Frontier: Path of Shadows

Frontier: Path of Shadows is a story-driven game set on the barely explored fringes of space. The player controls Jay, a courier in the Epsilon Sector, where a long war has recently ended and factions compete for influence. Jay is bound to a sentient symbiote crystal that learns from him and takes on his view of the world. The crew includes Alice, who maintains the ship’s engines, Rob, who pilots the corvette, and Khan, who plans missions. Together they investigate where the crystal came from and what it is hiding.

Combat is turn-based and pits the squad against space pirates, mercenaries, and corporates. Cover, high ground, and other objects on the battlefield can provide advantages, avoid penalties, and unlock additional actions. When the squad is outmatched, powerful abilities can be used to shift the balance. Environments, enemy lineups, and battlefield objects change from one fight to the next, so no single strategy applies to every encounter.

Outside combat, players explore the Epsilon Sector, a setting developed over more than 15 years of tabletop RPG campaigns. They travel to unexplored planets, gather resources and credits, and deliver them to factions to build reputation, choosing which groups to support or avoid. Player decisions shape Jay’s personality, alter individual events, open new story branches, and determine the ending. Crew members can be developed through skills, new abilities, and updated equipment. The first chapter of the story is available, and one new DLC item has recently been added on Steam.