on top of each other. Some planets include landing targets that must be hit for success. Miss a landing target or hit a satellite, moon, mountain or other rocket, and you lose a life from your health meter. This sends you back to the starting point of your colonization efforts.
When you land the required rockets onto the planet's surface, you proceed to the next planet to explore. As you colonize more planets within a game session, your accumulated number of rockets landed sets your high score and eventually unlocks additional galaxies. The further you progress in a game, the more challenging the planets become. Just keep in mind that if you lose all three of your lives, the game ends and you begin your quest for accumulated rocket landings from scratch.
The gaming experience with Space Settlers Pro is enjoyable. The graphics, while minimal, work out nicely and offer an attractive-looking arcade game. Game controls are simple and the challenge of gameplay offers a nice test of your skills at timing and patience. While you are tempted to rush a rocket launch to get past a difficult planet, it is often better to let the planet and obstacles rotate around to offer a less risky shot at the surface. You also need to be careful not to launch your rockets too quickly when presented with wide open landing areas. In these cases, it is easy to launch the rockets too fast, resulting in one rocket landing on top of another.
Space Settlers Pro is available for Windows 10 Mobile and currently costs $1.99. While there is no trial version for Space Settlers Pro, you can pick up the free, ad-supported version to take for a test drive. Space Settlers Pro is an entertaining option when you have a little down time to burn. Just be warned that it does have a slight addictive pull that could cause you to lose track of time.
