If you're an adherent of the games media hype train, it may seem like there's been a real dearth of space games in recent years. Outside of heavy hitters like Starfield or the latest Destiny 2 meditation on the nature of evil space spheres, notable space games have been relatively few and far between.
But the space-based gaming adventures are out there, if you know where to look. While it's true that massive, triple-A space games have been a little light on the ground of late, indie and smaller budget titles have been quietly packing the cracks between major studio releases. This doesn't just apply to space games, of course; from Expedition 33 to Blue Prince, the indie scene has been showing up in big-budget gaming for a good while now.
So, blast off with us into the indiesphere, and we'll show you what you've been missing with this list of the most underrated space games out there.
Everspace 2
- Release date: January 18, 2021
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: Rockfish Games
One of the best arcade space sims in many years, Everspace 2 improves on almost every aspect of its unusual roguelite predecessor, while blowing out the scale to encompass a complete, lively galaxy. Not only is the dogfighting some of the best we've been treated to since Star Wars: Squadrons, but it's also backed by a legitimately interesting story and some competent lore and worldbuilding.
Everspace 2 takes place in a demilitarized zone established after a catastrophic war between humanity and a reptilian alien race called the Okkar ground to a bloody standstill. You play as a clone of Adam Roslin, a scientist and pilot formerly employed by the Colonial military, searching for a way to break free of the original Adam's legacy and carve out your own life in a cruel universe.
Everspace 2 features a robust, Diablo-style color-coded loot system, emergent open world encounters, and the kind of ship customization and upgrade system that will make any space-sim grognard's blood sing.
Star Trucker
- Release date: September 3, 2024
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: Monster and Monster
Ever since the 1996 Dennis Hopper classic (*cough*), Space Truckers, I've dreamed of carting freight through the stars. While lots of open universe space sims give you the freedom to ship cargo between systems, no game fully embraces that fantasy as completely as Star Trucker.
Star Trucker is truly the EuroTruck-Simulator-in-space I've long dreamed of, allowing players to scavenge, salvage, and trade across a huge collection of gorgeously rendered locations. Perhaps most impressively, it managed to actually capture the feeling of piloting a big rig even while you're navigating in fully three-dimensional space, including fueling up at truck stops and repairing your rig after you nod off and smack an exit sign on the stellar highway.
Star Traders: Frontiers
- Release date: November 14, 2017
- Platforms: PC, Linux, iOS, Android
- Developer: Trese Brothers
If you crave trading across the unexplored frontiers of the galaxy but space trucking isn't your bag, consider Star Traders: Frontiers. The latest from Trese Brothers, makers of the similarly underrated cyberpunk merc RPG Cyber Knights, Star Traders: Frontiers puts you in command of your own ship and unleashes you to wreak havoc as you see fit.
If peaceable trading isn't your dream, consider the corsair life, pillaging other ships for their precious cargo. Or pursue the rancid criminal element across the galaxy as a bounty hunter, making your fortune by ruining bad guys' lives. Star Traders isn't particular about what career you choose, and lets you pick your way through its rich systems and menu-driven gameplay in nearly any role you can imagine.
Best of all, if you tire of one approach, there's nothing stopping you from switching careers mid-game and trying your hand at any other pursuit that catches your fancy. While your initial job choice is locked, you can add additional jobs later, or respec at any time you please.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
- Release date: June 16, 2020
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Amazon Luna, GeForce Now
- Developer: Blackbird Interactive
Not just overlooked but wildly original, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is one of the most novel space games to release in recent memory. You play as a corporate wage slave, billions of dollars in debt to a cold, unfeeling space corp. Your job is to break up the wrecks of massive ships and space hulks, carving them apart to release valuable components which can be reused or recycled at huge profits by your despicable space overlords.
Regardless of how you feel about its welcome, though admittedly well-trod anti-corporate narrative, Shipbreaker is just tremendous fun. There's something so deeply satisfying about winnowing a huge capital ship down to its smallest components, finding critical welds and junctures, and melting them apart with your heat laser.
There's also the brute force approach, triggering chains of cataclysmic explosions to get the deconstruction rolling. Regardless of how you go about it, Shipbreaker makes what could be a tedious exercise in junkyard management into a rollicking romp through the thrilling world of space demolitions, with a surprisingly deep plot and excellent voice acting to boot.
Heat Signature
- Release date: September 21, 2017
- Platforms: PC
- Developer: Suspicious Developments
For space fans that crave more heist games, like Monaco or beloved corporate espionage simulator Gunpoint, Heat Signature is a dream come true. It's perhaps no surprise, as Heat Signature is the brainchild of Suspicious Developments, the studio that brought us Gunpoint, though Heat Signature takes that excellent core premise and sharpens it to a razor's edge.
You play as a series of faceless guns-for-hire, raiding starships to assassinate VIPs, steal loot, or rescue your companeros. Heat Signature lets you pause its frenetic gameplay at any time to plan your next shot or salvage a plan that's gone to hell, and the top-down, moment-to-moment action is some of the best in the genre, recalling some of the hottest moments of Hotline Miami.
It's scaffolded with fun features like rescuing captured characters left behind by your Steam friends, or leaving some of your favorite weapons behind for those same Steam friends when you retire a character. To quote Rick & Morty, you son of a b****, I'm in.
Ostranauts
- Release date: September 10, 2020
- Platforms: PC
- Developer: Blue Bottle Games
Another fun blend of disparate genres, Ostranauts combines hardcore space sim with the best traditions of film noir, yielding a bizarre but intoxicating cocktail of atmosphere, management, and violence.
Ostranuats puts you at the helm of a ship crewed by a scrappy collection of the galaxy's cast-offs, salvaging parts and subsystems to fend off bankruptcy and keep your rustbucket afloat in the darkest corners of the universe.
Ostranauts is set in the same universe as the studio's previous title, NEO Scavenger, and draws on that game's rich lore to populate its world with factions, colonies, and corporations. They'll alternately help or antagonize you as you struggle to stay solvent in the starlight of an apathetic galaxy.
Void Destroyer 2
- Release date: September 22, 2016
- Platforms: PC, GeForce Now
- Developer: Iteration 11
If you can't resist a rags-to-riches story, Void Destroyer 2 is for you. You start off with next to nothing, a basic ship with only the most rudimentary equipment. From those humble beginnings, you'll blast your way through an open-world space sandbox, building a fleet, capturing territory, and eventually founding your own empire.
While Void Destroyer 2's cel-shaded, cartoony graphics make it look simple at first glance, they belie a raft of deep systems and progression hooks that rival the most complex space sims. Discover factions, hire wingmen, pilot capital ships, and more, while filling one of any number of potential roles, from pirate to peacekeeper, merchant to mercenary.
Void Destroyer 2 is a masterclass in open-ended game design and player empowerment, while ensuring there's always some catalyst to propel you into your next adventure. Plus, bonus, it's super cheap ($10 on Steam as of this writing).
Freespace 2
- Release date: September 30, 1999
- Platforms: PC
- Developer: Volition
I may be biased here, as Freespace 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. While it's getting up there in years, it still looks reasonably sharp, especially if you apply one of the innumerable mods that fans have lovingly constructed over the last decade to keep it looking fresh (and running well).
Released way back in 1998, the original Freespace was born out of the Descent lineage. For those not old enough to remember, Descent was a terrestrial flying game where you swoop through underground tunnels, blasting enemies and brightly colored polygons in frenzied (and often vertigo-inspiring) arcade action.
Freespace 2 could hardly be more different. It's a linear, mission-based space sim that plunges you into an internecine struggle within humanity's Terran Alliance. While the Terrans struggle to suppress a rebel faction incensed by humanity's alliance with the alien Vasudans, they're caught unawares by the return of an existential threat to the peace-loving species of the galaxy.
Even today, Freespace 2's flight model and dogfighting are some of the genre's best, and there are few experiences in gaming as thrilling as piloting one of its lone fighters across a vast battlefield in the stars, charging into the flashing lasers and torrential missiles of a sprawling enemy frigate.
Space Pirates And Zombies 2
- Release date: November 7, 2017
- Platforms: PC, Mac OS, Linux
- Developer: MinMax Games
Not unlike its companion on this list, Everspace 2, Space Pirates And Zombies 2 (SPAZ 2) represents a massive divergence from the game that spawned it. While the original SPAZ was a top-down, space-shooter/RPG (and a great game in its own right), the sequel pulls the perspective back to third person and adds a huge strategy and management layer. Perhaps most surprising, it also ditches the titular zombies.
One of the coolest bits of SPAZ 2 is the territory control mechanic. You compete against hundreds of other AI captains, all with the same access to resources and equipment as you, fighting to survive in a universe plagued by scarcity. Though the zombie threat of the original game has been defeated, the conflict left humanity in dire straits, without enough of the fundamental resources we need to survive. You'll have to scrounge, form alliances, and battle other similarly desperate crews to ensure your people are the splinter of humanity that survives to forge our species' future.
Oh, and also remember those zombies we mentioned? Yeah, they're not gone. OK, good luck, byeeeeee!
Void Crew
- Release date: November 24, 2024
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: Hutlihut Games
For the most part, space games, especially sims, tend to be solo affairs, but not all space game fans are misanthropic loners like me. If you crave a more social experience amongst the stars, consider Void Crew, a co-op roguelite you can play with up to five friends (or, hell, total strangers, I won't judge).
Reminiscent of Sea of Thieves, Void Crew lets you and your pals bounce around a procedurally generated map, getting into epic space battles and scavenging for goodies, then jumping into the void when things get too hot.
You choose from four classes, each with their own specialized gear and skills (important note: the Scavenger gets a grappling hook), and then make your way across an FTL style overworld map, jumping from node to node and contending with everything from hostile alien factions to asteroid storms and solar flares.
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