Outer Wilds
This is my favourite game now. It’s difficult to describe to people because it really is the less you know about it the better, but I’ll give it a go while staying spoiler free:
The absolutely gorgeous soundtrack is so immersive, from the moment I heard the menu music I was immediately in love. It’s so versatile and yet consistent in theme and quality throughout, I listen to the soundtrack outside of the game. The puzzles manage to balance the line perfectly between being difficult enough to stump you for a while but also having a simple straightforward solution that you can find hints for readily if you just explore enough. The moment of breakthrough each time you figure out something significant is also incredibly satisfying. Having watched a few other people play this game, I can say that everyone’s play through is completely unique because everyone will try different potential solutions and discover things in different orders. The story is really beautifully told and combined with the soundtrack really hits hard emotionally, the most I’ve ever felt from any game.
– Real player with 57.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Mystery Games.
Even though it’s been several several months since I’ve beat it. This game’s soundtrack still gives me chills. Opening the game’s page to write this review still had me reliving the emotions I had throughout the journey months after my initial playthrough. I recently played it again to give its expansion a shot, which is also awesome and I am pleasantly surprised to say that it also lives up to the vanilla game.
I’ve played a lot of games, but this is one of the only ones that I’d consider a masterpiece. It mixes music, story, characters, time-looping, and mechanics in a way that is both engaging and so very endearing.
– Real player with 35.7 hrs in game
Rodina
What is more frightening than a God?
This question was posed to me upon completing Rodina’s main story, as well as the answer, in quick succession. Not literally, of course, but thematically; I felt that this was the underlying thesis of the entire work. My interpretation, anyway.
That’s probably a pretentious way to start. Okay! I’ll talk about the game now in more literal terms.
Short version:
Do I recommend? That depends. Rodina is quickly becoming one of my favorite games, but that’s because it’s both a fun activity that revolves around interesting exploration in a vast, vast world and a vehicle for philosophical quandaring through some pretty excellent writing. If this does not appeal to you, then no, I don’t recommend. If it sounds remotely intriguing, then yes, I whole-heartedly recommend. Do it. Play the demo. Then pay the 250 that this company sorely deserves (if I had that on hand I would do so in a heart-beat).
– Real player with 80.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Open World Games.
Absolutely amazing game, the scale of it blows me away. Even just racing through the massive, deep and extraordinary ‘cracks’ in the service of the ice planet is fun, but Rodina is not perfect.
The story is told through text, which may put some people off, but for me it seems to get the main story line across and some how create a immersive lore.
On the other hand, the story isn’t really present in the gameplay. The story makes out that there is news stations and various interesting characters… when really you get to see none of them. In this sense the gameplay can seem quite removed from the story; The enemy you fight is faceless (they could be anything for all it tells you) and seem to be the part with very little lore apart from ‘they are bad’ (however this does create mystery).
– Real player with 46.0 hrs in game
Earth Analog
I’ve completed the game. I’m not sure how long it took, maybe 30 hours, although I made some planets more difficult than they needed to be.
You play this game for the bizzare worlds that you visit. Some really are spectacular including a giant torus, a pulsating neutron star, an asteroid that is repeatedly expanding and contracting and a spherical fractal generated landscape.
I saw many people complaining about the control system and yes it did take a bit of time to be used to. But once I got my head round it, it was fine. Although I still found landing a bit awkward. A better tutorial would certainly help which I read is on the way (Q2 2021). I also see that the same update will include mod support so I’m looking forward to seeing what crazyness people come up with.
– Real player with 51.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Mystery Games.
About 13 hours in I finished the main story and I gotta say this game is definitely more about the journey than the destination, but man the journey is pretty. Game play mainly consists of exploration, resource gathering, and simple puzzle solving. The main attraction here are the worlds you’ll be visiting, you’ll see everything from mars like rocky barren worlds to endless fields of cubes to things straight of a psychadelic fever dream. On your journey through the story you’ll find upgrades for your ship (HIGHLY recommended you do these), strange artifacts, and the occasional planetary anomaly (think of the ocean planet from interstellar). Movement is newtonian physics based but with the latest patches it’s incredibly forgiving if you misjudge your distance to an object or speed since retro thrusters are so powerful. All in all it’s an ambitious little indie game that offers a bevy of strange new worlds to explore, if you’re into that sort of thing then this game might just be for you.
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
Honeycomb
Day by day, technological progress changes not only the lives of people, but also the smallest life forms on our planet. In our project, we would like to direct your attention to a very important issue of our times - the extinction of wild bees, which despite their tiny size, has a huge impact on the entire Earth’s ecosystem.
Greetings explorer! You are going to spend quite some time in the laboratory - don’t forget to go on a research expedition into the unknown. A world full of exploration, building and crafting awaits you!
You are the last hope of Earthlings.
Research both flora and fauna - standard scanning is not enough. Explore the world of genetics and experiment with various possibilities to even create a new plant genera. Mutating plants and species promotes new raw material discoveries and blueprints. Experiment to master new technologies and settle your base in new environments.
This new world can be beautiful but dangerous as well - an undiscovered fruit or a contact with previously unknown, even the most innocuous-looking animals can provoke a disease, for which you’ll have to invent a cure. Some of them are tamable, some can only be feared and fled from - there is only one way to find out.
For optimal productivity, an explorer’s life has to be comfortable! Take care of your “workplace”, create the needed conditions by yourself and even decorate your base. Build drones, mobile laboratories, habitat, and research stations. Don’t stop there - create multiple stations in optimal locations, safety, weather or raw material wise, and ensure safe travel between them - hoverboard is the best way to start.
The planet stores the secret key that may help you in saving the earth and its inhabitants. Remember! It is up to you how you use that knowledge.
Meat & Greed
Meat & Greed is a 3D side scroller puzzle platformer game set in a slaughterhouse.
By controlling cows, chickens, and other animals, the player has the ability to manipulate the environment to solve puzzles, and eventually escape the place. Intense atmosphere of horror and visual narration will help to convey criticisms of the modern meat industry beyond a supermarket shelf.
All puzzle indie game lovers, as well as environmentally cautious players will appreciate both the moral goal and the refreshing approach to movement, switching between playable characters, and narrative design of the game.
Galaxy on Fire 2™ Full HD
Game Library randomizer once again returned me a familiar game title. Galaxy on fire 2 is a game I had on my iPhone 3. I probably wasted over 200-300 hours of my life playing this game when I was bored and I don’t even remember when I got this full HD version on steam.
After so many years I finally tried this game for real on steam. Graphics is aged but the full HD is still wonderfully eye candy. The Nebula, Planet, Asteroids and space station is well designed and looks on par with much bigger space game series like X, Wing Commander and space ranger.
– Real player with 97.3 hrs in game
For those that find the X series of games a little intimidating this is probably the game for you.As a big fan of the X series I was looking for a ‘Space Fix’ as the new X game ‘X Rebirth’ is very very broken at the moment but I should point out that Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is no where near as in depth as those games so if you are a fan of the X series this game may not fulfill your space sim need.If however you are looking for a more arcade type space sim Galaxy on Fire 2 maybe the game for you.
The basics are simple enough..there is a storyline(a short one) and there are various freelance missions you can take at the stations to earn money and buy upgrades for your ship or buy another ship..you can also mine asteroids (an annoying mini game but a cash cow non the less).
– Real player with 44.4 hrs in game
Interstellaria
123 hours, just came back for more after not playing for a few months, and had to write a review.
I can not for the life of me figure out the negative reviews (keep in mind though I am more of a ‘benefit of the doubt’ reviewer than a ‘this game is not precisely what I expect/desire therefore I will crap all over it’ reviewer). This game is a blast. I have to assume they are doing the usual ‘reviewing it as compared to some other game they like more’ or ‘reviewing it for what they want it to be rather than what it is’. Either way, my opinion is this game is one of the better unkown space games in existence. All these ‘FTL’ clones, and no mention of Interstellaria, is a travesty, this game needs more PR.
– Real player with 124.3 hrs in game
Short version:
It’s fairly similar to FTL with the added ability to explore planets (with simple ground combat), move your ship freely in deep space (with dynamic tactical space combat) and enjoy an entertaining plot that guides you through the open-world universe.
Is it perfect? No. There are issues and the UX is not the best, but unless that puts you off, you can definitely enjoy the game.
Coldrice seems to be working non-stop to fix any issues and there are also some planned improvements.
– Real player with 77.3 hrs in game
SpaceNET - A Space Adventure
| Follow our GROUP and CURATOR for more interesting games and quality reviews!
|
Authentic small two-color point-and-click adventure game in retro 80s style.
This game can be a real gem for you if you value minimalism and retro atmosphere with a non-linear sci-fi adventure with less graphics and more story.
– Real player with 355.2 hrs in game
spacenet is a retro-style sci-fi point & click that gave me asteroids, elite and similar vibes, but there’s no combat, resource management (except money, see below) or anything like that here, just you in your spaceship wandering around, talking, puzzling and hacking in a non-linear fashion.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Transcendence
You can actually try the WHOLE base game for free, and then if you like it you can buy the additional content that comes with the steam version. FYI.
This game is fun and addictive. Its also got a pretty steep learning curve. When you start and have no idea what you are doing, you will die. A lot. It is as hard a teenage boy in the cheerleaders lockerroom at changing time. That is, until you know what you are doing, at which point you can focus on using your money wisely on the various ship upgrades. Once you get the basics down, it is easier and massively rewarding. My suggestion is on your first go around just use it as a learning experience, get some idea of what everything does enough that on the second attempt you will know exactly which weapons and upgrades to buy. You have to specifically test out a number of things blindly before you know what they are, which is useful for the second (or third) run which should go a lot more smoothly. Given the early stuggle, it is very satisfying to wreck previously tough enemies after you get the right equipment.
– Real player with 330.9 hrs in game
At its heart, Transcendence is a hybrid of Escape Velocity and Rogue. If that concept excites you, no need to read further; just buy it!
The game meshes the story of a galactic pilgrimage at the behest of the God Domina, with real time, 2D top-down combat across randomly generated star systems (effectively serving as “dungeons”) and a healthy dollop of loot. The star systems always follow a standard progression in terms of the factions and events you will encounter, so they are not entirely random. However, the implementation still ensures that no two games are ever the same.
– Real player with 100.1 hrs in game
ALONE IN SPACE
This game was not my favorite
It has a lot of potential though, with more development time it could be a really great game.
Pros:
-
I enjoyed the choice of minimalist sound effects. Throughout the game the only sounds are of your footsteps, machines/computers running, and wind.
-
I am a math nerd,
! so having the first password be a reference to pi was cool.
Mehs:
- The visuals were fairly good. I was running it on the highest graphic settings and it was good enough quality that I was able to loose myself in the game and was comparable to other indie games. The elements did get a little repetitive over time. Having worked in the sort of facilities as the games settings (larger confusing maze like industrial buildings) I can tell you that people would normally designate different areas with colors. The game uses a system of door numbers, but these didn’t seem to have any internal story meaning. Rather, the next door you needed to go through had a higher number than the last door you went through.
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
I don’t think this game was incredible, but it wasn’t as bad as some of the other reviews make it sound. Sure, it has issues. Early on you get to look out a window and see a large satellite dish beyond a wind-blown dusty landscape, which was enticing, but it’s just decoration - you never do leave the corridors. There’s also not really that much adventure except for getting killed by the randomly-timed lightning). The locations are also a little bare - a few signs would have been nice, for instance, even if just for decoration.
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game