What are your favourite space games?

[IndecentLouie]

Hello everyone! as always I hope you're all doing well.

Space games are becoming a great pass time of mine and most of those hours have been spent in FTL and Shortest Trip to Earth, I've spent some time in Elite Dangerous but i'm looking for a game that involves ship management, RPG elements and space exploration.

Commanding a crew would be a plus, I really enjoy the random encounters with various alien races and events that happen in FTL.
I'm trying to avoid games such as Galactic Civilizations.
Do you have any suggestions?

https://imgur.com/a/e2gOIcs

 

[McStabStab]

Indecent Louie: What are your favorite space games?
Me: Yes.

• Horror
  • Dead Space 1&2
  • Alien: Isolation
  • System Shock 2
• Building / Management
  • Surviving Mars
  • Kerbal Space Program
  • Offworld Trading Company
  • Rimworld
• Survival / Exploration
  • No Man's Sky
  • Duskers
• 4X / Tactics
  • Endless Space 1&2
  • Endless Legend
  • BattleTech

In regard to the specifics you're looking for, I think Duskers is the best fit. Have you tried it? No Man's Sky is also really good now after all of the updates, and BattleTech has plenty of ship / squad building elements if you like turn based tactics.

 

[IndecentLouie]

I've had duskers on my radar for a while and I have a few of those already in my library.
I think the closest thing to what I'm looking for in your suggestions is Endless Space which I already own (although I don't remember buying it)

I brought Battletech on GoG yesterday so this makes me more excited to play it

I'm mainly looking for a game that makes me feel like a sharship captain from Star Trek, traveling through space meeting new alien races with choices involved how to deal with them. Fighting Pirates and making allies.

Space Haven looks like it's worth checking out.

 

[Pifanjr]

If you can get the people together, Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator might be interesting. I've been wanting to try it forever, but it's not easy to get enough people together.

EDIT: X4: Foundations might be interesting to look at too. Also a game I've never found the opportunity to play.
EDIT2: Googling some other space games brought me to EVERSPACE, which looks very interesting as well.

 

[IndecentLouie]

@Pifanjr Artemis sounds like it would be great if it was a singleplayer, getting four people together for it is a different story!
X4:foundations certainly looks interesting and everspace is another game i've been looking at and it's quite cheap on gog atm.

So far no game really seem's exactly what i'm looking for, it's like each game suggested have little bits of the game I wan't.

 

[Zloth]

X4:Foundations should be good but you might want to stick with X3:Terran Conflict. Egosoft is still adding to X4. X:Rebirth is fun, too, if you mod that horrific small talk minigame out and avoid small fighters. (I've got guides on Steam for both of them. Plug plug.)

It sounds like what you really want, though, is more of a Star Control game. Ur-Quann Masters is free. Or you can get the more up to date Star Control: Origins from Stardock. Space Rangers might work well, too.

Starpoint Gemini 2 might work out, also - it's a space/RPG cross-over game. Starpoint Gemini Warlords is space battle/RPG/4X... It's rather weak on all three fronts so, if you play it "most for the x element" then you're going to be unhappy no matter which x you pick. If you enjoy all three, though, the variety makes up for the lack of depth.

BattleTech was really fun for me, too. And I've got a big guide for that one!

 

[Pifanjr]

I just remembered the name of another space game I really enjoyed: Darkstar One. It doesn't have crew management though and it's pretty old at this point, but that also means it's pretty cheap.

 

[Frindis]

I'm mainly looking for a game that makes me feel like a sharship captain from Star Trek, traveling through space meeting new alien races with choices involved how to deal with them. Fighting Pirates and making allies.

Perhaps Star Trek™: 25th Anniversary on GOG could be of interest.

 

[Pifanjr]

Space Engineers is also a favourite space game of mine (despite the fact my computer cannot handle it anymore with the latest updates).

It's definitely not quite what you're looking for, but might be interesting to check out regardless.

 

[IndecentLouie]

There are some fantastic suggestions here and I really appreciate it everyone

 

[Frag Maniac]

All of the Dead Space games, in fact I'm still upset with EA for canning the series.

 

[Zloth]

There are some fantastic suggestions here and I really appreciate it everyone

Now go play them all and tell us which one of us won.

 

[Pifanjr]

See also https://www.pcgamer.com/amp/everspace-2-is-a-big-open-world-rpg-with-deep-customization/

 

[IndecentLouie]

@Frag Maniac They were getting sloppy with threee though, I would have played a fourth but It was already becoming entirely action orientated.
one and two are two are the greatest horror games ever made.

@Zloth Haha when we humans have developed interstellar space travel I can only see me completing the 4x games alone

@Pifanjr That's fantastic, its great they are expanding and implementing their original ideas into the second.
I vaguely remember playing the original and enjoying the space combat, It's worth a revisit while currently cheap on GoG.

 

[Pifanjr]

I had a love hate relationship with the first Dead Space game. Things kept sneaking up behind me. It got to the point where I started looking behind me as much as in front of me, but they still sometimes managed to show up behind me.

I didn't play for very long though, probably just the first one or two hours.

 

[IndecentLouie]

@Pifanjr that was the great thing about the game, it was spooky and somewhat unpredictable. I think I read somewhere that they programmed the Necromorphs to spawn behind you 30-50% of the time.

 

[Frag Maniac]

@Pifanjr that was the great thing about the game, it was spooky and somewhat unpredictable. I think I read somewhere that they programmed the Necromorphs to spawn behind you 30-50% of the time.

You didn't say what you thought was "sloppy" about 3, but after reading this response I can only assume you felt it was too action oriented for a survival horror game?

The only slight nit pick I have about 3 is the love triangle dialogue got a bit immature and tedious, and you couldn't play all missions solo, but that was less than 10% of the game.

The game being more action oriented than the first two made sense. Even the writer of the first game said this, and that continuing to have the game world in one ship would have stagnated the series. It also made sense, as he said, that the outbreaks would increase, which of course means more action and better weapons needed.

Many love the first game for it's horror, but much of it comes from cutscenes and traps (enemies spawning behind you), but that is really only "unpredictable" first play through. I mean all 3 of the games had multiple jump scares. The only one with real replay value was the 3rd, because it took a while to learn how to best craft weapons, and where to find the rare parts for them. I also wasn't bothered by the universal ammo, because there was still plenty to think about, and it made inventory management easier. The first game is also very easy to play, even on Impossible, using just the Plasma Cutter all the way through.

I really feel DS3 was unfairly bashed and it SHOULD have sold well enough to continue the series, in fact some argue it did.

Oh, BTW, forgot to mention I really liked the Mass Effect series. Of course Andromeda had it's problems, but rumor has it they're still keeping the series alive, and may even be working on ME5. That said, after ME4 and Anthem bombing, and EA letting go 350 employees, you have to wonder if there will even be a ME that matches the first 3.

I also feel I have to mention that there is a semi confirmed rumor that 4A Games, makers of the Metro series, have been developing for 5 years or more, a new FPS Space project, so that could be as good or better than Dead Space.

More Evidence 4A Games is Working on a FPS in Space

More evidence has been found that suggests 4A Games is working on a new IP set in space.

onlysp.escapistmagazine.com

 

[IndecentLouie]

@Frag Maniac maybe sloppy was a bad use to word, i'm all for it being more action oriented since it would make sense Isaac would become more battle hardened but it just felt like it went too far away from the horror aspect. It felt as scary as a Gears of War game.
The co-op aspect might have been alright but it was very annoying they blocked off levels so there were sections I was essentially banned from playing unless I played with a friend, a game which is all about being alone with a bunch of "zombie/aliens" and I hated the universal ammo. It wasn't a bad game though, far from it.

you could also use real money to purchase weapons/ammo which just felt cheap and greedy.
Granted I haven't played three in many years and I would like to revisit it at some point since I really liked the setting of a snow planet.

Andromeda looks like it's worth another revisit while it's on offer, I played it around a year ago for about an hour or two

 

[Frag Maniac]

In DS3 I found finding as many artifacts as you can, to unlock triple power circuits, helps a lot, especially in dungeons. I also found the Electrocution module you can put on the Plasma Cutter that's in the optional Armory side mission of Chapter 9 is a big help.

The weapon combo I found worked best for me, especially in dungeon waves, was the Chaingun/Shotgun, with Acid Batch attachment. One of the many cool things about DS3 was you could pull ice axes off Wasters with Kinesis and one shot kill them with it, but you had to aim precisely.

 

[spvtnik1]

I'm really enjoying Space Haven. Starbound is also good fun.
EVE Online is fun but it is easy to lose focus, and I didn't stick with it.
Last but not least, Observation hits above it's weight. I wouldn't call it a horror game, but it is in that vein.