Starcom: Nexus

Simple, but entertaining. Not many options for game play, but still engaging.

Its a great little space game. Explore, fight and trade through a rather large galaxy map following the main story line. This game doesn't require major brain power to play, has quite a bit of depth story wise (at least more than you would expect for an indy), the build a bear style of creating your own ships is great and it has some good humour in places. Really enjoyable game to unwind too.

nice game! neat music and good gameplay.

A neat idea that was poorly executed. Really needs more polish and bug fixes

i like the gameplay and the puzzles. A bit of shoot em up is good too.

I've only been playing this game for a few hours so far, but already i can say without a shadow of a doubt that It's great. The controls are easy to grasp, you can modify your own ship, turning it from a puny little shuttle into a MONSTROUSLY overpowered dreadnought class battleship, and you don't just sell one ship and buy a bigger one, Oh no no no, You add extra pieces to your shuttle, turning it into the Ultimate space vessel. I think its AWESOME!!!

Okay first things first - ONLY BUY WHEN ON SALE TO NOT SUPPORT THIS DEV!

Why does it trigger me? Cause it´s a GREAT idea destroyed by bad debugging and game breaking crashes. Good story and build but riddles you can´t solve, artifacts and comets and quest which don´t spawn cause of bugs. So you end finishing the game to not complete it cause of bugs.

Even more achievements won´t drop. In the end a broken game...

Dear Dev,
DEBUG IT, so we can like it!

Quite a cool game from a small studio! The music is well done, and becomes appropriately slow or heavy depending on deep space exploration or gratuitous space battles. The ship-building is both accessible and moderately deep, with a good learning curve. Difficulty is not a barrier to play, and at the end of the game, you can certainly live out a fantasy of commanding a true battlestar. The story is actually really cool, and well-plotted. My only gripe is about the pathing for some quests, and a few bugs I encountered in the final battles. Would definitely recommend this game, and that any user keep a couple save files running, along with a bookmark on the Steam community for hints and guidance where needed. Per ardua ad astra!

Had my eye on this game for a while, finally glad I got it and got to play it. This game was able to help scratch that particular itch I've been having regarding space games lately.

Pros - Good ship builder, fun gameplay loop, good visuals, pretty decent story.

Cons - Quest log got incredibly full and had slowdown, there are some small bugs that needed ironed out/typos in dialogue that got missed, we got next to nothing on the Chitik (first enemies) after their initial introduction, and the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

All in all, I'd definitely recommend. Going to have to give the sequel a try.

reminded me of solar winds, i absolutely loved it

I enjoyed exploring and piecing things together. Standard difficulty is pretty forgiving but you can also turn it up quite a bit if you're seeking a challenge.

This game does a fantastic job of slowly growing with options and map locations as you progress, providing a feel of achievement and discovery. The story is interesting with intrigue and aliens while the gameplay is simple, but satisfying. I tried with the gamepad, but most of the controls weren't working (possibly a fix with re-mapping?) so I stuck to keyboard.

Unfortunately the late-game has issues with bugs where it's hard to know if you missed something or the quest simply didn't toggle. Most of the bugs can be fixed by simply closing the game and re-opening while others require you to perform the same task over and over until the next part triggers so you can finish the game. This left a bad taste in my mouth, but still didn't outweigh the merits of the game overall - hopefully the creator does a better job on eliminating bugs and clarifying direction of quests (at one point I spent over 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do just to find I had a new research available that would continue the story).

Buy....but on sale only IMO.

I have not stopped playing since I started! Beat the game after about 30 hours.

Loads of exploring to do while scanning different types of planets. Get ready to sit back and relax as you fly around the map. It definitely can be worthwhile to explore the regions that you haven't before just to see what is out there. You never know when something interesting will happen. Many different alien types to encounter with their own stories.

Building and creating your own ship with each individual part is so much fun! Loads of different pieces and having multiple ones can have better effects (like more shield modules will make your shields stronger). Armor also gives more armor around to other pieces adjacent to it so you don't have to just have armor on the outside edges of your ship. Plasma turrets, laser weapons, missles, drones and more to help you blast away the baddies!

TLDR: Enthusiastic thumbs up and a high five!

8/10

This game captures those 90s space exploration games like starflight, star control, The Ur-Quan Masters, etc. these are very unique space exploration games that act more like exploration based rpgs than typical space games you find today.
The game starts off really great., I played it on hardest and found the progression to be very good although I didn't like how limited the ship parts were. like it's "mostly" pointless to have anything other than missiles for example. The perk tree is a lot of fun though despite it being simple dmg, range etc bonuses but it's always fun because it intertwines so well with the exploration. Towards the end after you've explored almost everything and you're just trying to solve the last quests the game goes downhill a fair amount. even the last boss and the ending are pretty bad compared to how good the exploration and progression feels. Thankfully the last section of the game doesn't go on for too long and it can be fun going back to wrap up some loose ends but I mostly just looked up stuff online as I don't enjoy this aspect of old games that much despite being a massive retro gamer.

Cute game to fill my Galaxy on Fire crave. There are many games that fit my criteria, this one included. It does the feel right. You can also see its amateurish yet thoughtful designs by its clear-cut UI and surprisingly modern settings options, and a "I can't say if it'd be a good idea, but it's there and it works" mission system. (but sometimes you never figure it out until you wiki, thankfully the main stories don't really have this problem)

Speaking of Sci-fi, this game has good little stuffs in it. I think you will like it, it's in them writings. That's what I have to say.

I already bought the second game, looking forward to it. This game has its flaws and things, so take it easy, buy it on discount, chill and play.

(or buy on full price if you are not strapped for cash like me)

The only thing of value i can say about this game is that it is WAY BETTER than it looks initially, simple but very enjoyable and well made! Get it at sale if you can other than that it is worth your time for sure

played similar "explore the galaxy and fight bad guys/factions and make enemies or friends" type of games
14 hours in and i feel like I am only 1/4 the way into the game...

so far pretty good and only got game for 4$ so deff worth if u can snag super on sale like i did.
This is likely going to make me want to by sequal too if it goes on super sale as well.

Great 2d space exploration game. Lacks a robust trading aspect to ascend it past a story and a combat RPG, but it's a fun experience regardless. I enjoyed it to a point, but some of the mysteries shift the game almost to a puzzle game experience. I don't quite have the patience to play whack-a-mole past this point, but I had fun, especially at the pricepoint.

Currently a few hours into the newer starcom game? and the QoL improvements are excellent. Definitely play this one first if you are considering any of this series.

What a wonderful little game, Which I got much more off than many "bigger" games.
This reminds me of Star Flight 2 which is one of my favorite space games ever.
Simple to get,fun combat and research.. Space is fun to explore and discover.
There is a tid bit problem with missions and following on what you have to do.. you need to write a lot down or youll forget where to go and where to return.. other than that it was a fun voyage.

Pains me to downvote an otherwise great game, but it's absolutely disrespectful to the players time. The main loop involves exploring solar sectors to amass resources, build/upgrade your ship (and there's quite a lot of them) and progress through quests. It's mostly fine up until you need to explore deeper parts of the map. There are quite a lot of fixed teleport locations and fast travel spots, but you're still going to spend most of the time just waiting for your ship to get to it's destination. I'm a patient sort so I saw it through the end but I'm 100% positive I'm not the average player. The story positively surprised me and the lore/trivia you find in some planets is actually quite well written. Still, for all it does right, the amount of time spent just walking around hoping to find your objectives (specially in the later parts of the game) can be very disengaging. It's not a bad game, but I honestly wouldn't reccomend it to most people unless it was more dynamic.

Only four hours in at the time of writing, but this is an engrossing and distinctive space game that's already sucked me in. I get the impression I'm nowhere into it yet... Watch this... er, space.

Really fun little space exploration game with some good pew pew. Good story with really interesting and imaginative content, and very addictive game-play loop. Excited to play the next one now.

It's neat, but I can't recommend it. That said the price is pretty low when it's on sale so there isn't any harm. It has some neat sci-fi ideas and concepts but getting to them isn't really all that enjoyable, and can be quite irritating.

fun little game, ideal for Star Trek fans(dont expect too much of the combat, this is more story focus), be warned there are some bugs that were never fixed that might block you from getting one archievement
("our Nyctian friends", gets blocked after you meet the "phage" finished both missions, still blocked)

also write EVERYTHING on the notes in the map it might help you later

Wow! Apart from the entertaining gameplay - the story! Your ship gets sucked through a space rift into an unknown galaxy. Little by little the game feeds you with mysterious hints about this strange place, culminating into a grandiose plot twist...

So yes, for me the game was about solving a mystery and gladly I read all the exploration logs, enjoyed them while hunting for clues.

To the devs - thank you!

[■■■■□] [Gameplay] 🕹️

The game is a space-themed 2D exploration shooting game. In the main story, you leave your main base to discover new places and progress the storyline. Besides the main story, there are also side quests. You can upgrade and modify your ship, weapons, and shields as you like. Additionally, there are different alien races in the game, and you can trade with them too.

[■■■□□] [Graphics] 🖼️

The game is 2D, so you shouldn't expect high-end graphics. However, I think planets, stars, and nebulae are nicely depicted considering the game's release year. You can zoom in during the game, allowing you to see your small ship in detail.

[■□□□□] [Audio]👂

Unfortunately, there are no dialogue voices in the game, which I think is a significant drawback. The sound effects in space, such as entering and exiting wormholes, are average. However, you can expect a mostly quiet atmosphere.

[■■■□□] [Storytelling] ✒️

The game has an existing storyline, which is your main mission. In a sense, you and your space base are in survival mode. You are in an unknown place, and you need to find a way out. As you travel to different star systems, you advance the storyline further. Additionally, you learn some information about the new places you arrive at.

[■■■■□] [Difficulty] 💪

The game's difficulty is at an adequate level. Research on your ship makes the game easier. Some areas and alien races might be challenging initially. The only major issue is that the game's missions don't properly explain what you're supposed to do, and your quests often remain unfinished. I think the game has been disappointing in mission explanations.

Absolutely beautiful game, I'll be playing the sequel as well for sure!

It's a simpler version of Starsector, however it has open world combat instead of battle sessions, you control only your own ship and you have no fleet.

The research is very streamlined and well thought out and the ship building is very easy and allows you to be creative with visual designs while not limiting your build (other than physics).

Every build works, there is no meta. You play however you like and at whichever pace you prefer. Extremely good game design for such a simple game. Once I picked it up, i just had to finish it!.

Kudos to the dev team. Looking forward to more games!

Still recommending this game because I know some people don't think as deeply about shit like this and it was, for the most part, a fun and worthwhile experience. Maybe not 20 dollars, I got it for 4 dollars - but I would've gotten it for 10 even if I knew what was in store.

The first part of this review is essentially spoiler free, and I mark where the actual spoilers come in. The spoiler free section goes over some of the basic aspects of why I think the world building in this game is incredibly flawed - if you want my consensus from beyond that point without spoilers it is that - all of the issues listed with the story, scale, technology, etc - get progressively worse.

If you don't care about inconsistencies like that, but want a space exploration game with some fun combat and interesting ideas, then you'll enjoy the game.

Addendum; I don't give a shit if you are or are not analytical about these kinds of things - you can like whatever you like, for whatever reason. Your preferences are your own. I am only publishing this review because the content matters *to me* and it might to some other people as well.
________________________

So I just beat this game a few hours ago - I didn't complete every single anomaly/quest I found but I feel as if I covered roughly 90-95% of the content, got some of the rarest achievements on steam, etc - and was able to piece the story together myself.

I haven't played the sequel, and I do enjoy this game - but from a narrative to game play standpoint, there's a lot of contradictions and inconsistencies that drive me insane.

I'll start with the most simple one, research progression. In some cases, you go about and make deals with aliens or find advanced technology that you can research to improve your own tech.

Okay, that's cool.

However the entire narrative starts to fall apart when you have to collect pieces of alien technology to "figure out" how to build a missile launcher. I'm sorry, what?
Did the brightest mind at Starcom, stationed on Kite, along with their heaps of engineers and pilots suddenly forget how propulsion works? How are you building engines for your star ship? For your landing craft? We understand how to make Plasma weaponry, but not how to make lasers..? The Lander itself has a laser that can be used on survey missions all the time though.

You just, conveniently forget how to make technology humanity has had for 500-600 years.

The size of objects are, horribly inconsistent. I believe we're meant to see it as you are flying relatively far and above the planets, that is why the perspective is that your ship can be a large fraction of, to several times larger than the planet below you. That would be fine, you do fly "over" them.

But you don't fly over stars :) You fly through stars. So the stars are on the same plane as you and can be several times smaller than the planets orbiting them or even your own ship.

And then you see the Derelicts. Which are, literally, utterly insane in scale. 1 AU = 150,000,000 kilometers or 93,000,000 million miles. Some of them are at least 100~ au in length, and they are set off in the distance.




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So, the planets can be relatively big, especially compared to the stars, but the Derelicts compared to the stars and planets are fucking unfathomably massive. So it is clear the Developer (justkevin) did not have an issue with making some things large in scale, so planets, stars - whatever, could have been more aptly scaled.

And then there is Eso.

The dyson sphere takes up an entire sector. It is several thousands of AU in size. To try and give any degree of perspective - pluto is roughly 30-40 AU from the sun. The sun itself is not even a 1/10th of an AU. (it is only 1.4 million miles.)

I just - why? Was this a specific artistic choice to make the size of all these objects hilariously inaccurate? I'm to believe 15 people are piloting a ship bigger than a star? Who also don't know how to build rockets? What the fuck, man.

I could actually forgive a lot of this, the gamification of things (like collecting technology to make a missile launcher), wonky scales, if the game did not try to approach actual science/speculative fiction in a lot of it's world building and then actively contradicting itself. Make it a shooty pewpew alien twin stick shooter kinda game with some fun stories or commit to the hard science fiction, or at least don't put in stuff that doesn't make any sense at all.

For instance, in one system - a species on a planet orbiting a pulsar describes gamma ray bursts as life giving. (This is incredibly inaccurate.) If you get hit by one of the ray jets while piloting your craft, it deals massive damage. (That makes more sense.)

In another star system, a gamma ray burst obliterates all life on the planets. (This is the most accurate depiction of what might happen.)

It ruins the immersion for me, in your setting are GRB's capable of giving or taking life? It's worse when you consider that the system hit with the GRB is described as being a "long gamma ray burst" - so a burst lasting longer than 2 seconds - likely from an entirely different point in the galaxy, meaning the GRB would have dissipated somewhat in potency. The planet, orbiting the pulsar - could be being hit with gamma rays every few milliseconds, so essentially constantly :)

Gas giant that is capable of being used like a cloud chamber? Damn that's super fucking cool. We boutta learn a shit load about particle physics. (My actual, excited response to finding actual science terminology being applied in the setting, before becoming progressively more disappointed)

- Oh btw, we found this entire skeleton made from adamantine. Yeah the xenobiologist thinks it might be legit, but we think it might just be a art project or something. Take it aboard the ship to study/set up an exhibition? Never find out if it's actually a naturally formed skeleton or if it was manufactured. Lose all the adamantine you coulda gotten if when studied it turned out to be fake. I get there was supposed to be a decision to be made here, but maybe the decision should've been to either melt it down, or set up an archeology exhibit or research site on the planet instead..?

- Yo so, there is currently a sincere existential threat going on buddy. Like uhh, immortal metahumans from inside this fucking giant dome, controlled by a genocidal AI whose goal is to exterminate literally all life in the universe and or keep any other life from ever evolving, and replace it with humanity before going back in time to do it again. We've literally uploaded every single log our ship has made since we came here to a lightwave frequency(?), including any weapons, science, technology, etc - that we discovered in the hope that someone knows something about stopping them, or could at least help hold them back while we work on figuring out what to do.
Oh, uhhhh,.,.,,.,, ,, you'd-- uhm. You'd rather continue to shoot at us, while getting shot at by them, because we didn't give you enough free technology, even though we've just shared with literally the entire galaxy (possibly entire universe since this shit apparently distorts the CMB or someshit) everything that we fucking know??? Okay cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool that is rational and makes sense.

Game is fun, if you turn up the difficulty combat can be rewarding. Some of the concepts are neat, even provoking an emotional response - like the crashed ship with 3 guys, two of which died with a ton of wealth and valuables, with the third one only having a couple of empty bottles. The remainder of humanity after the NGL sentinels continued to kill every human they came across being forced to evolve into the other species to survive is a very cool concept.

But uhhh, the rest of the shit was driving me insane.

Imaginative, but very poorly polished. There's way too much time spent watching your ship slowwwwwwwly travel between start systems, as in that's often more than half your gameplay time at certain spots in the game. Friendly factions will randomly turn hostile, trade is a joke, and the mission log is almost useless. Good ideas, but not executed well at all.

fun

Enjoyed my time with this game but I think I’m just about done even though I technically did not finish this game. So Starcom was a game that popped up in my suggestions on Steam, as they just released the second game in the series and it looked interesting to me so I thought I’d play this first game and try it out. But what did I think of it?

So the gameplay for this game is basically the sections in Mass Effect on the galaxy map where you would fly around with the Normandy ship and probe planets for resources. They basically took that and made their own game with Starcom. You play a captain of a vessel who are part of Starcom, which are basically like Starfleet from Star Trek, in that their peaceful explorers that get sucked into a portal along with a space station into an unknown galaxy. And thus it gives you a reason to explore, find new planets and meet new alien races.

Exploring can be fun as you jump to new solar systems and scan all the plants for resources. As you progress you will unlock blueprints for bigger ships and you can build some additional modules on top of what’s there, but there’s usually only a couple of extra slots available even after you max out the amount of modules you can have on ships. Speaking of that, the upgrade system is pretty expansive, with you being able to upgrade your ships weapons, warp speed capabilities as well things like ship handling, which is pretty important since controlling the ships can feel a little stiff at first but I got used to it after a bit of time. When you scan planets you can send an away team down to the planet's surface to mine resources or find some cooler stuff I won’t spoil. But that did feel like an improvement over Mass Effect where you had to shoot down multiple probes to get the resources from one planet.

And as a small QOL feature I liked and used frequently was being able to make notes on your star map, wherever you want. I used this a lot if I found a planet that I couldn’t explore yet because I needed a research upgrade or if I came into a star system that was occupied by an enemy fleet and needed to leave and come back later. What I also did to enhance the experience was turn off the game's audio and just listen to things like the Interstellar movie soundtrack which really helped with my immersion.

Combat is fun as you can get into some pretty intense dog fights with enemy ships and there will be times where you're against big odds as it's your single ship vs an entire enemy fleet. My big complaint here though is often when I would go into a system with the intent of taking on the enemy fleet so that I could clear them out and then explore the planets they were patrolling, this often was impractical since as I destroyed ships more would just endlessly spawn in meaning that their was no point to ever really doing this. A fix here would be when you take out an enemy fleet they only start respawning after you leave via a nexus gate or something. So at least you would have time to scan the planets I mentioned. Again, I did not finish this game, so I don’t know if this is all dramatically different once you unlock blueprints for the big ships like the dreadnought. But I’m not really going to spend hours trying to grind for those.

Story wise, it’s alright but not great enough for me to really see the game through to the end. There is no voice acting, so you need to read text when in dialogue, which I didn’t really mind. You meet the different alien races which are interesting enough as some will be hostile straight away and others will be neutral until you prove them otherwise. My main issue was the story is pretty vague about where you need to go next as you're just searching for a way back home and while you do get quests, a lot of them aren’t much to write home about. I do wish the game had a more structured story campaign as that could have kept me more engaged but at this point, I don’t really have the desire to play anymore and I’d rather go play other games.

With everything said, if what I described sounds like a game you’d like then you will probably enjoy it. But for me, I’m just about done with it.

I stumbled upon this one by pure chance. And, hey, this is a fun little game! Way to go, devs ...

Rating: ★★★★ - Great
Time Played: 23.6 hours
Difficulty: Normal: 1.0

Gameplay:
• Top-Down Open-World Space Exploration with real-time combat and RPG elements.
• Start with a basic ship that can be upgraded with new weapons, hull improvements, and engines in a decent progression curve.
• Smooth and intuitive movement, with satisfying acceleration and inertia.
• Combat is simple but engaging.
• Resource collection is straightforward; scavenge materials, complete quests, and trade for upgrades.
• Freeform missions that require note-taking and intuitive thinking but unfortunately can waste alot of time searching for hours to progress.
• Occasional grind for materials and time-wasting for long distance travel, but never felt too tedious.
• Controller was difficult to rebind properly; Stuck with Keyboard and Mouse.

Story\Dialogue:
• Strong 'Star Trek: Voyager' feel with an emphasis on exploration, first contacts, and cosmic mysteries.
• Interesting alien factions, each with their own lore, motivations, and diplomacy options.
• Dialogue is well-written but not overly complex; straight to the point without excessive fluff.
• The main story is intriguing, with plenty of side discoveries that add depth.

Graphics\Music:
• Clean and vibrant top-down visuals; ships and environments are well-designed.
• Space feels vast but not empty; plenty of points of interest without being overwhelming.
• UI is simple and easy to navigate, though quest UI could be more intuitive.
• Music is atmospheric and fitting, enhancing the sense of wonder and mystery.

Before you Play:
• At the start of the game, each time you spot a Nexus Gate, go back to Kit Station for upgrades.
• Every difficulty spike or issue with the game can be resolved by experimenting in the Shipyard or Research Upgrade.
• Upgrade your engines and Generator early; faster travel makes exploration much more enjoyable.
• Keep an eye on your ship’s power consumption when upgrading and balance weapons and defenses wisely.
• Investigate every anomaly; you’ll often find valuable resources or unlock key story elements.
• Some alien factions react differently depending on your actions; be mindful of diplomacy.
• Don't rush the main story; exploring every nook and cranny is mandatory to finish the game.
• Make notes on the Map every time you find an anomaly you can't complete or a location that you mean to go to in the future.
• For long distance travel, be sure to have something as second screen content.
• Don't be afraid to look at walkthroughs if you get stuck on a quest.

This is a great open world space explorer. the missions can be a little vague at times but that adds to the mystery around your situation. The playstyle is highly flexible. This is a nice little gem for those who want to just explore an unknown universe and have some fun blasting the enemy into oblivion

lots of fun

This was a really fun game. The storyline was great, exploration was great, space combat was great and unlike a lot of other RPGs, if you play the whole game through and explore all systems that you can you should be able to figure most everything out on your own without Googling where to find or how to do things. Shout out to the developers, very renimiscent of Starcon2 and considering that game is from 1993, its great to see something else made along those lines.

Came to Nexus because I liked Unknown Space and wanted moar. If you are here because you finished Unknown Space and would like a fresh story in the same... multiverse, this is it! If you are wondering if it's not as good because it's older, I would say the core gameplay loop is definitely there. The shipbuilder is still fun if a bit simpler, and the story is every bit as good. Unknown Space has some QoL features that never made it to the not-exactly-prequel, and if you haven't played either, Unknown Space is probably the better place to start at this point unless maybe cost is a consideration (not that either game is expensive). But if you liked Unknown Space and want a similar experience, absolutely pick this up. Both games are well worth the modest asking price, and like a lot of indie games, come with a higher level of polish and completeness than a lot of AAA titles that cost 3x as much or more.

Tu te promènes dans l'espace pis là tu vois du monde ou bin tu ramasses des affaires pis ça te rend plus fort. Mais y'a pô de bitcoin dans ce jeu lô facque pour vrai chu comme satisfait pareil que le jeu est faite de même...
Yo!

Well made exploration game. The technology system is well thought out, killing enemies is fun and the riddle system requires you to use your head but is fair.

Great value for your money. Always take notes.

I'm having a lot of fun with this one. I was doing some research on similar games since I plan on developing one when I'm caught up on some of my other projects. A lot of Star Trek feels here. Away missions, combat, trade, this game has a lot! It's also very simple in its approach. So many of these games, you have to spend a half hour or more just learning the mechanics and how to play. This is not one of those. =D

its a nice game, is just sad that colony management and resource gathering is just so boring, i know they are trying to be something simple but they could have done something more in those mechanics

what most space games get wrong is that they fail to setup narrative hooks to create curiosity for the player to explore, this one succeeds although it crealy lacks from a lack of dynamic narrative systems that enrich side quests


cons
- UI visual bugs
- some sidequests dont get marked on the UI
- sometimes the game might bug and give you locations that spoil the end of sidequests of puzzles or lack features to empower the player to discover by themselves without pen and paper

Hey, it's Starflight 3 / Star Control 4, but calling itself Starcom: Nexus. Whatever man, it's good to see you.

Closest I have come to being Star Fleet in a true exploration sense. Just like playing an entire game based on Voyager, but not a mid tier shooter.

For adepts of the genre: It's a fun old style (2d) space exploration game with a bunch of cool quests and puzzles to solve, so you'll have to use your noggin a bit. It's a bit "short" because I finished it in a few sessions but since I had still to do some side quests before I ended it I will surely revisit it from scratch because I did not get all my steam "achievements" yet. So I suppose the game still has some secrets aside of the main mission. If you like this type of games it's surely is worth it's low cost. (The sequel is a bit more costly and I'll wait a while before I buy ;) )

Great Game.
Nice balance of exploration, fighting, science, problem solving, resource gathering, building custom ships.
Fun for kids and adults.
Definately worth the sale price!

Surprisingly fun, can somehow be both relaxing and tense at the same time. I'm used to normal 3D space combat games like Elite, Everspace, Space Reign, RGO, Freespace, etc., but I'm really digging the top-down perspective. It reminds me of an old PC space game I played a long, long time ago in the early 90s called Solar Winds. It also reminds me a bit of Delta-V Rings of Saturn, but nowhere near as balls-hard as that game.

Anyway, the keybinds are incredibly easy to remember and use---there aren't a million of them to learn. But the game still has quite a bit of depth and strategy. You really can play around with how you want to design your ships. If you want an idea of what you can do, just check out their subreddit. I can easily see this being a game that I play after my other gaming sessions, when I'm winding down for the night.

The story's mystery is engaging and the sci-fi writing is top-notch. I highly encourage anyone who likes sci-fi and spaceships to get this game. It's worth the twenty bucks, but I got it on sale for $10 and it was a good purchase.

Not for everyone, necessarily, but you build a spaceship and can explore the galaxy, it's fun.

Nice imagination candy,.

Decent space exploration game with quite a bit of content and interesting sci-fi stuff to read. (You will be reading content most of the time. It is intriguing and has many ideas that make you think a bit. such as

the planet where you discover a "virus" in the form of a radio broadcast, the contents being guidance on how to create lots of advanced tech that helps an industrial nation soar ahead in their tech level, a guide for a general fabricator that renders all traditional production useless (thus allowing everyone to just enjoy life and not need to work in any sort of production chain)... and a guide on how to create a specific advanced AI using that technology.

Once the AI determines that the host race is entirely dependent on the general fabricator, it turns all fabrication towards covering the entire planet with solar panels and radio transmitters, consuming all resources and hence killing the planet's inhabitants in the process. Then it broadcasts the signal outward into space again.

23 hours for me to finish with the main content+lots of but not all the side content. Recommended for those who are looking for a scifi space action game with role-playing elements, which does have choices and consequences.

Some pain points for consideration:
1. Travel time between systems can get really long and annoying, especially at the start.
2. This is actually very much a puzzle game as well, as some of the side and main content requires you to be first discover something and be unable to do much with it, until later where you find something else which acts as a "key" to the previously locked interaction. Some content also requires you to fly around with only a vague idea of where something is, which can take quite a while.

Wow, I was not expecting to have as much fun with this game as I did. This game reminded me of classic Star Control for the Genesis with the action and RPG elements added to one seamless experience. I highly recommend this game if you love sci-fi games.