Frontier Signal

Frontier Signal drops you on a cold frontier with three survivors and a pile of problems. It's a real-time strategy and management hybrid: you lay out buildings, assign jobs, and keep an eye on supply lines while storms roll in. The pacing is slower than most mobile strategy games, and that's a compliment.

The control scheme is clever. Everything is drag-and-pin, so you can set up a queue of orders and let them run. You can pause at any time to think, which turns the hard moments into little puzzles instead of panic.

Settings let you slow the simulation speed or turn on a colorblind-friendly palette, which more games should do. My only gripe is that late-game bases get busy enough that the UI starts to feel tight on a phone. On a tablet it's lovely. Battery use is reasonable until you've got a huge colony running.

What we liked

• Pause-and-plan combat rhythm
• Thoughtful accessibility options
• Satisfying slow-burn pacing