Recent reviews by Mags

A pretty chill space exploration game. Simple and fun gameplay loop (explore, fight, research, build, trade) with an engaging story, charm and some minor puzzle elements. It's also surprisingly good looking for what it is. The combat and ship building are the highlights imo. I had fun both building an agile fighter, prioritising speed and manoeuvrability so I could get behind enemies and cripple engines, as well as basically building a space galleon and blasting a cannon broadside.

The main story and quests are good, though a small number of quests are confusing if you don't read the conversations with your crew or the ships logs (you can also track objectives from the log, which it didn't tell me into hours in). Your crew (who are well written and quite funny) do guide you / give you hints if you take a while on an objective, but I can understand people getting confused when most quests are tracked on the map, but some (and often the most important/main story ones) want you to work something out - though it is satisfying to figure it out before the crew do.

One size does not fit all when it comes to your ship, especially in the mid game. If you try and fight everything with your scout or go exploring the void in your cruiser, it will be frustrating. Don't be afraid to explore in a faster ship, open up the gateways and come back with a change of defence or your big guns (literally). I never felt hamstrung by research points or resources, but I enjoyed the exploring a lot and it is a good way to get resources and level up your crew.

Would say there's about 30-35 hours of gameplay here if you're a completionist. Perhaps it would've been nice to be a bit longer, but it was never dull and finishing a game rather than having "infinite replayability" and dragging on is fine with me. I picked it up on sale for £11 and at that price I can't say anything other than it was a bargain. If you like "space games", as broad a term as that is, I think you'll like it.