Star Traders: Frontiers

It's not for everyone, but it has certainly grabbed me. Make sure to not piss off the majority of the other houses. That's the main thing I've learned.

This game looks like a mobile game and honestly i avoided it because of that - if you like space games with an emphasis on narrower career paths: this game is worth your time. If you want a very action heavy game - avoid.

I regret buying this game. The 2 hours are not enough to test the game. You need much more than that to get used to your team and UI.

That's why the game should have had a demo so you could test the game properly. It's almost impossible to make a refund because the 2 hours aren't enough to test the game. At the very least, you'd need 10 or more hours.

I have a lot of games but this is undoubtedly the one I regret buying the most.

Overall doesn't feel like a game, more like a simulator for an admin job as a middle (micro)manager at a space slot machine company. basically took the most uninteresting parts of sci-fi/star trek like crew management, recruitment, morale, paperwork, clerical administration, etc. and tried to turn it into a grinding ADHD simulator with too many moving parts. it can be an addictive game loop at times, but i found myself feeling exhausted after playing and wanting to uninstall it after every session. there is some drive to understand the complicated game mechanics and maybe that is the most addictive component of the experience, but I often found the barrage of events in the log making me feel like my crew was incredibly incompetent even at higher levels still experiencing all of these failures and issues.

I don't want to hate on this simulation too much, because there are a lot of interesting bright spots and some of the mechanics are similar to a lot of other games (not sure who invented them). I just feel like it is way too ambitious and focused on breadth and depth versus quality and actually being an enjoyable experience. Lots of reviews mention spreadsheets and I feel like this is accurate, there's just too much micromanagement that drains the fun aspect out of the game and some of the game mechanics feel fudged to fit in with the rules of the universe, but then break realism. If the breadth of the game was reduced by 50-75% and cleaned up it could be a fun experience, right now it feels like a huge base game that has been continually patched rather than designed correctly from its foundations. a lot of the factions seem like superfluous padding, halving the number of factions would reduce clutter, reduce contacts, and reduce the annoying trade permitting requirements.

The story is compelling enough with choices matter branching and a mix of cool missions, the crew combat can be fun, the trading seems deep, contacts are a cool idea, and if you are into massive management then this will be right up your alley. for me it tries to be too realistic in the crew/contact/ship management and then drops the ball on realism in other areas. the card flipping becomes a stale grind very quickly especially when there aren't great methods of improving rep once lost. appreciate having lots of dune inspired content that is almost too closely inspired sometimes, but hard to argue with that good of a source of inspiration. it feels a bit like post-scattering reunification in the dune universe and the arbiter unified government aspect is an interesting mission storyline, but i started with the faen storyline and did not enjoy the experience enough to try the other path.

Lots of the fun parts of the game are marred by too much content and too many things to manage. It just feels like a paperwork nightmare managing all the contacts, missions, quadrants, etc. and while parts of the UI/UX work well, some of it is horrendous and inconsistent so that you constantly feel overwhelmed. ship combat is the weakest imo, with such huge crews and so many talents if you want to defeat ships via boarding it can take forever and then the rewards vs the damage you suffer can make combat something you just want to avoid, but then the medical/repair rules systems almost force you to engage in combat just so you can heal and repair your crew/ship. any game aspect that moves the player to meta-game due to deficiencies in the rule set and mechanics should be redesigned.

gamebreakers for me: too much crew management, too many useless ship encounters result in developing retreat/escape ships, game mechanics like no background/in-transit healing/repair mean you engage in crew/ship combat to healing/repair which breaks immersion and makes no sense, UI/UX and overwhelming number of contacts and the grind to gain personal rep, climbing out of a hole of rep deficit is a grind, trade permitting, overly complicated game mechanics in every aspect create potentially airtight rules at the expense of a fun experience.

i think there's some really cool mechanics that just feel overly enginereed and some people will really enjoy the breadth of the game, but for me it felt like a job and the opposite of what i want in a game.

some ideas/refs/inspiration for improvement:

absolutely need a tutorial rather than a collection of outdated wiki docs created at various stages of development. choosing the base templates for the game it isn't made clear what the priorities mean and that you will be managing such a huge number of crew from the get go which felt like being dropped into a managerial nightmare rather than learning the ropes with a smaller crew first
map/mission handling: endless sky
ship component display/general UI: anything else-> endless sky, approaching infinity, ftl
crew combat: darkest dungeon
ship combat: overall weakest and most tedious part of the game for me, maybe crying suns, approaching infinity, ftl

EDIT: some spelling fixes and just want to say that i appreciate the devs' commitment and that the game isn't awful by any means. i must have just been in a rage quit mood and wrote this stream of consciousness, so hopefully suggestions are helpful and this doesn't just feel completely like an angry rant

Great world building that is implied far more than it is ever told.

I bought this game because I was quite addicted to Cyber Knights Flashpoint and desperately wanted to play something similar while waiting for full release, and that's kind of what Star Traders is. However, I really did not enjoyed the combat, neither the space nor the crew combat, so it's unlikely I will play more.

Still, I am giving a thumbs up for this game because I love this developer and while I did not loved the game, I love this type of game and I want the developers to make more in the future.

If someday they make a sequel to this game I will buy it day one because I did liked the non-combat part of the game and I trust these developers to listen to feedback and improve.

My friend recommended this game as the one game he always keeps installed due to its depth of gameplay and content. I feel that at 155 hours I'm still just scratching the surface of this game...

6 years later they're still pushing out more content.

Excellent game. Challenge, constantly changing, and punishing if you make mistakes. I keep coming back to it again and again.

Bonus, the devs keep updating! It is absolutely a labour of love game in my books.

Space exploration and adventure. It's like being with Kirk... but maybe you're the Red Shirt.

One of the best bang for the buck game ever. More than 6 years of FREE updates and it's still getting updated. The devs have a great track record of having long support for their games.

It was a hard to understand at first. I just followed the main story until I learned basic gameplay. It is like the mobile game Pirates and Traders, but more stuff and bigger. You can do different jobs to make money and gain reputation. I like how you can do character customization along with ship battles and land battles. It is hard to start playing because there is a lot but it is so fun it is hard to stop playing.

Fantastic little game with an amazingly dedicated dev team.

Steep time investment but rewarding systems. No tutorial is not great :(

One of best space games I ever played honestly. Just like most other Trese Brothers games.

Also absolute candidate for labor of love. Seriously, have you seen how many updates this has gotten since release? All for free? The only DLC is cosmetic only.

Doesn't work on mac OS despite being advertised as such. Tried the pinned workaround of using the macos legacy beta which forces the game back to 3.3.59, but that still doesn't work on mac OS 14 with an intel processor.

EDIT: Support from devs is timely and relevant. I managed to get it working on my macbook after upgrading to macOS 15. Will update review if/when I get more gameplay experience.

THIS IS NOT A NEGATIVE REVIEW, but red makes for a better warning. Steam really does need an "amber" or "conditional" stance.

Star Traders Frontiers is fantastic - ambitious, mechanically rich, rewarding of thought, and as far as I'm aware, pretty much unique in the breadth of everything it bundles together in its nicely unconstrained sandbox. RPG, ship-building, combat, party management, economy, survival. Price is spot on and on sale its a bit of a no-brainer.

Moreover, in my opinion, you're actually getting two games in one! Now comes the warning - which is mostly just a word in the ear of any fellow rogue-like enthusiasts. If you've ever felt the breath of the Wizard of Yendor down the back of your neck, this is for you.

On any difficulty below 'Hard', which is when perma-death kicks in, Star Traders Frontiers (STF) is an 8/10 Space RPG. I personally dock it one point for general UI frustrations and information presentation issues that start adding up after a while, and another to cover a short list of small gripes here and there, but that's it. Game is good. You should probably get it. Tell your story, mourn your favourite crew when they die, pick yourself back up, play strict and enjoy.

On 'Hard' and above, perma-death kicks in and the rogue-like gauntlet commences; the whole other 'second game' I mentioned. This is what caught my eye about STF in the first place - the main draw for me in fact - and the reason why I'm still flagging this review as a negative. If you *are* like me, you take negative aspects more into consideration that general positives. Money may also be tight for you too and the fiver you get this game for might matter enough to swing it. Not to mention the free time you might have to play.

STF as a rogue-like is an exacting experience. Mechanically speaking and without spoiling, there is an invisible, mid-game gate you have to pass that will check your build - and it will check it *hard*. If you don't get an outright game over then you may be allowed to limp on for a while before the rising difficulty finishes you off. Running missions, bringing up your crew, rolling with the punches and building strong is fun, but gets laborious and off-putting fast, knowing that stealthy bear trap SNAP of defeat is out there and *you may have already fallen too far behind to succeed*. It doesn't help that a good chunk of useful meta-progression is locked behind this higher difficulty level (not to mention the raw allure of achievements). Death in rogue-likes usually comes abruptly, many such games will kill you ten turns before you die, and gambling your time against getting wiped is a big (addictive, probably pernicious) part of the thrill. But when its married to the studious (even loving!) work of a management game, the severity of that whiplash leaves an especially sour taste. So sour, its actually been enough to cause me to sit back and question the time I've spent playing! Its hard to recommend a game that splashed me with moments of uncomfortable clarity like that, but again, this is just for those of you that might anticipate the same reactions in yourself.

So that's what this is a review-warning of really - not so much the product itself, but the emotional dish it might serve up if you're a gamer like me with similar tastes, addictions (and skill level!). 148 hours speak for themselves - I sure got my money's worth...but I got a bit more, if you know what I mean. I haven't really seen much of the game's latter third - your mileage will vary. I know I could if I dropped the difficulty, re-loaded some encounters, rolled ships and crew to hit certain checkpoints and unlock things prior, but I'm after the rush of the rogue-like, the surprise of encounters unspoiled by "practice" runs. In a sense, every run of a traditional rogue-like is a "practice" run, its just for my two cents, every subsequent run of Star Traders Frontiers has been far too much of a (star)trek.

Star Traders is intricate and complex, in a good way. The game allows a variety of play styles and difficulties to work together for an overall positive experience.

This is the most replayable game I own.

It's awesome!!!

Very much like old school Traveller RPG game.

I'm amazed at the depth and scale of this game. Love it all. Its not for the weak of strategy though....

Trading narcotics on faster than light speed has never been more fun!

Very solid game. I had no idea it was as deep as it appears to be. Looking forward to digging into this one.

Are you kidding? This game is from 2018 and there are still new updates with new content. All for free.
Also a really good game which needs some time at the beginning but afterwards very rewarding. The player also has many choices of how to play it. You can be a merchant, an explorer, a pirate and many more.
100% recommendation

Awesome Game its always updated and very fun and enjoyable

Star traders suggests its a game about trading... It's not. To those who made this game i want justice upon them... they would put those who try to play this game in hell. It is where they belong. I deserve a refund. and Steam should be ashamed of being guilty of selling it. If more people cared enough to write negative reviews when called for... the numbers would be reason to pass on trying it.

Favourite game for me 11 out of 10. Simple to get going, but there is depth in how it works that makes it replayable. Nice blend of trading and combat. Storyline and contacts adds political / personal elements and that puts this game ahead of anything similar I have played.

This is a 2D space trading/pirating/merc type of game, but with a big emphasis on relationships and crew development. Enough gameplay depth to take years to truly master.

The most in-depth RPG I ever played. Lots of customisations, play how you want, whether as a commander of an indestructible, big and strong ship, a spy which gather and sell intel for faction that you choose, an explorer looking for treasures, a merchant looking for a honest work, or a smuggler smuggling stuff, a pirate interrupting merchants/smuggler trade path, alien hunter, bounty hunter looking for criminals, and a lot more!

Overall great game. Maybe a little too RNG dependent at times, but has very solid gameplay loops, and kept me very interested over several play throughs. The universe has a very fun plot and backstory - derivative of several other recognizable sci-fi ideas, but combined in an interesting and unique way that fits extremely well with the ludonarrative, which I always appreciate.

this game is one of my all time favorites. i bought it on sale, but it is absolutely worth full price

An incredible strategy game in a "tiny box". They could easily turn this into a tabletop deck-building game. One of the best values in an indie game that I've ever found, this game is a pure dopamine bomb. Be prepared to read! The grammar is typically airtight, you may have to guess around some of the dialect and neologisms they use, but it is a very well written game, if a bit simple for my usual taste. But man, the overall depth of the game is amazing, and it is incredibly replayable as my 1,000+ hours into the game shows. I guarantee that halfway through your first playthrough, you'll already be thinking of several new strategies to try in your next game. Just one more mission quickly turns into one more captain...

No way to reset the unlocks. Discouraged me from getting back into the game. Devs seem to have been dismissive of others with this same issue.

Fantastic sandbox experience that includes both ship and crew combat as you captain your space vessel across the stars while trading to get rich and trying not to infuriate too many Factions in the process.

Speaking of Factions, my only suggestion is to add a "RNG Faction" so I can hunt those sumbitches down and let them know how I feel about them.

Very steep learning curve. Thankfully, the wiki has a lot of information to help you explore the various aspects of the game. The higher the difficulty, the more you have to focus on what your captain is good at. Not a fan of the unlock system (you have to play a certain way at a certain difficulty to unlock some starting professions, ships, etc.), but everything is unlocked in modded games. If you want to play with mods, you have to launch the game from within the steam library, not your desktop icon...which is super weird.

This game is difficult, full of depth, cheap, and CONSTANTLY updated.

I mean, constantly. Full stop.

Heck, even as I write this, there's probably another download in progress. By the time you read it? Another download. Plus another when you finally purchase the game.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It provides a good feel for a space RPG with your own crew and there are countless ways to play the game. However you want to shape your interstellar career is entirely up to you.

Want to be a Han Solo smuggling type? You can do it.

Want to be a Boba Fett bounty-hunting type? You can do it.

Want to be an USS Enterprise exploring new worlds type? Engage.

No stopping how you choose to play the game, not even the story. You can choose to ignore the over-arching story lines and even if you miss a few, the game keeps chugging along without you. If you decide to dive head-first into the story, it is very detailed and has a lot of moving parts. Even better, the world changes with the story line.

Drawbacks? I guess if you're not into the turn-based, card-game system you may find this lacking. Same with the 2-D overlay. Keep in mind, however, this is game designed and cared for by two brothers. Literally, two people keep this game moving.

With. Constant. Updates. (Hey, there's another one that came through as you were reading this!)

This game deserves a closer look if you are into space RPG simulators. Give it a go.

You have absolutely no f-ing idea what you are supposed to be doing. Might be decent with a tutorial. Caught I was supposed to grab an arbiter, but adding it as a waypoint insinuated it was at current location. This leads to the question of what is left to interact with? More clicking just leads to more questions.

It guts me to not be able to recommend this game: It's a great setting and it's built open enough to let you sink an endless number of hours into it (/taps "# of hours played" sign) while keeping that feeling like you still might see something new around the next star.

The developers have done an admirable job keeping it updated long after most studios would have moved on to something else. They seem like good guys, too.

But the game is so committed to the RNG model that the gameplay loop gives that little dopamine kick while playing it but it's not actually *fun*. It's so much of RNG crap-shoot that a 30 hour play-through can be, quite literally, torpedoed by an uber-enemy you can't run from, can't surrender to, and can't advance on.

The real problem (and the real reason I can't say "buy this") is that it's never not going to be this: the devs have been very clear that it's always going to be completely RNG-centric and, while I certainly respect their commitment to the bit, it means they can't actually promise a good time to someone playing it.

Sorry guys.

The game is probably one of the most criminally underrated games I have ever come across. The developers (2 brothers) are more committed to the creation and support of their games than the extreme majority of game makers out there. Read other reviews and discussions about this game and you will see the depth mentioned repeatedly. Each play through can feel like a full complete experience on its own, but I couldn't even begin to guess how many times you would have to play the game to discover and experience everything. The depth being referred to is regarding narrative elements, mechanics, characters, and most importantly styles of play. There are dozens (at least) completely unique paths and even more captain builds to experience. Now throw in the fact that you can assemble and build different crews and officers each time through as well.

They are well past 300 updates supporting the game. Each update that I have looked at seems to be a carefully crafted addition (new classes, story vignettes, and everything else you can think of) or it is research based balancing. They show no signs of slowing down, even with another game receiving a ton of attention in early access.

There is a deceptively complex learning curve, but you have options in how you want to handle that. You don't have to be like me, where I try to learn about the mechanics as much as possible beforehand. This is the type of game where you can just dive in and learn as you go, which is probably the intended plan. You can still get a tone of enjoyment out of the game on your first play through, even if you are ignorant to how the game works and the options it gives you.

The most important advice I can think of is don't try to experience everything at once (literally impossible dozens of times over). I suggest either choosing the your path beforehand (after you have some experience), or just roll with the punches and not stress about what you are missing. Everything takes time, from missions to docking at a station, so leave yourself a cushion to complete missions on time; don't try to cram as much as possible in.

The very first play through (or even few play throughs) you should probably run with the main story. This will limit you because it will occupy a hefty percentage of your time, but it will also put you at odds with other faction(s), and it will be very difficult to work back into their good graces. After your 1st run in the game, i suggest going the main narrative route again; only making different decisions at the critical junctures.

I am still super green with this game (the hours played is a big lie on my games because I have the bad habit of leaving them running in the background. This game in particular, because I would do some research and get distracted. So, listen to the veterans of this game if I have said anything that contradicts them; but I tried to keep it simple.

This game is, and will be, a cult classic in my opinion. The Trese Brothers accomplished what they set out to do to an almost perfect degree. If you give the game just a little bit of time, and the genres/discription is up your alley; I think this you will be able to add this game to the exclusive personal list you have of games to continually come back to over and over again. I know I will.

Overscoped and poorly executed. Takes a while to learn everything available, only to realize none of it makes a difference because the RNG is so dominant, even with max skills. The devs need to give better tools to solve the RNG problems they throw at the players from the beginning.

Edit:
I'm well aware of how the game works having spent more time then I would have liked in it and while the devs response sounds like it addresses my concerns it fails to be acknowledge the level of RNG that goes beyond the systems he's discussing which can utterly wreck a game session in an instant. Playing through a crappy RNG system just so you can mitigate said RNG system isn't fun or good game design.

Check the other negative reviews and you'll see a record of what I'm talking about.

If you have to check this game out be warned about the RNG and excessive clicky UI. Some players have found enjoyment here, unfortunately I did not, it was frustrating all the way through, just a lot pf broken promises.

Great game but holy shit desertion is ruining this game.. every 2 missions half the crew is leaving despite having everyone at high morale and well paid. The ONLY way to play higher difficulties is to abuse save loops and exploit. Game is ACTUALLY impossible to played normally.

Phenomenal game with multiple ways to play. Scratches that space ranger itch

Unfortunately for more that i tried to like this game, i can't recommend it.

- Your starter ship can't deal with any threat even when you upgraded it
- All enemies are always stronger than you in ship fights
- Complicated way to get quests or ways to improve
- Even when you are in equal terms against an enemy ship it's all random stuff.

4/10

Yeah it's good and I suck at it :)

Sid Meyer's Pirates wishes it was this game.

This is a great game, and it reminds me of the kind of politics in Dune. It is a brutal game, it will rock your bunghole. If you don't know what you're doing, you will get rocked. Ship combat is turn based where you can cause different effects based on your weapons, which those effects can be stacked creating an entirely new effect. In person combat is even simpler, but the diversity of classes and skills you can combine on your people create interesting builds, however the thing you should pay most attention to is your REPUTATION.

Here's where the Dune stuff I mentioned comes in. Everything you do affects your rep with different factions, which gives you different missions, better deals for ships, and if it gets to low they'll try to kill you. Also, it affects your contacts. My God, you will get a lot of different contacts, and each one grants you access to different things. Form different crew you can recruit, different equipment, different missions, different payouts, access to even more contacts. You have a separate rep with these guys, as you do stuff for them, you build rep with them, and build them up in the house they a part of. Also, they have different personalities such as being greedy, being purists, enemies, allies, and so on. All of this adds up for some interesting game play.

Punishing, fiddly, deep, sandbox game with lots of interesting micro. and very wide set of choices.

Very good game.

Don't play this anymore since like a few weeks. Still bought the badge because the developers deserve this. Even if the game would not be for you, the amount of effort,dedication and the way the developers handle themselves and the fanbase is something to be admired.
I will probably pick this up again in a few months and the game itself is a fantastic sandbox where you can you go with whatever you want and find interesting. Happily endorsed and hope (once it is a bit further along) I will pick up Cyberknight Flashpoint (from the same developers) as well.