ZeroSpace won't make you shelve your old StarCraft, but you'll have to make room next to it

Let's ask the awkward question right away, the one you're really asking: do you have to shelve your old StarCraft? The short answer is no. StarCraft isn't a game, it's a religion with its Korean priests and its faithful micro-managing Marines since 2010. You don't shelve a religion. The long answer, however, is more exciting: ZeroSpace is the first proposition in an age that genuinely makes you want to fire up the space-war machine again, and it doesn't plan to replace the king, but to settle in right beside him.

The context

ZeroSpace is a hybrid sci-fi RTS/RPG developed by Starlance Studios, available since 20 July 2026 on PC. And its pedigree is no trivial thing: the studio brings together former pro players, commentators and figures of the RTS scene, in other words people who spent their lives in the trenches of StarCraft and Warcraft. You command the Protectorate, a galactic force tasked with securing humanity's place in an Orion sector locked in a power struggle. StarCraft is openly cited as an inspiration for its units, and you feel it from the first game: you're on familiar ground, but rearranged with real ideas.

What it brings: RTS without the chores

ZeroSpace's promise is an RTS designed for strategy rather than assembly-line busywork, and it's cleverer than a mere slogan. The game offers four main factions and six mercenary factions, the latter bringing units but no structures, which you can mix with your base faction. That idea of blending your army between a main core and mercenary reinforcements opens a delightful combination space, where you cobble together your own tactical identity instead of choosing a fixed race. With more than a hundred units, the play space is vast, and being able to compose your style is exactly the kind of freshness the genre was missing.

The two other contributions beef up the whole. An in-match faction leveling system unlocks passive upgrades and global calldown abilities, strategic-support style, which adds a layer of progression within a single game. And above all, the heroes aren't one-man armies like in so many modern RTS games that veer into MOBA territory: they're support units, backing up your army without replacing it. It's an intelligent, genre-respectful design choice that keeps the emphasis on macro and collective strategy rather than an overpowered avatar. ZeroSpace was clearly designed by people who know why they love RTS.

Three modes for three audiences

Where many RTS games bet everything on competitive multiplayer and abandon the solitary players, ZeroSpace casts a wide net with three complete modes. The solo campaign puts the player's choices at the center, with hours of interactive cinematics and writing that openly draws on the great sci-fi RPGs like Mass Effect. It's a rare ambition for the genre, that of telling a real branching story rather than chaining tutorial-missions, and it gives the game a narrative depth the versus purists didn't necessarily expect, but which considerably widens its audience.

Alongside, PvE co-op offers the pleasure of teaming up against the AI, and the Versus mode ensures the classic competitive clash any RTS must offer, in 1v1 as well as 3v3. That generosity is a real strength: ZeroSpace doesn't ask you to choose between the story player, the co-operator and the competitor, it serves them all. In a genre that too often scared off newcomers with its brutal demand, that welcoming approach, without giving up depth, is perhaps its most precious asset.

What sticks

Let's be honest, because enthusiasm shouldn't mask the reservations. ZeroSpace carries the weight of its hybridization: by trying to be at once a demanding competitive RTS, a narrative RPG and an accessible co-op game, it risks not satisfying anyone a hundred percent. The versus purist may find the RPG layer superfluous, the story fan may stumble on the strategic demand, and that will to embrace everything requires a delicate balancing that will only be judged over time, notably on the competitive scene where the devil hides in the slightest imbalance.

There's also the ghost, immense, of StarCraft itself. Drawing on the master is a rewarding choice for legibility, but it's also exposing yourself to the most merciless comparison there is. ZeroSpace brings enough fresh ideas to exist on its own, but it will have to prove over time that its community holds, because a competitive RTS is only worth the vitality of its players. The bet is ambitious, the base is excellent, but the real test begins now.

What we take away

ZeroSpace is the best news the sci-fi RTS has had in a very, very long time. Made by people who love and understand the genre, it respects its fundamentals while injecting real ideas: the blending of mercenary factions, the in-game leveling, support heroes rather than demigods, and a generosity of content that welcomes the story player as much as the competitor. It's a modern, intelligent and ambitious RTS that proves the genre isn't dead, just waiting for someone to dust it off with love.

Should you shelve your old StarCraft, then? No, and ZeroSpace doesn't ask you to. The king keeps his crown, carried by two decades of nostalgia and a competitive scene nothing replaces overnight. But ZeroSpace doesn't need to dethrone anyone to deserve its place. It's living proof that you can love StarCraft and want something else, and for that alone, you have to make room for it on the shelf, right next to the classic. The two will coexist just fine.

Verdict

A clever, generous sci-fi RTS/RPG made by lovers of the genre, that doesn't dethrone StarCraft but amply deserves to reign beside it.

Strengths:

• The blending of mercenary and main factions, a delightful combination space
• In-match leveling and global calldown abilities
• Support heroes that respect the RTS spirit
• Three complete modes, narrative campaign, co-op and versus

Weaknesses:

• An ambitious hybridization that risks not fully satisfying every audience
• The crushing shadow of StarCraft, which it faces head-on
• Competitive balancing and a community to be tested over time

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Tested on PC.