Sandbox-esque space combat

Top down space combat has been done before, lets get that out of the way. From some of my earliest video game memories playing Star Control till recently with S.P.A.Z. this game follows a familiar combat formula. But that's not a bad thing in any way. Strafe, steer, and blast your way through your enemies with a bunch of changeable loadouts, ships, and different classes of 'hulls' (the skeleton for the ship you'll use). What makes this game great is the sandbox element. It doesn't tell you what to do, but it does have branching quests. Of course you're free to completely ignore them and just while away the hours mining asteroids if you so chooose. Go to war with one of the factions in the game, or try to eliminate the alien menace that dominates a large chunk of the galaxy. Ultimately it's up to you.

If there's one big complaint about the game it's that it feels a little empty. You hit a wall around your late 30s where the experience points seem to take a lot longer and the upgrades are much further apart then you'd like. With some of them being only say, a 3% to your cruising speed, leveling feels pretty underwhelming after a while. Thankfully you get experience for doing pretty much anything in this game. Also combatting the emptiness is the modding community which already has full game overhauls, rebalanced skill trees, new hulls, new weapons, new quests, and more. I'd like to see even more modding for this game personally, as more content can only improve an already great game.

If you like this style of game, it's well worth the purchase price.

Sandbox-esque space combat Top down space combat has been done before, lets get that out of the way. From some of my earliest video game memories playing Star Control till recently with S.P.A.Z. this game follows a familiar combat formula. But that's not a bad thing in any way. Strafe, steer, and blast your way through your enemies with a bunch of changeable loadouts, ships, and different classes of 'hulls' (the skeleton for the ship you'll use). What makes this game great is the sandbox element. It doesn't tell you what to do, but it does have branching quests. Of course you're free to completely ignore them and just while away the hours mining asteroids if you so chooose. Go to war with one of the factions in the game, or try to eliminate the alien menace that dominates a large chunk of the galaxy. Ultimately it's up to you. If there's one big complaint about the game it's that it feels a little empty. You hit a wall around your late 30s where the experience points seem to take a lot longer and the upgrades are much further apart then you'd like. With some of them being only say, a 3% to your cruising speed, leveling feels pretty underwhelming after a while. Thankfully you get experience for doing pretty much anything in this game. Also combatting the emptiness is the modding community which already has full game overhauls, rebalanced skill trees, new hulls, new weapons, new quests, and more. I'd like to see even more modding for this game personally, as more content can only improve an already great game. If you like this style of game, it's well worth the purchase price.