Drifter

This was one of the games that taught me to never buy early access.

Years ago it showed promise, a sort of 2D, simplified sandbox space game. Then it was abandoned and I'm never getting my money back

Note to self: You don't like this game, do not install it. Yes, it looks interesting and you forgot what it was, but trust me (you) and stay away from it!.
It's uglier than space sims you played in the mid 90's and is not worth the money you once played for it. Next time I/you get an urge to play a vintage space sim, install FFED3D instead. It looks better and it has a zillion time more playability, not to mention all the ships you know and love.

This game had a lot of potential while it was being supported, but it is now Abandonware. Purchase as a historic bookmark only.

Updated

One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty Four

Games has been in EA for over 8 years. If you get it on a super sale then grab it as what it has is enough to keep you busy for a few hours or more if you are like me and like to explore and shoot things.

I played this for 20 minutes in march of 2015.... nothing has changed since then. It is one of those games that I have in steam but pay 0 attention to. Saw I played it in 2015 and thought I better warn people it isn't worth $12.

This "game" hasn't been updated since 2018. Just cancel it already, can't believe i paid money for this when there are mobile games with more depth and play ability.

Two years since any update at all. Fine game if you like what it currently has to offer. But I wouldn't expect any developments or support for it. Buyer warned.

This game was recommended to me as a very promising space trader game with focus on trading and exploration, not on combat. And it would have realistic dimensions/physics.

What I get after buying it is a simplistic game with a clumsy UI, medirocre graphics, a trading systems that was state of the art in the early 80s, strange controls, a ship that can only fly along a 2d plane, a ship that seemingly has no steering/braking thrusters (at least not visually) and after making my first 2 jumps I get easily blown to bits by a pirate ship.

The game feels like a prototype made by a gaming engineer student in his spare time. Graphics are completely ok, though nothing special here. But all other gaming aspects don't deliver. This game cannot be played without constantly duelling pirate ships, trading is micro-management (you don't have a universal stock exchange where you can see which system needs a certain product), you just have to go there, check the prices and remember them, then buy cheaper goods somewhere else and come back. If you buy and immediately resell goods in one spot, they return you the very same price you paid. Where in the world would someone do that?

Sorry, but this is not ging anywhere. 12 € is way too much for this.

I like the star map though and the way you search for systems and plot courses. But manually making several jumps in a row, having a 1minute cooldown in between every jump where you get attacked by pirates (even in rather safe systems), is not what I was lookign for.

Promising space sandbox.

This is a pretty cool toy. I hesitate to call it a game, because there's really nothing to do. There's no grand quest. There's no ultimate objective. You just fly around and do stuff. You... drift. No real direction, no real goal, you just kind of look around and go "I feel like taking some missions" or "I feel like trading some commodities" or "I feel like mining some asteroids."

None of this is especially exciting or lucrative, but it's pretty and the music is nice. Sometimes that's exactly the kind of thing I want. If that's what you want sometimes, too, you would probably like this game.

It is worth noting that the game is crashing for me with a stack overflow, here and there. Mostly in the galaxy map. But it's rare, so I don't let it bother me too much. Most of the time I just play the game and enjoy myself.

I play a number of games like this including Elite: Dangerous, X2, X3, Jumpdrive, etc, but the issue is that, to really unlock the potential of those games, you need at good joystick and throttle/hotas set. Sure, you can fumble around trying to fly via a keyboard and mouse, but, meh, as I said, you'll be losing most of those games' true potential by doing so. Fortunately I have a good joystick and throttle/hotas set but I know not everyone does ... or sometimes you might not be in the mood to do all of that fancy precision flying.

One nice thing about Drifter is that you can fly with the keyboard and mouse or with a fairly simple gamepad. Granted, I'm not trying to sell the game on that point alone, but sometimes that helps.

Drifter simply suffers from the same problem all space trader games suffer from -- the game takes place in space and space is ... wait for it ... wait for it ... EMPTY! That's right folks! There's just not a whole lot to see in space except background stars and a few planets.

People, I think, are spoiled by earth-bound games that offer endless sights and locales to explore. Even "empty" terrain is filled with trees, mountains, random monsters to slay, ruins to explore, caves to discover, rivers, paths and trails, forgotten treasure, and, what's more, that terrain can vary. Over here, you're exploring the snowy wastes of a dwarven stronghold and 100 hours into the game and you're hacking your way through the jungles of a "Mayan" ruin.

But space is, well ... space. While, sure, you might encounter the odd shipwreck, floating cargo container, anomalous rescue beacon, pirate base, black hole, or asteroid belt containing a rare metal, one solar system is going to look pretty much like all the others. Even if an ambitious Dev sat down and hand crafted tens of thousands of planets to place in thousands of solar systems, would you notice the difference from one planet to the next?

Or would you, like many others, simply whine about how all the systems are the same and there's really no point to exploring?

Space games require a bit more imagination than the standard game because you really have to immerse yourself in the idea of BEING there in order for any space game to be truly fun. Even a game as epic and visually stunning as Elite: Dangerous requires that mentality.

Yeah, the Drifter dev could stand to sprinkle some surprises around the various systems, that much is true ... and maybe he has. I haven't been everywhere. The best thing the dev could do is make his universe a bit more dynamic. But many of the thumbs down boos I've seen have resulted in the standard "no duh" complaints from people who only play games to beat them as fast as they can, some shamelessly admitting to using exploits, bugs, and file alterations to do so.

Now ... seriously ... where's the fun in that? It's a bit like saying, "The game is horrible because I can get rich doing the same mission running freight between the same two star systems 500 times. There's no reason to go anywhere else!" Well, yeah, but if that's really how and why you play computer games, perhaps you need a new hobby like, say, solving quadratic equations or something. Ya know?

Drifter isn't perfect but it is fun. If you're one of those players who are only interested in logging in, going right for the throat of the game, beating it, and moving on to the next game, then it might not be for you. But if you're like me and enjoy fiddling around with games, smelling the roses, playing the hell out of a game until you've squeezed every last drop of possible enjoyment out of it (and then coming back to it a year later for even more enjoyment) you'll almost certainly enjoy Drifter.

I'm editing this review to include the following, at the top so it's the first thing you read:

I'm so glad I got this game. I've really been stressing over RL crap and finding it difficult to unwind with my usual passion: video games! But Drifter strikes just the right balance, for me, between therapeutic and engaging. And that is a big deal. Now, on to the review.

Drifter is a small indie studio's contribution to the space-pilot sandbox genre. It is set to small but evocative soundtrack by the acclaimed Danny Baranowsky (Binding of Isaac, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc.) and features a 2.5D game engine.

Pros:

- Ships and equipment are varied and detailed enough to facilitate custom load-outs that are actually meaningful for a particular niche or combination of niches
- A very large network of interconnected solar systems, each with a government/economic type that influences the price of ship modules
- Varied and engaging gameplay: mining asteroids*, fending off pirates, being a pirate, and a surprisingly diverse set of mission types
- Several flight modes: normal, afterburner, "slipstream", and interstellar "jump"
- Solid music, sound, and graphics
- Runs well on low end machines
- A promising road map by a responsive developer (including crafting, factions, etc.). Bug reports and suggestions are quickly addressed.

* A quick note on mining: it's quite engaging compared to other games! You mine by shooting the asteroids with your weapons until they explode, dropping ore. Running into an asteroid damages your shields, so navigate asteroid fields with care. Modules confer the ability to scan nearby asteroids to determine their ore content, and create a local gravitational field to pull the mined ore to the hold. In short, farewell to clicking a button and going afk.

Neutral:

- Newtonian flight, i.e., inertia is conserved. I personally prefer this but some people hate it.
- Loot including mined ore is destructible, so you need a light trigger finger. I actually don't mind and see it as adding flavor, but this will really irk some people.
- Capacitor is drained by afterburners and some weapons, and recharges given the opportunity. Again, I personally find this to be a feature, but others will disagree. Note that there are capacitor upgrades.

Cons:

- Some bugs (nothing game-breaking in my experience thus far, though)
- The UI needs work. It's not hard to figure out and is smooth once you do, but is rough around the edges and missing some intuitive affordances.

All in all, this is a solid buy and I recommend that you give it a try.

Drifter was a little game I picked up awhile back. And I don't recommend it right now, for a few reasons.

Pros
The drifting mechanic is pretty cool.

Cons
Super confusing, and the tutorial barely tells you half of what you need to know
Icons don't have descritions when hovered over
No form of smaller jets on your craft to say, change direction without just pointing your nose that way and gunning it
Getting around the massive solar systems, even with slipstream, takes an age and a half
The maps are extremely hard to use, as you can't click anywhere on the map to zoom on that point, it has to be an actual planet, star ect.
So far the game is both incredibly bare-bones and incredibly confusing.
Having a drifting mechanic with no method of lock-on to keep your ship pointing at an enemy makes it hard to do anything other than drive at them head on blasting your guns. This turns combat into more of a joust with only the guy with better shields winning.
Your ship is stuck on a 2D plane. You can't fly up or down at all.
No cockpit view.

You could blame me just not fully understanding the game, but the parts I do understand at least basically (the main problem is the game desribes 0 things in the tutorial outside of flying your ship, which is basically WASD and space...) make the game (that's been in development 4 YEARS!!! ) feel like an early alpha demo.

I bought this game cause it had inertia. I should have saved my money and bought Enemy Starfighter, cause that was basically this, with more content, better combat, a better inertia system (there's a key to enable drifting, cause in that universe people realised it was stupid to just let ships drift around all the time) and on a 3D plane instead, with a cockpit view.

One of the better indie games I've played.
It certainly can scratch that space trading itch, and the sheer size is mindblowing.
I can't wait till this hits Vita, it will be an instant purchase. As for now, definitely check it out. It's a great game.

It's definitly a rough sketch of a game that has potential. I had some fun with it, but that's only after I used Cheat Engine to derp around with with everything this game has to offer. It's lacking a lot of content at this point, and there's a ton of things, such as the UI, that feel very disjointed from the "theme" of the game, or lack there of.

I understand game development isn't easy by any standard, and I get that it's hard to see your work getting bashed with negative reviews; however, I won't stand here and say "you should get this game because the developers care" because the developers really do still care. Just because they care doesn't mean this is a product that's up to par, and this being an early access game doesn't make that an exuse. It's been 2 years. This is a wake-up call, and the devs need to step it.

I find myself wishing I had the source code so I could fix the long standing issues that are painfully obvious. Like all the UI buttons that do nothing, but aren't disabled or hidden. Development of this Unity3D game is very slow, I can only assume that the developer has been focusing all thier attention on artwork or sound. While I do see a few code issues that were updated in the last update, it's not enough changes to make me believe this developer is really spending more than a few hours per month on the game at best.

All that said, Drifter does offer a very interesting take on a tried and true genre of space exploration combined with the open world freedoms that we've come to love with newer games. There were some nit-picky things that I noted that I felt were rather wierd, like no one would build a mining base in a star system that has nothing to mine. Some of the complaints that other users have made are really easy things to fix, and I say that as a developer myself. One suce complaint was the ability to tell the difference between different types of star systems at a glance. Thats easily done by displaying them with different colors on the galaxy view.

Aside from the overbearing development slowness and persistent game issues, I'd give the game an overall 7.5 out of 10. I would recommend this game for space exploration enthusiasts. If you're just looking for a space shooter, this game can keep your attention for a while. It'll hold your attention even longer, if you also like trading resources for money, or going mining, or just running errands.

I was skeptical at first about the 2d space sim, but it won me over with solid gameplay, and great trading system. I am a little disappointed by the lack of variety, or information about the various planets. It would be nice to do some exploring of the planets and learn interesting facts, or find artifacts to sell or something. Instead you get a very generic description of the planet. The stars all look the same, and there seems to be a limited ammount of space stations. But the fighting, trading, and ship customization is very well done. I don't know what all I can buy to add to ships, but I have been so torn by ship setups that I have parts in storage that I will switch out to change my fighter into a hauler, or my hauler into a miner. Sounds like I may be discouraging you to buy, but it truly is addictive and fun to play. That's what truly matters.

Pros:
Huge galaxy
pretty graphics
interesting tactical battles with good physics (especially when taking on a pack of enemies)
Trading is fun and rewarding if you can haul enough in your ship and investigate the stations along your mission track.
strangely addictive.
mission system that keeps you moving about the galaxy instead of just hanging around one area.
has an auto dock function!!! (after playing elite dangerous I sooooo love this) btw I know you can put an auto dock on your ship but it takes up a valuable spot where you could have something more important to the acutal gameplay in elite dangerous.

cons:
limited missions.
killing enemies is the best way to make money instead of hauling or mining or missions. unbalanced in that way.
solar systems are too similar. Sure that asteroid field can make a fight more challenging, but that's about it from what I've seen. We want rewards for checking out the various planets and stars!!
no real exploring. Every system is populated that I've seen.
needs more ship variety.

There is nothing happening with this game aside from meaningless trade item updates.

Whats actually wrong:

1. No factions. This alone breaks the game by it's very nature. There are things to do like trading and mining but these things are pointless given the fact that you can just hang around a space station killing everyone who leaves and then selling the loot to said space station without anyone being upset about the means in which you acquired these goods.

2. There is no galaxy. It's just an illusion. All solar systems are basically empty, sure there may be a star and some planets but the only thing to interact with is space stations. A vast majority of the galaxy has zero space stations so there is no reason to venture beyond more than 3-5 solar systems in your entire play though. Also, every Earth-like planet is literally Earth.

3. No AI whatsoever. All enemy ships follow the exact same pattern of attack. This is most evident if you alter the games files to allow yourself enough speed to outrun the enemy. All enemies will spot you, dive towards you firing at you while never trying to lead you with there weapons. They will fly by you and turn to shoot again. If you go faster than them by editing the games files to get in front of them they will ignore you and turn away from you to shoot at where you should be.

After collecting all the ships and playing through the game I initially thought there was a lot of reason to think Drifter had a really bright future. However, after seeing none of this games issues ever being addressed in an honest light by the Dev and seeing updates that included literally nothing but items the players could have added themselves by playing with the game files I cannot recommend this game to anyone. Nor do I think anything is really going to come of Drifter. Instead of making a game I believe this developer is concentrating on making the illusion of a game.

Tip: You can save at a station, exit the game, reload and the station will have 50% of it's inventory respawned!

So you feel like playing an open world space game, but you don't want to go HAM and play one of the super complex/hard ones like Elite Dangerous, Oolite or even EVE? This game got you covered!

Drifter has all the elements you would expect from a good space exploration/"simulation" game but packaged in a much more casual way, while still feeling very sandboxy with little handholding.

Things you can do with this game:

• All the activities you would expect you could do: Trading, bounty hunting, mining, courier jobs etc.
  
  
• Play with your left hand while drinking a cup of coffee with your right hand! Drifter has very simple controls and you can reach almost everything with your WASD hand. Only the occasional mouse input is needed. Gamepad's an option too.
  
  
• Experience the thrill of a newtonian physics model! But this time it's much less of a mindfluck because it's restricted to a 2D plane.
  
  
[*]Play it on your old computer! Has constant 60 FPS on my ancient Linux machine which has only 2GB RAM which it has to share with the low-spec Intel integrated graphics card. Yep! Awesome performance!

It has inertia! This may annoy the hell out of you, and you've now been warned at least once to know that that means. Inertia annoys a lot of people in space combat games, but here's how you figure out if you hate it or not: Independence War. That is all you need to know about Inertial space combat. This is in a 2D plane so it's a little bit easier, so if you thought Independence War was difficult, don't worry because I completely agree, IW2 was!

This game is a lot of fun. Big Picture mode friendly! It is very controller friendly, even in beta! That may not matter to you, but that's a plus for a lot of people. You might be annoyed to know that you NEED a mouse (at this point), but in the tutorial I only needed it 3 times, and after that just to interact with inventory, look at map easier, etc. Still, just a bit. It's definitely a PC game, not a mobile port or dumbed down for a controller, if anything it does the same thing as Freelancer did and gives us a simulation without requiring a joystick.

I'm pretty sure I voted No in Greenlight but my memory is a little fuzzy on that so I may have clicked 'Yes of Course This Game Is Great And Belongs on Steam!'. That's what the button says, right? I'm backpedaling really hard so my memory is fuzzy on that subject. Either way, yes it's worth the price of a movie. Whatever metric exists for you at $10-15 for a big screen entertainment ration.

It's still BETA, it says in the top left corner, so if anything about beta versions bothers you (UI, etc) wait for the final release! It's got a bright blue Early Access box for a reason.

It's good. Real good.

I would arguably say it's the same gameplay as Freelancer. Considering the video and screenshots, take that for what it's worth. If you think I'm a fool to compare this game to the AMAZING FREELANCER then it's 5/10.

If you possibly think I'm right, it's (Freelancer +9/10) = 9/10 (-Freelancer)

If you don't like space games, go read The Hyperion Cantos.

9/10 - Early Access, Beta, etc

I bought this a couple days ago after reading about the recent update and watching a few vids and reading some comments.. I gotta tell you that I'm pleasantly suprised!

I've been exploring, trading, policing and doing a bit of mining also. Honestly I had to make myself stop playing earlier after noticing I put in 35 hours in 2 1\2 days!

It has some user interface issues and a few glitches getting into starbases, also its lacking content, but I can see how populating a whole galaxy might take a bit of time. The galaxy is absolutely massive though, there has to be thousands of solar systems, and though some look similar they are all different.

All in all I'm very impressed with what I've played so far. Once they fix the UI and make some hotbuttons or full 360 support, plus some more assets and content, I'll be putting a ton of time into this..

I know this game has missed its original launch window by a lot, however I am so glad they aren't rushing. Even looking at the 8 months since last beta release would make you think this is not worth investing in as it may turn out as vapourware. I'd implore you to follow the main Dev on Twitter @celsiusgs as he is always tweeting screenshots and progress. As well as interacting with fans. I just tweeted him an hour ago about an issue and he already responded.

So far (version 0.53) it is a lot of fun. You start off with a capable, fast ship with a pair of small lasers outfitted. From the first few minutes, without upgrades, I was able to pick a fight with 3 other ships, destroying one and escaping in my damaged ship. I wish I had better macro support on Mac, my Saitek Command Unit would cover most of my controls but it's a painful process on my platform. That being said, the controls are pretty straight forward but I'd like the option to access all options from the keyboard. If I am walking into a situation that I know I may not be able to handle then I plot an escape route. It would be much quicker to hit a key to engage my pre-planned jump rather than click on my ship then click the jump button from the radial menu that pops up.

Trading has been fun, although I'm less of a trader. Prices do very heavily system to system so its worth taking the time to learn some good routes and run them. Myself though, I prefer taking patrol missions to chase down pirates for funds. Now exploring is where this gets really fun for me. Since its a 20,000 star system, procedually generated galaxy there is so much unknown. There is greater diversity, more detailed systems and features that will make it all the more fun down the road but as of the May release I already enjoy exploration. I played Outer Empires online for a few years and I loved exploring the 20,000 star system galaxy for years.

When NPC communication comes out it will be far more interactive and immersive, I look forward to that as an Explorer. So far my interactive choices are protect, shoot or leave alone. Pretty fun choices but the promised NPC comms system will be a huge step forward.

Well thats my impressions of the current version.

The progress towards 1.0 is taking a bit of time but the new features, graphical updates and love being put into this game make me patient to wait. Until then I'll enjoy what I can currently play: 8 ships as a trader, explorer, pirate, merc, etc in a 20,000 star system sandbox. Somehow I think I'll occupy my time.

It's essentially Elite but not in first person. It looks lovely, plays well - even at this stage - and the developer seems to be a genuinely nice guy who listens to those people who have decided to support his game and helps wherever he can. What more could you want from an indi title currently in development? :)

Tons of potential, but in my mind not really ready for even early access. The tutorial was frustrating to figure out, the radial menu is very much not clear. My main problem though is the game is paced way too slow. My first mission I got wanted me to deliver an object to another system. Ok, fine. I figured out how to plot the course and noticed it was 57 jumps away...ok... I did my first jump to see how it works and noticed the jump drive disables for a 60 second cooldown. 57 jumps = 57 minutes IF you jump exactly on the cooldown second every time. That's pretty poor design.

Buy it if you want to support it. There is tons of potential here and I expect it will be greatly improved. This is the reason I am recommending it, but if you don't know how to read my review and can only look at the thumb then I can't help you.