I just finished playing X3: Terrain Conflict, and I’ll never play another X game.
As an achievement hunter, I normally play past the point of normal enjoyment, but this game told me, more or less, to go fuck myself.
The first kick in the nuts was completing “Dead Is Dead” mode.
You don’t get to save (with the exception of shutting the game down, but the save will delete upon starting it back up).
The game is prone to crashes, meaning you can have your entire save wiped in an instant because the game decides it doesn’t like it when you use the fast forward function within 10 seconds of a cut scene.
On top of that, one of the campaigns requires you to set up a massive complex of microchips and silicon, which also has a chance of triggering a crash each time you place a factory down.
The final 2 achievements are basically “grind until we say stop”. Which functionally resulted in me leaving my computer on overnight, four nights in a row.
The fact that the devs left the game in this state is inconsiderate at best, and disrespectful at worst.
Besides, the game is basically just an excel sheet simulator, it really isn’t very engaging.
The new items stuff in particular seems like QoL considerations for “we just added a hundred items to the game for players coming back to it after months away.”
EVE always fascinated me, but at the same time how beginner unfriendly I’ve heard it is + feeling like I’ll probably not last long before I get killed off makes me wary of trying it.
If Outer Wilds counts as AA, then I’ll nominate that next (even if I still need to finish it)
I like Starfield, but as you point out, unless “space game” means “space-themed”, it’s really not the same genre as some of the other games in here. It has space combat, but it’s little more than a minigame. It’s not trying to be a space combat-oriented game. It does have some zero-gravity first-person-shooting combat sequences, which is kinda nifty, but
Of course, the same apply to Stellaris – it’s a 4x game that’s space-themed.
I haven’t played Mass Effect, but my understanding is that something similar would apply.
For me, the genre has more to do with games being comparable than the theme.
So, if I were gonna compare top games, I think I’d maybe do space 4x games, space combat games (and maybe subdivide those into Newtonian and non-Newtonian physics), and first-person games set in the far future, maybe a few other divisions (e.g. I’d certainly call Kerbal Space Project a good “space-themed game”, though it’s not a combat game). I’ve enjoyed all those sorts of games, but I’d be hard put to compare a game in one genre to the other…it’s like asking “what’s better, a steak or a banana split?”.
Non-Newtonian space combat flight games
This refers to games where you’re flying something that works kind of like an aerodynamic fighter in an atmosphere, but in space. If you turn, your spacecraft moves like flying in a fluid, and your whole spacecraft’s velocity changes.
This was a really big genre in the late-90s and early-2000s, but it saw a major dropoff over time. It was also big in TV series an movies – stuff like Star Trek and Star Wars.
It’s not really a “hard space sim”, but it has a lot of conventions aimed at making it pretty and exciting. Some conventions in the genre:
Space looks a lot like the kind of false-color photos that NASA puts out (note that other genres are not immune to this either).
Often has “Star Wars lasers”, which are visible, slow, and make sounds going by.
Sound transmits through space, so you get explosions and such being audible.
Fighters play a major role, and combat typically takes place at extremely close ranges (relative to our best guesses at what real-life space combat would look like), in World-War-2-style dogfights. The job the human has is usually in significant part the same as a WW2 pilot would have in a dogfight, lining up the weapons, maybe managing “ship energy” or some other such system. There are likely missiles, but these are used at close range, and don’t have high-off-boresight targeting. There’s typically some kind of CIWS or flare-countering-infrared-homing-missile analog.
Forward-mounted weapons are common, though usually not exclusive.
There’s usually some form of “warp drive” to deal with the kind of distances in space in a meaningful amount of time.
The pilot is usually in an environment analogous to a 20th-century air-breathing jet fighter: there are glass windows looking out on space, and visual identification of targets plays a real role.
Carriers often show up.
There are often torpedoes or analogs – hard-hitting weapons that move more-slowly.
It’s often the case that there’s some form of energy shield which can readily-regenerate and blocks a certain amount of weapons fire.
Tractor beams often show up.
Usually issues like utilizing gravity wells or something don’t play a major role in the game.
It’s common to have some form of engine sound. Engines often look a lot like rocket engines – like, there’s visible combustion products coming out the back and a roaring sound; sometimes you’ll have ion thruster-looking things.
The “space trading” genre is probably a subgenre of this; I don’t know of any “space trading” games that don’t also have space combat as an element.
I think that the genre is in significant part a mix of American cultural elements from the WW2-to-maybe-post-Vietnam era. A lot of the stuff is analogous to carrier combat plus having futuristic-themed forms of weapons common in air-to-air combat in the 20th century.
Those are all conventions developed over time by Hollywood and comic books and video games to make games work and appealing. Some of them work pretty-differently from reality (or what our best guesses are as to likely future space combat). But they’re pretty fun (at least, in my opinion).
I miss this genre, myself – there are a relatively-few games that have come out recently, and personally, I think that it’s people missing games in the genre that drove Star Citizen’s funding. I think that one reason that it was such a big deal in the late-90s was the confluence of cultural elements and the fact that space can be relatively-cheap to render, compared to atmospheric combat flight sims; you don’t need a lot of texture memory to make things look good, and hardware was often kinda limited then.
Newtonian space combat flight sim
This is a bit more of a catch-all, but it generally eschews some or all of the above (particularly the “flying through space is like flying through fluid”) and focuses more on the “hard sim” side.
This is a strategy genre; space isn’t really critical other than in that there are many isolated, habitable worlds to conquer.
Master of Orion and similar fall into this genre.
Space RTS
Not a lot of entrants here, but I think that Homeworld permitting for the use of a third dimension does meaningfully change the RTS genre.
Space sim
I’m not aware of a lot of games in this genre, but I can’t really fit Kerbal Space Project into another category, and it’s undeniably a space game.
Space-themed games
I’m kind of using this as a catch-all, but there are games in many genres that are set in the future and have space as a theme, but play pretty much analogously to games set in a present-day theme. Maybe there’s a bit of stuff that they pull in that wouldn’t happen in a present-day setting (e.g. Starfield’s zero-g FPS combat), but you could basically reskin most of the game and have it play the same way in a present- or past-setting.
There’s also a few “fleet command” games. These aren’t really “combat flight sims” like the above, because the player isn’t experiencing a flight sim from the ship, but like the “space RTS” genre, the third dimension really alters the dynamics. Maybe they’re somewhat-analogous to a naval fleet combat sim.
The only example of this genre that I’ve played would be Nebulous: Fleet Command, but I understand that there are a few more out there.
The idea of Eve was always very interesting to me, but I’ve never tried it. The whole aspect of the massive battles wasn’t what I was looking for, I was just interested in the mining and building end of it. I could never tell if I would be able to do that without getting blown up all the time, and never wanted to invest the time in trying it without knowing. I ended up doing something similar in RuneScape. I spent most of the few years I played crafting and selling products and sometimes going on quests.
Yeah, it’s definitely very intimidating to get into, and I don’t think I could start now just because it feels like it’s too late; already 21 years old as a game.
If you want a space game that is very similar to Eve, but not online, check out Astrox Imperium. Be warned, it is very janky and indie.
I’ve got a bunch of other recommendations, but I’ll save those for my med/small posts, so I can write more about them.
I’m pretty sure I’ve bought Astrox Imperium, but I’ve never tried it. I’ve got so many other games I still enjoy playing that it’s often hard to start a new one!
The EVE Online of today has very little to do with the game that came out 21 years ago. It’s been kept up to date very well, the graphics are really nice and the game has been made a lot better for new players. A new expansion just dropped so now it’s actually a pretty good time to try it out.
As for mining in peace: that’s totally doable if you know what you’re doing. The best advice would be to join a mining/building corporation as soon as possible and have them show you the ropes. The element of risk never goes completely away, and you should always be prepared to lose the ship you are flying, but the risks are very manageable, to the point where you should almost never lose a ship unless you’re actively taking more risk.
Yeah, I still play it. I’m based down in Eldjaerin in Minmatar space, right near losec where I do my capital production.
Occasionally I like to try to bait the Russians in Frulegur and Konora (e.g. Coastal Brotherhood) into attacking my carriers or HAW dreads, but I think they’ve learned not to anymore. :P
When I think “space game” I usually have a specific genre in mind and Mass Effect isn’t it. You don’t even do anything in space unless you count the hub area since it’s your spaceship. For Starfield to be an honorable mention but Elite completely devoid from the list has dealt me near lethal psychic damage. 😩
Haha, I admit that is my personal bias. I was burned in several ways as an E:D Kickstarter backer, especially when the “all updates” part turned out not to include… all updates.
But honestly, I just lost interest. I was doing rare goods trading routes and Frontier nuked them into the ground, and it became very obvious to me that they wanted to force people to play a certain way.
Wrt Mass Effect, I personally think that “space game” shouldn’t just be limited to “flying a spaceship”. I think it’s fair to say spaceships should be part of it, but Halo or KOTOR or any number of other RPGs that are literally all about space aliens and other planets wouldn’t qualify.
I think that Space Sim or certainly Space Combat sub-genres are fair to require actually flying the spacecraft yourself, but Space Games ought to be a big house, imho, to include RPGs and tactics games and even just Alien Planets, so long as the alien part is really the point (which is why I’d consider Stranded: Alien Dawn more of a space game than Rimworld, though it’s a pretty subjective position to be sure).
Ogame is one of those free browser games with pay to win mechanics. I play it every few years just to get rid of that build and deploy fleet bug.
NMSky was pretty mellow and I enjoyed it, up until all the planets i discovered and named had thier names reverted back. No cursing or anything obvious as to why, most were Donkey themed since I am a_d0nkey.
It was mainly around Ubisoft’s The Crew as the latest conversation. This was about a month ago.
Ubisoft took the game offline and also removed from customers’ digital libraries with a message suggesting they try the newer installments in the series instead of the game they paid for.
Not all digital games. If they’re DRM free, and if the multiplayer allows for LAN, direct IP connections, private servers, etc; then they’re built to last, arguably better so than physical media.
Fun fact for those interested the STALKER series was partially inspired by the book A Roadside Picnic. A movie was released in 1979 that was also inspired by it named Stalker.
Maybe the number is from the people who have finished the game. Seems way too high to be all players. After looking it up it seems to be true. 34.4% of players have the Mohg achievement. More than any single ending. Also, Age of the Stars ending is higher than the base Elden Lord ending. Kinda funny considering the whole questline needed for that.
And although it didn’t match the first game, it’s still a nice chill game in the same vain as the first. Same feeling and all that.
As suspected, it’s tough to attempt a continuation of the first story. They dipped a bit much into a few themes that really didn’t seem to fit very well and there’s a distinct lack of interaction with other NPCs. There’s a few random characters you talk to over the radio, but not anything that has any impact on anything.
So it’s a fine enough game if you just want a bit more of the Oxenfree flavor, but don’t expect too much from it.
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