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
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/If you’re into colony sims, check out Space Haven.
These aren’t necessarily top-tier games, but if you want some more unique recommendations: Duskers, Objects in Space, and Rebel Galaxy
While not a flight sim I’ll give a recommendation for Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Spend some time salvaging old spaceships in zero-g.
How about Empyrion - Galactic Survival? Kind of like Space Engineers but with better singleplayer content.
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.
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
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.
You. You did this to me. I’ve been playing this practically non stop for two weeks now.
Starsector is one of those rare games that is so good it’s hard to believe it exists and since it does, why isn’t everyone talking about it. It feels like the Factorio of 2D space adventure games.
