Space Engineers 2

As of the time of this review this game is just a tech demo, I do like what they improved on from the original Space Engineers but there is not much to say until they add the survival/combat gameplay and more ship parts. I will likely edit this review when the game is in a more finished state.

Its Space Engineers, its no2, its an ALPHA, the potential is all there, Keen Software house have delivered before, they do deliver this time.

Shaping up to be better than the original however they are forcing some changes that should be optional like the new flight controls they may make mouse control easier but it's not good if you are using a controller and want more realistic flight makes me feel like my ship is a toy now with the new controls.

Only buy if you want to support the devs there is no game here yet just limited building.

This game should be labelled as "very early access". There isn't anything here yet. Just a physics and ship building demo. I'm confident in time it will turn into an incredible game, much like SE1. If you're looking for a new game to play straight out of the box, don't buy this just yet.

I'm super stoked with the alpha! To be fair this is very early access, but I already see some fundamental engine improvements that would have been impossible without a massive refactor (which at some point is eventually just a new game).

Keep going guys looking forward to coming along for the ride

I really like the game at this moment in time but honestly if you want to play a full game you either have to wait till this is done or buy the first one. Personally I would like to have the ability to set the controls for specific blocks instead of fixed controls on a spaceship.

It's really cool to see improvements in these early phases of development. I'm looking forward to see survival mechanics and it's gameplay as it's bit empty in the original Space Engineers.

If you're considering buying this game in early access: Question should be do I want to support developers of this game?

Make no mistake, it cannot be overstated just how much of an alpha this currently is. Unless you are among the most die-hard fans of space engineering this product is not for you - for now at least. For the most part it is currently just a tech demo. The foundation is there, and it is a very promising one at that. A monumental improvement on mechanics and the engine itself, combined with an impressive pace of development thus far. The passion and talent we have seen from those at Keen is undeniable. This game has a very bright future.

Seems smooth, needs content. Missing solar system map. Needs new objects to build...very minimal currently...Recommend waiting on more content to arrive.

Game looks amazing, such graphic improvements over SE1, no survival mode yet but i got this game to support it. There doing an amazing job so far. keep in mind this is super early alpha and game as of this moment is more of a tech demo then a game.

Get it to support it but don't get it thinking your about to play a full game tonight. (early access) is the tag so DYOR and stop leaving random negative reviews like spoiled children.

great game seems lots of fun just can't wait till it's officially out because in early access it is lacking things to do at the moment.

I have grown up with the original space engineers. This game is coming along good and like what the devs are going to add in the future. The physics right now are better than se1. I cant wait for them to add water which wasnt possible in se1.

READ THE ROADMAP BEFORE YOU BUY!

The game is NOT complete, it's creative only with nowhere near the number of blocks and types as SE1. No planets, no survival. The game is basically the blank slate showcasing all the engine improvements and game play changes to expect. You can practice building and blueprinting ships using the new unified grid system and other building features. So far KSH has done wonderfully their approach of being open and transparent about their progress and their timeline and are hitting their marks.

They were open and honest and even said, "don't buy the game until it's the game you want.", listen to them.
I purchased it the first week, because I believe they will do right by the game. They are committed, and so I am too and support them by my purchase even if I rarely play it in this state. I keep it installed and I pop in after updates to see changes.

I figure a year or so from EA release is what it will take them to implement a system with survival game play that will interest most people looking for that kind of game. Either buy now to support, or wait until 2026, but if you want that experience now, this isn't the game for you.

Hell I had SE1 for 2.5 years before I even started really playing the game very often, it kind of sucked in the beginning too compared to what it has become. This is for people who want to support the devs and shape development. They will follow through. Hell, planets are in SE1 because they listened and followed through.

Like any art, sometimes you just need to trust the process. If you can't, wishlist this game and revisit it in 2026.

I kown it can be a good game but now it is very limited. Please don't give up this game because of the low number of player. It is a good seconde opus but now it is quite boring. You can only built vessel without utility so a don't make sens.

As other reviews have said - this is far from a complete game and not worth its price tag. However it has some great improvements over the original and development is going at a solid pace so I'd say it's a good investment.

First things first... look at SE1 and what amazing work the team has done there... that being said this is no where near a playable game at the moment hence the big splash screen that says ALPHA! this game is moving in the right direction and it looks great so far if you're one of those types that has to have a complete game now go play ANTHEM or something for the rest of you be patient let this game sit in the oven and support the project... ill update this in the future...

At the time of this review, Space Engineers 2 is in alpha state. The blocks themselves have very little functionality, but the core of the new game is there. It's a solid release with much opportunity for creatives. If you want to help shape the next generation of the Space Engineers franchise, then pick it up. If you're looking for the full-fledged experience, then Space Engineers (the OG) is what you want.

I love SE but I haven't even been able to play this yet, I get stuck at the main menu. I submitted the bug to the website like they want a couple days ago and requested help. As of yet no response, I understand it's EA this is a bit much though, I don't want to refund the game, but really?

would not play it in its current state, just hoping it avoids the fate KSP2 did
i have a 4070 SUPER, 64gbs of RAM and an i7-14700 with 20 cores, yet the game runs too poorly for what little content it actually has

i might reconsider when/if it receives optimisation patches and just overall content

The highly anticipated sequel known as "regular ass quality of life changes that should just be in space engineers one, that will very likely get paid 10 dollar item pack dlc's before it even gets through half of its "adding everything the first game has" roadmap, the sequel" Review may change in the year 2027 when this games level of content becomes flush with the one i already spent loads of money on.

The game is nothing more than SE1 with a new splash of paint. They claim they want feedback to help improve it, but when you do, you are slammed with hostile and ignorant responses that make you not want to participate at all.

As others are saying, this is a super limited alpha version. Expectations should take into account the very transparent unfinished state of the game. Having spent nearly 2000 hours in the first Space Engineers, tooling around in this for under an hour has me completely stoked to see it progress.

It looks, feels, and sounds fantastic, but there is truly nothing to do in the game at this time. If I had any real concerns, it's that I hope they flesh out the AI to give us a more "alive" world to play in compared to the previous game, but they are admittedly very far from tackling that in the game's current state.

I'm glad we are a getting a sequel, the original space engineers was getting quite long in the tooth and the engine was showing signs it had reached its limits. I particularly like the integration of small and large grids.

However.... the controls are absolutely terrible. I don't know what was wrong with the old controls, they worked just fine and most actions only required only a single key press. Now over half the controls require two key presses and its made building things suck. I really want to take advantage of the new engine and grids to build more awesome stuff, but I hate playing twister with my hands just to rotate a block or cycle through variants.

Keen, if you actually read these reviews, go back to the old controls as much as possible. The new controls really suck. Until the controls are fixed I wont be recommending the game at all.

barely anything to do, look at this as an early supporter donation. If you have the spare money to do so feel free. Stick with Space Engineers 1 if you want any real gameplay besides exploring some new creative tools :)

This is a very early alpha, and the devs have been upfront about that from the start. They've given us the privilege of testing Space Engineers 2 so it can evolve into a worthy successor to the original. What’s impressive is that they’ve been completely transparent about the current state of the game and their roadmap and they’re still actively updating the first game while working on this one.

At this stage, SE2 is more of a tech demo than a full game. The devs have made that clear. The negative reviews seem to come from people who are highly uninformed and haven’t been following development or reading the updates. If you’re expecting a finished game right now, don’t buy it. The whole point of this release is to test, report bugs, and give feedback.

That said, if you love Space Engineers, this is a great chance to help shape the future of the franchise. Buying in now gives you access to the game and all of its updates from the very beginning so by the time of release you will be a design pro.

SE2 still has years of development ahead of it, and the expectations are high, it has a lot to live up to. If you're not interested in testing the new engine and want a complete experience, just stick with Space Engineers 1. It’s one of the best sandbox games ever made, packed with content, and easily worth 300+ hours. If you've never played it then by the time you’ve really mastered it, SE2 will probably be close to completion.

For those who played the Original: Space Engineers 2 is more of a tech demo right now than an early access. Block selection is bare-bones minimum and many of their features are not even working, like doors. In addition, creative mode is only available. Survival is not included and nor are any of its aspects, like ores, tools, weapons, etc. For now, the only reason someone may buy Space Engineers 2 is to experience the new features for themselves (Copy/paste blueprints and combined small and large grids) or to get ahead of the game and begin making blueprints ahead of time for when the game is better advanced. Other than that, I would consider it a glorified tech-demo/pre-order rather than an early access. My review will likely change as the game does. But for now, I recommend holding off on purchasing it until more updates have been released. Just don't write off Space Engineers 2 just yet. If it will end up anything like its predecessor, SE2 will definetly be a game deserving of a good review.

I have generally liked the devs and their work, so I wasn't going to leave negative feedback, but after playing a bit more, I'm changing my review to a negative. The community engagement is extremely weak and communication with devs is opaque at best. The official forums are neither well-organized nor well-managed. I played a little more since my initial review, and I'm only more irritated with the state of the game.

This is not an alpha release. This is at best a pre-alpha tech demo. 30USD is an outrageous price for the state of the "game," and I'll be requesting a refund after updating this review. I will buy and play this game when it's an actual game.

I have around 1,100 hours into the original game. Only creative mode is implemented in SE2, and some of the base features of the game, such as inventories, are not implemented at all. Ship drills exist in the game - but player and object inventories don't, so drilling into an asteroid just creates sparks and destroys voxels. Player tools seem to be limited to a paint tool and something called the debug gun, a limitless energy weapon for destroying stuff.

At this stage even in creative mode you can't gather materials or make inventory items, you can only build ships and I guess crash them into each other. Refineries and assemblers exist as decorative objects.

Buy this game only if you want to support Keen in making a better, faster, more feature-rich Space Engineers game. Do not buy it in this first stage of Early Access if you want a fun, playable game.

Pros:

-Significantly higher maximum speed than the original game
-Significantly improved graphics and performance. Seriously, the graphics so far are beautiful, especially if your system can handle raytracing.
-Improved UI and more intuitive building, including a unified grid system that reduces building limitations
-Crashes are already greatly improved. They still involve a ton of math and the engine can't handle complex crashes at full sim speed even with a high-performance PC (I was playing on GeForce Now Ultimate), so you can't really see every stage of the crash happening in real time - but the dynamic fracturing looks much more realistic than in the first game.

Cons:

-There is essentially nothing to do yet; not even the banal gathering of materials.
-The roadmap promises a lot of very cool features, but a lot of detail remains unpublished so it is very hard to know what to expect. It's hard to be certain what you're buying, and the price is definitely too high for the game in its current state. I think I paid $10 for the original game in Early Access, so $30 this time around for a game in this state doesn't feel great.
-Ship handling characteristics seem significantly worse. I flew for all of two minutes using the premade blue ship, and the ability to change trajectory in flight didn't feel like it matched with the ship's gyros and engines - at a standstill the roll/pitch/yaw were responsive, at speed it was extremely sluggish.
-I don't like the change in how the personal jetpack works. With your inertial dampeners engaged, your maximum speed is very low - you have to disengage them to achieve maximum speed. With inertial dampeners engaged, course corrections are all but impossible to make accurately. When traveling middling distances by jetpack, I always set my course with inertial dampeners on, and disengage them when I'm aimed in approximately the right direction, periodically briefly re-engaging them to make course corrections. This no longer works properly, as re-engaging your dampeners immediately drops your velocity and you must then disengage them before building speed again.

Neutral commentary:

-Keen is much more established than when they created the original SE. They clearly have the budget to make a superior game, and if sales go well they probably will. The Early Access for the original Space Engineers was painful - although SE2 is already significantly better in some areas, it is significantly less playable than the SE1 Early Access. That said, they absolutely put the work in over the years to make SE1 a fun, worthwhile experience.
-The quality of the game will hinge on any number of design decisions that have yet to be made public, and may not yet have been made. There are aspects of SE1 that never worked adequately, such as pistons and hinges; will SE2 fix these? Will SE2 introduce features the devs said they could not manage in SE1 due to engine limitations? Will the inventory supply/demand code be rewritten from scratch so it doesn't suck? Only time will tell.

tl;dr, buy this game to support Keen, don't buy this game to play it at this stage.

As someone with 2500 hours in SE1 (developing mods and running 10-20 player servers) and 1 hour in SE2 I'll weigh in on this.

TL;DR: If you want to play Space Engineers, buy SE1. If you want to support the development of a second generation of SE, buy this as basically a crowdfunding option for a game I estimate will come out in 2-3 years.

This is a basically using Steam as Kickstarter/Indigogo with a playable demo. If you're backing this, realize you're not getting anything day 1 or even day 365. That said, Keen has proven that given enough time and support they can create incredible things! They have abandoned games in the past, but the reason for that was to focus on their best IP, Space Engineers. I believe this will continue to be their flagship IP, so I have no qualms about Keen seeing SE2 through. They would only abandon it if for some reason they jumped to another IP, but I really don't see this happening. Keen is SE.

I understand the reason for the SE1 -> SE2 fork, because at this point not breaking Torch and the million mods people use is dam near impossible even with small changes. Also, VRAGE3 is a new engine in many ways, which I truly believe was necessary, and there's no way it could be integrated into SE1 at this point.

From what I've seen of the roadmap, I'm excited for the future of SE2. Keen is really good about community and mod support, and it sounds like they are doubling down on this with better tooling and a new cleaner mod API.

I think the community needs to be patient on this one, which most people who know Keen are. Keen has done this before, releasing games that are barely playable then working on them over the course of 3-5 years and making them awesome. It's their dev pattern, and as long as the customers/players know this, I don't see it as a bad thing. I do feel bad for anyone discovering SE for the first time who accidentally bought SE2 not understanding that it's basically just a skeleton of a tech demo for the purposes of crowd funding. I knew it would be like this going in, so I was more than happy to pay to support development, but if you want to play SE buy SE1.

Don't get me wrong I love space engineers 1. That said. I was excited about the ease of building in this new one. I wanted the raw out of box feel like before YouTube tutorials were ever invented. What I found was college level controls a confusing mess. Now to be Fair this early in development. Its got shinier graphics, optimized engine. ect. Time will tell as it sits, you can support them or wait. My advice is too wait.

People complaining about the game still being in barebone build clearly did not read their description before buying this is not the full game it is only to support the build of the game so if you're coming in expecting multiplayer I'm sorry to tell you your expectations were too high it is saying that it is for the support of Keen software to develop sp2 furthermore I limit anyone who is leaving a legit negative review for a game that has not technically came out yet I do not however want anyone buying the game if they think they're getting a full game I cannot recommend people to play this game as of now because it is still in the pre-build phase but I do recommend the game in the near future when it is complete

Early access doesn't justify releasing something at 0.0.0 version. It's basically a game engine demo.
I will still keep the game and I'm still excited for the future updates. But no, I do not recommend this.

Good game, yes. Completed game, no. most of the bad reviews were people who didnt realize that it was a incomplete game and a snippet

Wait three years and see how it progresses.

In the current state, this game should not be for sale, I'm growing tired of game publishers releasing for sale games that have near to zero content and for 44 AUD at that, dangling a carrot that it will get better. it is a trend that has to stop

Alpha has not always been a word for games with near zero content. and is progressively getting worse.

why would anyone want to play a 1/100th baked game when they can play the first game that is functional and polished, this offers negative play for the consumers. Space engineers 1 was not this barren when first released

Its in EARLY ALPHA.
There's not much to do but test the new engine and build mechanics and see the pretty new graphics.
Don't buy unless you want to support its development. But if you want to support development then buy it.

Its got a lot of promise but its Early Alpha with nothing substantial in it. Personally I'm excited to see its future but yeah guys there's not much here right now.

If you love Space Engineers then you will love this game as well despite it being in Alpha. Stunning visuals. Fantastic audio. The building system does take a little bit to get used to but it has a lot of potential to make things a whole lot easier in the long run. I cannot wait to see what they have in store for the future!

The game is very early release so it has extremely limited functionality, limited at the moment to only creative mode with a few blocks. That said the roadmap for this game is super promising. The teasers we've gotten already look fantastic and I can't wait for this game to be built out further. The building detail with the new unified grid system is phenomenal and the graphics and ray-traced lighting are so pristine! If you want the full survival game experience, stick with SE1 which has tons of content to enjoy and allow you to learn the basics of Space Engineers so that come full release of SE2, you'll be ready! But for now just getting on board with supporting the development of this game is something I'd recommend for sure!

This game is still very EA so id recommend SE 1 if you want a more polished game but its still tons of fun to play

It will be Years before this game is in a playable state. right now its just a tech demo but they have plenty of stuff coming. if you want to support the devs then BUY IT. but if you dont have alot of money and want a completed game HOLD ON TO YOUR MONEY for now. SE 1 still has PLENTY of juice left

Terrible performance. Practically unplayable. It's capped at 60 fps but I'm not even getting that. My graphics settings are around medium and I'm using a RTX 3070 and a Ryzen 7 5800x with 32GB Ram. The physics are super laggy. When I crash the medium-sized ships from the default map into each other the game the game freezes. And when it's not freezing or struggling, it's crashing: It crashed about every 15 minutes for no apparent reason. Even in the start menu it crashes after a while.

And besides this terrible performance, there is not much content. Few blocks, none of them functional. Based on their interviews and showcases the studio seems to have all their priorities at the wrong place. Instead of focusing on making this a good game, they work on features like water simulation, block breaking simulation and all kinds of other technical stuff that doesn't add gameplay. They aren't developing a game. They are developing an engine.

TLDR: Don't buy it yet. It's unplayable.

I notice that people don't really know there's a road map for the game. THAT is what i support, the fact that the developers are actively working on the game makes this NOT A FREE DEMO, rather it is a game that is still very early in development. many things are gonna change like block interact, grid movement, and such, just don't base your opinion on bad information, this game has a lot of work to catch up to SE1

I knew it was an alpha but I wasn't prepared for how little there is. It isn't even functional yet. Come back after a few years and there might be something to do. It isn't even a game at the moment. Maybe 1% of a demo. Essentially this will just show you the graphics. I don't understand why they have this for sale. Hopefully this isn't the current development state of this game. It looks like it was started yesterday and they put it on steam for 40 bucks.

Outside of supporting the Keen I don't see any reason to own this as opposed to SE1 currently.
Incredibly bare bones in its current state being more of a small showcase as opposed to Early access.

Blocks have no functionality outside of thrusters, gyros and cockpits with not even doors functioning currently.
It only has a few maps and premade ships inspired by SE1, there is nothing to do aside from build bare basic ships that will be obsolete and replaced when the game is updated.

I love many of the new ideas and features planned but none of that has as of yet made it to the game so as of currently I just view this along the likes of a donation to Keen.

The game is nowhere near complete and has very few features. On top of that, Keen is only teasing amazing features with no release date, and they’re silencing and firing content creators—raising serious concerns about the development direction. I’d hold off on getting this game until it’s further along and the company gets their sh*t together.

do not purchase yet . id highly suggest you read the game description first there is no survival/multiplayer mode as of yet

The 25 grid system allows for really detailed, narrow and more compact builds and the lighting is amazing.
The game shows a lot of promise but i would wait for more update to come out before buying as it is super bare bones as it only allows creative mode with basic ship building as there is no functioning guns, doors or other mechanical components.
Great game just not a lot of content at the moment.

People forget what Space Engineers 1 looked like on it's very first EA release if they think this is too bare bones. As long as they don't pull a Medieval Engineers with this one, it'll turn out great.

Even though it is in Alpha, it is incredibly fun for building spaceships/space stations. Space Engineers 2 is very promising given how good the basics are so far.

game does not yet work on linux game devs said it would work on linux. The support dept. is seriously lacking on the linux side.was asked to put my info on some stupid spreadsheet and that was the last ive seen of the devs. Asked about it several times and all they ask is if my info is that stupid spreadsheet. Been trying since launch day to get up and going and still have nothing. I knew the game would be a work in progress but i have no idea why they launched if you cant even boot the thing. I have almost 2k hours ivested in the first game, still love to play the game. After leaving me hanging for over a month i'm done with keen.

No point to this being released, besides a cash grab. There's not enough blocks for it to be viable even in creative mode.
No wheels, atmos thrusters, etc'.
If you import just about anything from SE1, it'll only be a block of armor, as all the other parts just don't exist.

SHORTLY :
I found some reviews completely pointless... Claiming that we have "plenty to experiment" and such, first of all you literally have nothing to experiment. Just build the basics whatever a ship require and fly(Shape, reactor, thrusters, gyroscope). Literally nothing else exists. You cannot even switch the most desired blocks' sizes at this point of the development(probably more to come)... If you like empty space with lego building alongside bad controls for block directions with literally nothing else in the game, buy and play, otherwise I suggest you to wait unless you wanna support DEVS. Otherwise this is supposed to be free DEMO and not Early Access.

Long Version :
Second of all, My review will be more like nitpicking about mechanics and the way buttons and shortcuts work... I know this is Early Access BUT we have this version of the game and we have the option to give feedback or recommend this game or not based on what we have now. My Space Engineers past is 1.800 hours of "symmetry obsessive person who wants to make only my personal ships to live nomadic survival game". For this I require good tool and I'll mention in the list I have made that bugs me which is down below, apart from those, there is nothing else to do in the game:

1. Blocks doesn't remember their own positions or what direction they were facing. You have to spin them each time you switch to another block and spin the preivous one again, slows down the creativity and making what the devs were claiming pointless(with new direction switch buttons you wont be confused with the blocks which direction it suppose to face using dedicated roll/rotate/turn buttons)..

2. Just like I mentioned at first line, game doesn't have dedicated turn, rotate, roll button because they have implement it into CTRL and WASD buttons... Hold CTRL and turn the blocks based on movement buttons. This was the worst idea they could've done in my opinion because I did not like sacrificing my movement while I'm spinning a block's direction. Not to mention it makes my left hand super tired while moving AND spinning blocks AND moving again while my right hand super lazy and useless now. I was using my numpad to spin blocks and as far as I could see, there's no key bindings(Yet, I hope)

3. As I mentioned in short version, literally nothing exists, meaning there is no functioning blocks. Even the doors does not function, let alone buttons and such.

4. A lot of blocks to give shape to a ship are missing and 0.5m blocks sometimes not small enough to fill gaps after using some fixed size blocks(slopes) because 0.25 gap remaining at some parts which you cannot fill in.

5. You cannot create completely empty world, I dont want anything in the world I create but game forces you to have "prebuilt/handcrafted" stuff even tho I specificaly picked "creative" option and not "explore handcrafted builds" option...

6. Changing blocks' sizes while using blocks with "+(plus)" icon, cycles through all that blocks' options with all sizes, time wasting if you ask me. Just make it like previous game. Mouse wheel to cycle through different block options that has "+"..

7. Symmetry switches off randomly or anything you do with something and sometimes even when you switch between toolbar tabs. if you did not notice in time, good luck doing exactly the same stuff you done to the other side.

8. The blocks you want to remove doesn't highlight properly, you barely notice which parts you're removing from the built places, if you want to renovate whole shape which is in 0.5m, good luck seeing which tiny blocks you're removing. In first game it had RED color, why not bring it? it was super useful...

9. RMB onto items in creative menu when pressing "G" doesn't quickly assign into toolbar. Always have to double tap LMB which isn't fast enough for my liking which existed better in first game.

10. Can't use symmetry while painting, have to do it manually to all sides OR instructions aren't clear enough.

11. They have promised, yet some blocks' empty zones could not be used/filled such as round reactors' round corners which creates gap when I place catwalk in front of it. There is no round blocks as well, as I have mentioned at 4th line...

12. Many structural blocks doesn't fit/snap/stick to base large blocks automatically and just force you to precision place them even tho half of the block hanging in the air, why force other blocks to precision only by holding precision placement button and force this structural block to precision place (even tho it isn't neccesary)? Time wasting...

Many awesome shortcut features from previous game haven't been brought into this one... I hope this will be useful feedback for QOL features. Otherwise this will be wasted hope for me for this game. I'm a person that I dont like revisiting my previous built ships. For others, for now, I cannot recommend ths game in this state since there's not even experiments that you cannot do THAT FUNCTIONS or will not function the same in future...