Looking for a sci-fi game in the style of BSG dog fights

[Sebastarious]

I'm not a gamer but I just built a PC for other reasons and I thought it might be a good chance to play some games. So I bought NFS Unbound and I was blown away by the quality and realism of the graphics. Then I bought Forza Horizon 5, and while it's too crash happy for taste, I was even more blown away by the graphics and realism.

What I'm looking for now is a stupid shooter space game. I say stupid because I don't have the time to dedicate to a "campaign" or anything like that, even if I wish I had it, but I don't.

So if you watched Battlestar Galactica, the 2003 remake from Ron D. Moore, and you remember the typical fights where you had the Galactica on one side, then the Cylon baseship on the other side, and the Vipers would come out from the Galactica, the Raiders from the Cylon baseship, and they would meet in the middle and start shooting each other in a beautiful mess of glowy lights and lines. I want a game that puts me in the cockpit of a Viper and start shooting. And I want graphics from the 2020's.

Of course I know there's "Battlestar Galactica Deadlock", but I read and watched reviews, and it's not what I'm looking for, plus the graphics quality is not that great. I want things that look real.

Now, I know what I want doesn't exist, but I would like to ask experienced gamers what is the closest thing to what I want. I bought Everspace 2 because it's on sale, because it seems that it has a decent amount of shooting involved, but it's too colorful for my taste. I would like something grittier, that looks kind of like BSG.

Any suggestions?

 

[February's Ghost]

Everspace 2 just might fit the bill. It a fast paced, single player space loot shooter. While it has a campaign and RPG elements if mostly a rogue-like shooter with reasonably short missions.

I don't know of any pure space shooter that doesn't have some kind of campaign or required things like mining and crafting and stuff.

 

[SHR-51]

The best suggestions that come to my mind, are Chorus and Star Wars Squadrons.

 

[DXCHASE]

Elite Dangerous

Elite Dangerous on Steam

Take control of your own starship in a cutthroat galaxy. Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic.

store.steampowered.com

If you are looking for somethin more FPS and doing work out in space, this game just hit early access (not fully finished but playable enough to get access to).

Space Engineers 2 on Steam

The ultimate space sandbox, reimagined. Unleash your creativity with powerful building tools, explore the mysterious Almagest system, and uncover its captivating story. Join the Early Access and shape the future of space engineering!

store.steampowered.com

You could always look up Star Citizen too but i dont recommend that game.

 

[Zloth]

There's really very few, for whatever reason. There used to be plenty (Freespace, X-Wing, TIE-Fighter, Wing Commander), but they faded out in the early 2000's.

Homeworld 3 kinda fits, but even the recent reviews are less than 50% positive.

Squadron 42 would probably fit really well, if only the folks making it could actually complete the game and start selling it.

X4 has exactly what you're looking for, but not until after a LOT of hours bumming around in a little fighter trying to scrape together enough cash for a bigger fighter - correct destination, wrong journey.