Avorion

Fun little game that gives you everything you could ask for in a spacefaring open world environment.

Great space game with a robust ship design system. Great multiplayer, though better multiplayer support would be appreciated, this isn't like Satisfactory.

I feel like I just started playing and figured out my next play through's strategy, 35+ hours in. Addicting game loop. Lots to do and lots of fun! I love how this has all the best elements of several space games packaged into a very flexible story and event driven space sandbox. You have to try playing this on Veteran mode, such a fair game once you figure out where to look for upgrades, drops, etc. The mods are also amazing. Tons of ships! Love the block systems!!! Can't believe I didn't know about this game until last week.

Absolute blast. Will play again when the cycle comes back around. If it looks appealing, give it a try.

Build a ship or more,
upgrade your ships with better materials,
fight,
trade,
make fleets,
last time i played this game was 2018, since then they have made tons of new content, that i have not tried yet.
i have 327 hours atm and i dont regret it.
at first it will be a bit of a learning curve, but give it time, and you will see how complex it is.

Slow start, but when you get to mega ships and fleets it starts to kick off real nice.

great game! design ships and stations, build economy, have wars and the grind parts are skippable if that's not what you want.

This game has a really great physics system that is fun to fly and shoot in. The UI is messy but usable, the resource and trade system is deeper than you might expect but still has its limits.

The only reason I cannot recommend this game is because it is sold as offering co-operative play and while you can form an alliance and shoot pirates with friends you cannot progress in the game unless you play it single player. And the game doesn't even tell you this, you just fail to complete any missions if you happen to be in an alliance ship.

Interesting game. Felt like ships were a bit like Lego block (a bit too blocky). It did not suck me in, but was not terrible. 6 out of a 10.

I love this game! and the endless possibilities. Doesn’t require much from your PC, and yet it manages to bring me to awe from the beautiful scenery.

Play with friends! or do it alone, its perfect for both.

The tutorial still has an impassable bug (apart from completely restarting the tutorial) that was reported 2 years ago.

A polished Skinner box with destructible ships. Play it to feel like a space god, but remember: you’re just a rat pushing a lever for Avorion pellets.

Recommend for: artists/designers and people who enjoy to be creative
Not Recommend for: space fight/industry lovers and people who want a good progressing curve

The game offers: trading, simple fighting and commanding, kinda detailed hull building and visually weapon designing, 6 ("tiers") different materials to build with, simple story
The game does not offer: deep tech tree, interior building (as some people expected), crafting/refining resources into components


Good game idea, kinda bad done.
The game is more like a "design your dream spacehip hull" game than a good space fighting game. The weapon amounts you can mount are very limited, however you can build the ship as big as you want.


Please notice that my I played only 91 mins, to not bypass the 2 hours for refunding, I watched some further videos about Avorion to get a deeper idea of the game. This review is based on my experience and those videos.

You build a ship and then you can build a ship. Once you've built that ship, you build a ship before building a ship.

The game is really cool for building ships and building, and ships, and all that.

Avorion is really addictive. It eats your time without you noticing.
The gameplay is simple enough compared to other space games. The economy is simplified, and so is diplomacy. But the building is awesome, as you can design whatever you want, or just download cool ships from the workshop. Also as you begin to build up your fleet, it turns into the cosmic strategy game. You begin to spend more and more time in galaxy or sector overview mode, sometimes just piloting your main ship while multitasking other ships in your growing empire. Only you can bring peace, freedom, justice and security to your new Empire!
But grind can be annoying. Sometimes you’ll lack the equipment you need. Stronger turrets or systems to upgrade your ship, you can either get them from stations or random enemy drops, so prey to RNG gods
TL;DR

Pros:
Unparalleled ship-building freedom.
Huge, universe with lots of possibilities.
Great modding community.

Cons:
Steep learning curve.
Resource grinding.

Highly recommended.
So much fun building ships and space stations.
In essence its a mix of RPG and RTS, but it is also a Space Opera and FPS. And economy simulation! And you can choose which you like the most, so you can focus on any one of those and ignore others.

Build ships and stations, grow your fleet, shoot pirates and aliens until you get fat and build a star destroyer.

Win.

Great time killer game solo, and can get pretty crazy even on private servers with PVP. Fun all around.

Underrated game. Small team doing an amazing job - this game needs to be publicized more so the community grows.
Very approachable space empire simulator while still having plenty of depth.

Avorion is probably one of the biggest miss that i have ever played. No game is no near what i want, and yet so far. In a few words, Avorion is the X universe, but multiplayer. And bad. This game compared to many other competitors loses on every side exempt construction, and yet, after 2.0 update, it's terrible. And this is manly because of the devs who did not balance it.
If you are going for an economy built, don't do it. This game is so utterly broken on that that it does not make sense( Do you like spending 100 M for a factory that outputs less then 20 per day while your MINES makes 60M per day?). The economy of the game is NOT simulated, as many other factions pop out of nowhere goods, and therefore creating a weird feeling of being cheated on. Then there is the loading, if it's not loaded the station( and i mean as in sector), they will give you some many problems. There is no economy to do here, as the devs after 6 system say: you know what, we don't care about your production, and the litteral 100ms spent on it.
And what about mining, trading ecc? Still terrible. If you want to understand what Avorion is really about, you can check the DLC Rifts. This is a combat game, with your constructed ships, with somewhat of an economy, which was made probably by someone who never entered even in a Eco study hall

oh its damn good. everything about it is special. from the building to the way you fight or being a carrier its just amazing. and to owning entire stations or be able to take over entire sectors its really fun

Despite its brilliance, Avorion remains criminally underrated. It offers an experience that rivals or even surpasses many big-name space sims, yet it still flies under the radar for too many players. The developers have consistently improved the game with meaningful updates, proving their dedication to the community and long-term quality.

If you love games like X4, Space Engineers, or even EVE Online but want something that blends their best elements into a truly unique and rewarding experience, Avorion is the game for you. Give it a chance—you won’t regret it.

I love this game and just learned abt it a few days ago! Been doing multiplayer servers and it’s amazing!
There isn’t really a game like it out! Very complex ship building makes it very exciting and help from the workshop is even better for prebuilt ships.
Hope to see more content and wish marketing was there to make this game bigger!

[30+ hours later. A slight edit to my review: the game is utterly fantastic, but it has one glitch. For some reason, the game badly craps out on framerate for seemingly no reason at all. Hours of troubleshooting, reinstalling files, validating windows, etcetera won't change a thing. It doesn't matter if you're on a brand, spanking new 1mb save file or a 500 mb savefile; it is irrelevant. The framerate drop effects you regardless of which save file you're on, so it doesn't have anything to do with the saves, or your system... the game just... LEAKS. There's some kind of weird memory leak happening somewhere and I'm not the only one who's encountered it. Google is rank with ''???'' responses from people on higher systems than I possess. So that's it. Maybe I'll come back to this title in a week and see if anything's changed, but right now I'm just burned out trying to fight this glitch.]

Quite bluntly, an incredible game.

There's so much I can say about this title. I'll likely have to come back and edit this later once I'm 300+ hours in. The things that astound me the most are:

- You can man more than one ship at once. You can have a flotilla--no--a whole fleet, and to use Todd Howard's words: it just works.

- The game scales up. The deeper you go towards the planet's core, the rougher it gets. This is something I dismissed once, then never again after being blown into sub-atomic particles by an alien with a 332 pound cannon.

- Ship AI is... great? If you tell three members of your fleet to escort you, they do so without fail. If you tell your miners to mine... they just get to it? I actually prefer setting my ships on auto-pilot for important fights because the auto-pilot is amazing at blowing things out of the sky.

- You can play the whole game from the menu/galaxy map. This might sound jarring, and you don't have to, but if you want your ship to dock somewhere whilst you go and get a drink, you can. By the time you get back, it will be perfectly docked at the space port--no questions asked.

- The game's scaling is so well done? You start with--I shoot you not--a titanium square BLOCK, then end up with a frigate and a small flotilla of destroyers after 40-50 hours? You literally feel your presence grow within the galaxy.

- The game just doesn't get old. Finish one smuggling mission, oh look, a distress call. Finish one expedition, oh I'll explore this asteroid field--and if I use my object finder I can spot a secret stash! OH, airwaves over the scanner; someone's coming!

- I don't know what to say, man. This game just seems bottomless and yet isn't in any way overwhelming. If you just patiently take your time exploring the buttons and mechanics, it all clicks together like a well oiled machine.

- There's a search function for literally everything too. If you've lost something in your inventory, just do a quick in-game ''Google Search;'' boop, there it is. Same with the guns, the encyclopedia, the building system, everything can be narrowed down and made easy; it's simply a matter of getting used to the menu system.

I could go on and on; the quests are atmospheric and well-written, the music is chill ASF and doesn't get old, the ships look insane 24/7. I think if I was to ask for anything, it would be that when you blow up enemy ships you can occasionally gain a blueprint which allows you to rebuild their vessel. I feel like that would be dope.

I'm excited to get to the late game too. I haven't even begun making ships which're big enough to deploy their own fighters, mining vessels, etc. It's going to be nuts.

Last thing: when you get your first cannon and blow your first spaceship to ribbons, it feels insanely good. They really nailed the upwards trajectory of going from tiny machine guns on your starter ship to plugging things like a 1 million tonne battle-cruiser. I think that when I get done with this playthrough, I'm going to start again on the second to hardest difficulty and just really take my time grinding this game out.

Looked like a fun game. Cant launch in anything but windowed mode 1280x720 resolution... All other options crash on launch. Shame. 0/10 for game functionality at native 1080p resolution...

If devs fix this i'll update review...

This game scratches the itch that some of us have and i love that about it.
Its so simple and yet so complex in its mechanics :)
If you love space and sanbox games than i recommend this one.

Very extensive custom ship building.
Combat is fun with a lot of weapon types/defenses/modules.
The pacing of exploration and action is well-balanced.
There are some odd design choices here and there but it's a minor issue.

I've barely played it, but it's good fun so far. (Will edit to be more descriptive once I've played more)

This is a good game. Me and my buddy restarted our server and wanted to use cheat engine to get back to the same point in the game we left at. Anyways, be careful about that one - turns out you'll get a vac ban. Ask me how I still
know years later. Still a positive review though.

This game is my favourite space-sim. It's a bit similar to the X-series in that you can have a fleet of ships with different functions. You can pilot the ships yourself, or give commands while they are piloted by AI. The more unique aspects come from the ship-building, which is more akin to something like space engineers, albeit much less complex. There are a lot of functions that seem like clever QOL-solutions to problems that arise when building ships.

If you prefer to not interact with the building because it might be tedious or take too long, the game lets you copy designs from your previous ships, community designs or randomly generated ships that you can purchase from the NPC-factions. You can scale these to your liking and edit them as you want, so you have control over what materials are used and what size your ship is.

The next aspect are weapons and mods of different rarities, that are randomly generated. Mods change your ships characteristics beyond what is already affected by the systems you put on the ship and materials you use. There seems to be a large variety of each and they seem to be designed to let you modify your ship for a specific playstyle.

The game is great at letting you do what you want. You can be a daring mercenary and hunt pirates in your decked out ship while your AI miners and scavengers hunt for ressources. You can build an empire of different space stations with production lines that feed into each other (although this aspect is on the lighter side feature wise). You can command a fleet of ships and fighters from your dreadnauht or carrier as you watch the battle and occasionally give commands. Most of the time it will likely be a combination of these (or all at once).

While the development on the game has slowed down a lot, the existing game is great and entertaining for a long time. Some of the DLC are a bit underwhelming and add features that might just not be my cup of tea and some of the updates have added and removed elements that might have been a sidegrade or arguably a downgrade sometimes. In the late game you can struggle to find meaningful tasks to do and might spend too much time waiting for ressources with nothing else to do. A couple of features are designed to be used with friends playing on a server, but the game is perfectly complete without that.

In total this is a well coded and competently built space game that gives the player plenty of freedom to do their thing. It is one of the best at what it does (a more hands-off approach unlike a game like Elite:Dangerous) and I have struggled to get as much enjoyment out of any other space-game outside of maybe X4 (although the games are different enough to exist alongside each other).

over 1.000 hours and still playing it.
great game that's lots of fun

Has great playability in an enormous field of play (galaxy!). Love customizing and designing my own ships.

Super fun game where you can go anywhere and do anything in space, I love it. And one of my favorite aspects is that if you run into any bugs, saving and reloading the game fixes them. The only thing I find frustrating is that some enemy ships have weird superweapons on them that just ruin my shields and armor, but it's rare so not a game-breaker.

5 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)

Incredible Space Sandbox!

Avorion is hands down one of the most underrated space games out there. If you’ve ever dreamed of building your own massive ships block by block and commanding a fleet across a procedurally generated galaxy, this game delivers in every way. The ship building is insanely satisfying, allowing for complete creativity while balancing functionality. From sleek fighters to gargantuan battleships, you can design whatever your heart desires.

The gameplay loop is super addictive — mining, trading, exploring, and epic space battles with factions and pirates. You can go full peaceful trader or become a warlord and conquer sectors. The progression feels rewarding, especially as you advance through different material tiers and unlock new technology.

The modding community keeps things fresh with tons of quality content and QoL improvements. Plus, the devs have been consistently updating the game, adding new features and keeping it polished.

If you're a fan of games like X3, Empyrion, Space Engineers, or No Man’s Sky, but want something with more freedom and real-time battles, Avorion is absolutely worth picking up. Hundreds of hours of gameplay, and I’m still coming back for more.

Highly recommended! 🚀🪐

Easily the coolest space-sim shipbuilder I've ever played. The designs are simple yet can be amazing to look at, the control and construction of ships, and inclusion of the mod workshop makes this game a true winner. The only complaint I have is amount of ships; I want dozens! Let me build a massive navy! If my CPU melts, so be it!

It's legos, except the legos do stuff, and it's in a co-op space sim.

Sad I can't select not recommend without posting a review. I don't have anything good to say about this game. The final nail was the flashing warning sign that you cannot disable. I know that there is something wrong, shut up!

Loving the game. The modded ships are amazing. Dont be put off by the block looking ships, once you download the player made ships its amazing. Reminds me of X4 with some MMO loot inspiration .

Such a good game, one of my favourites - has everything you want

Large scale ship battles (with fully custom built ships!)
Decent economy management
Giant carrier gameplay
And more!

Super fun Solo/Co-op, the game dose not really hold your hand or force you to do anything. You can just play how you want to! The Mid game is where most of the fun gamplay options for Me really open up i.e Trade, Combat, piracy, smuggling etc.

>>>Verdict: You Will accidentally spend 7 hours optimizing a mining Fleet till 2 am... 10/10!

Hands down one of my personal top space games and vehicle builders, firstly the building, it allows for a lot of really fine details but not requiring too much thought, you can either throw together a decent ship in a couple minutes, or spend hours making a replica from your favorite sci fi series (or download ones others made on the workshop). and in terms of space game, its simple but very engaging, generally youre always finding stuff not too much wandering through completely empty space, and its got a good chunk of interesting lore to discover. though one of the best things Avorion does that I havent seen any vehicle builder or space game do untill now is have a super large scale, the smallest ship you might make is the size of a couple trucks while the largest youll probably make is the size of manhattan, single big ship not enough? you can make massive fleets and conquer the galaxy, have space stations and have your own economy. and of course theres automation with all that economy stuff, even early game mining can be automated. overall Avorion was definitely worth it and has earned its spot as one of my favorite games.

being able to build and explore makes this game so much fun. Kinda like mine craft in space. You are limited only by your own imagination.

Avorion in single-player review. The mix of exploration, shipbuilding, and combat makes for an incredibly addictive experience. Designing my own ships from the ground up and watching them evolve as I progress through the galaxy is super satisfying. Combat feels great, and the ability to command fleets adds a lot of depth.

That said, a few quality-of-life improvements would go a long way—being able to multi-select turrets and assign groups more easily would make fleet and ship management smoother. But overall, the game nails the sense of scale and freedom in space. If you love building, exploring, and space battles, Avorion is definitely worth your time!

Niche, but really good. If you think you'd like it buy it. It would take a very long post to go over what this game is and everything it does well so I'll sum it up as simply as I can. Most space games do one thing well that a sandbox space game needs. Some are great at combat, some at ship building and customization, some at economic sim, some at immersion, and some at diplomacy and large fleets. I've tried a lot of space games, from Starsector to Stellaris, and this is the first game that has it all. It's pretty slow paced but if that's what you're looking for this is an absolute gem.

I write this review just as I’m about to go past the 1000 hour mark. Avorion is an absolutely fantastic title in a niche that isn’t given the attention is deserves. I can’t help but binge it a couple times a year, adding perhaps another 100 hours each time. The progression in this game is addicting, the mod community is fantastic, it’s a mile wide and yet it’s not simply an inch deep. Each mechanic in this game is fleshed out, each action you take can make or break your run if not done carefully. The fact that I got 1000 hours of entertainment out of this title for a few bucks really speaks more about it than I ever could.

Pros:

Extremely in-depth customization.

Co-op works like a charm!

Can create your faction, stations, supply chains, fleets, the stations can be as custom ships. Everything has complete customization.

Steam Workshop mod support, the creations there are bonkers, very active community.

Can choose passive or active income for the first half of the game, grinding feels very worth it, and lucrative during this time.

Passive income, while “overpowered” is not that easy to achieve. The game has a complete, simulated economy.

A very nice experience on a technical level, controls are good and very customizable, the game gets good performance even on low end machines.

Cons:

A bit of a learning curve for understanding how everything works, offset by a quality tutorial system. Some of the mechanics, those involving the economy in particular, are fairly obtuse. There’s fantastic guides online, however.

Passive income is the fastest way to progress in this game. Grinding actively for an hour or two pales in comparison to what you’ll achieve by simply leaving the game on with active stations and mining fleets and going to sleep.
The endgame demands that you invest heavily into passive income.

DPS is everything, taking out a boss or a station can take ages without a fleet.

The whole game becomes rather easy once you obtain Naonite, which gives you shields. DPS and shield strength basically rule the game from the mid-game onwards.

Boy I sure do like playing a single player server that says it can be played offline just to have it not only lag horribly but also randomly kick me while I'm in the middle of a rift mission. Boy it sure is fun that it's a well known problem that the devs don't/can't/won't fix. Boy I sure do love being blantantly lied to that the moment my internet drops the game is unplayable.

Edit: just reloaded my save and just realized the game pretty much killed all my fighters cause my internet dropped.

Nearly 100k+ Xanion, gone.

...MAN this game really is making me regret spending money on it.

ship building feels very clunky with a forced block of an odd size . all resizing makes weird contact points that leave weird gaps or funky overlaping.

unable to make purchases in the shop due to lack of credits. proceds to quire 800 credits..... unable to purchase due to lack of credits.

tutorial is lacking in descriptions on where to get a captain for your ship. when a your forced to read the forum to find out how to do a basic funtion its lacking.

game feels wayy to empty on information when the first area wont let me trade with the ore station right off the hop with no explanation why.

It took me about 4 hours to get into. Plenty good gameplay loops.

Pretty fun game to build ships, play with friends and build a faction to even trying out some of the talented community creations.

Amazing sandbox with story and depth of play.