this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
94 points (100.0% liked)

Gaming

5 readers
1 users here now

founded 2 years ago
 

I’m a massive sci fi fan and played the ever loving shit out of Star Citizen for a while there. Loved the 6 degrees of freedom and the capability to be a person or a starship.

I know Starfield is coming in September and I’m excited for what is has to offer but in the interim does anybody have a sci fi/star fighter game they can recommend? I kickstarted Everspace 2 so I can give that a go and I’m almost done with the current No Man’s Sky expedition

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Not first person, but Starsector is my go-to for my SciFi fix. Trading, pirating, smuggling organs and selling them on the black market, exploring star systems for suitable planets to establishing your own thriving colony...there is a ton of options and something for everyone.

https://youtu.be/acqpulP1hLo

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That looks super cool! Not OP but thanks for the recommendation!

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (10 children)

The biggest competitor to Star Citizen right now is Elite: Dangerous. I've played it a lot and it's pretty good. You can play solo or online, too. It can feel a bit slow and it doesn't hold your hand when it comes to learning how to play. There's combat, trading, and exploration. Also pretty active communities online.

If you want to go back in time a bit, there's also the X series from Egosoft that's spanned back many years. There are a few installments and more is being developed. These games are definitely more colorful in several ways than Elite: Dangerous. More of a focus on the Rule of Cool than trying to be real sims.

Haven't played Star Wars: Squadrons, so I don't know the state of the multiplayer side of things. It does offer a solo story mode, apparently. May be worth looking into.

Every now and again I'll think about games like Freelancer, Freelancer 2, X-Wing, and the Wing Commander franchise for straight sit-in-cockpit combat action. Those are very old- early Mid 1990's to early 2000's. If you feel like something retro and can run them, those are options. I wish we had more games styled after those early space sims.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (13 children)

I have to second the Elite Dangerous vote here. Especially if you find an online community to play with. It is part space flight sim, part trading and now part fps. It has its problems, but the expansive scope of it always amazes.

Groups like The Buur Pit are new player friendly and will help a new commander learn. Game can also be had fairly cheaply on its frequent spelials.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Elite Dangerous has been on the downswing for a while now. May not be the greatest time to dive in, when at least their biggest fans on YouTube are talking about chances the company will stop development.

load more comments (12 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I have this but the controls felt super weird when I tried it out of the box. Any rebindings you'd suggest?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This game is simultaneously the most jank yet most complex space game I've ever played. Love it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Seconding this. This game is deep and amazing. You can literally run a space empire in it with enough work and time.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's always No Man's Sky, I haven't played it for a year or so but I know they have added a ton of new stuff in the last few updates. Maybe not completely fulfilling, but could kill some time pleasantly

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I always give it a go but the loop winds up losing me within 10 hours of play or so. Love the art and idea behind it but struggle with the gameplay :/

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Gotta mention FTL: Faster Than Light. Not a 6dof game, but great fun commanding your crew and navigating some fun encounters.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I was just browsing Steam and found SpaceBourne 2, which I mentioned in another Freelancer-related thread. But it looks pretty solid/promising, based on the reviews. I wishlisted it, but can't personally vouch for it.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm currently loving a bunch of games in the factory building genre so can I offer you some Dyson Sphere Program in these trying times?

Imagine factorio but you're in a mecha suit building factories spanning multiple planets eventually multiple stars, to build exponentially more complex resources until you're able to shoot swarms of dyson reflectors and eventually build a rigid sphere in orbit.

Still in Alpha after several years, but exquisitely polished, runs fine on legacy machines, excellent responsive dev team, combat is being added soon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Tried DSP but it lost me within the 2 hours of a return window for Steam. Been loving Satisfactory for factory builders!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

If you're into colony sims, check out Space Haven.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I mean, Hotline Miami in space still counts?

Heat Signature

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Launch Everspace 2 (especially since you've kickstarted it), it's a great one of those and not as intimidating as something like Elite Dangerous. Although, if you want to go deep, that's the way to go..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I've been super curious to try Everspace 2 since it removed the rogue-like aspects of 1, which were tedious, but reviews have been hovering around 70%. Waiting for a good sale, personally.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Try Everspace. It's a roguelike space shooter. Controls feel very free and intuitive. There's also a sequel that's out now that's more of an open world space RPG (same shooting mechanics but not a roguelike). But you can try the first game for only 4 dollars and see if you like the combat.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/396750/EVERSPACE/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128920/EVERSPACE_2/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was kinda disappointed by Everspace. I like roguelikes, and like space games, so it ticks my check boxes. I was really hoping to like it, but it just felt repetitive and grindy to me. But YMMV.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For your space reading adventure I love Escape Belocity: Nova. It's very old but I've had so much fun with it if it's runnable on new machines.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Endless Sky is a free/open source game in the spirit of Escape Velocity, I recommend checking it out if you're a fan of the Escape Velocity series.

Also there's an Escape Velocity remake called Cosmic Frontier which has been in the works for many years which I recall hearing had the original developers blessing to use their assets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

now Endless Sky looks interesting. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Oh man I loved those games and I never hear anyone talk about them anymore! They were so fun. I found out about them because someone installed the shareware version of the original on one of the Apple computers at my elementary school. I remember when EV: Nova came out and the ships finally had engine glow it was a HUGE deal.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I'll second the recommendation for the X series from Egosoft and the latest X4 has had a number of expansions that make it worthwhile, it's made by a small team and is a bit fiddly at times but it's definitely worth a shot.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Rebel Galaxy is an exploration/open world-ish space game with weird controllers but a pretty fun gameplay. You get to fine-tune different classes of ships with a variety of weapons, shields, engines, etc. while completing missions to earn money and earn reputation with different factions.

It's basically Sid Meier's Pirates, but in space and with a modern look. I found it highly entertaining.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Is Rebel Galaxy Outlaws good or just the original?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you like sandbox building, Space Engineers. There are so many good mods to give the game some life and nothing is more satisfying than building your own ship from materials you mined.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I initially though Space Engineers sounded "meh" after having played things like NMS and E:D, but ... I really REALLY enjoyed it!

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (11 children)

I can't help but feel that all of us old timer "why won't they make another Tie Fighter?" guys did not show up when they did exactly that on Star Wars Squadrons.

But also, hey did you know they made another X-Wing/Tie Fighter game called Star Wars Squadrons? That happened.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Squadrons was kind of boring in my opinion. Lots to love in the gameplay itself and all the details, but by the end of the campaign I wanted to be done and haven't thought about it since. It would be a great buy for $10 though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Played the shit out of Squadrons. Multiplayer was fun, story was fun. For whatever reason it breaks my PC now when I launch it so it's on hold for me

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Probably not what you are looking for but I found myself enjoying the JumpLight Odyssey demo yesterday. Has a very 1970 Anime vide ala Star Blazors.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I tried the demo, pretty fun. Like a more involved and proper starship simulator, with FTL's chase mechanic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This looks interesting!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If you're into classic 6DoF games, then the Descent series (including Freespace) and Forsaken are go-to plays for me. We're talking late 90's/early 00's, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What about Freespace 2? I see it on sale on GOG right now for 20% off

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Sublevel Zero is a rougelite of the Descent concept, it's quite nice imo

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

have you played the star ocean games?

the focus isn't on the ship, but it's very much a space/scifi focused game.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

How about Empyrion - Galactic Survival? Kind of like Space Engineers but with better singleplayer content.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Stellaris! It's a game like civilization, but in space. I have hundreds of hours in and it has been responsible for many nights of me staying up late than i should. Constant free updates and many options for paid dlc to expand your options.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@ThunderQuack is Eve Online still around that used to be fun

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I tried it a few years ago but couldn't complete the tutorial because organizations left no mining rocks around haha

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›