I have played Space Engineers since May of 2017. I have over a thousand hours spent in it. I can confidently say that I know this game like the back of my hand. If nothing else, know that this review is a thoroughly-informed decision.

I'm going to work my way backwards from what most reviews are like; I'm going to give you the conclusion and *then* explain why I made it: Space Engineers is a brilliant and beautiful marriage of the sandbox building genre, the space simulator genre, and to a slightly lesser extent, the survival genre. It is an immensely fun game to play, one that appeals to my creativity and love for space like nothing else has. It's a rather unique game in that it allows you total freedom to design ships and buildings however you want to, while making them in a solar system that you can add and subtract to as much as you want as well, all the while maintaining a tight sense of realism and letting you get immersed in the inner workings of your own little world. The game itself requires a bit more patience and mindfulness, however. The game has some performance issues, particularly in multiplayer, and it also has a slew of pesky bugs that will at times test your patience. Lastly, the game's developers have made most of the players somewhat wary of them, with the increasing amount of DLCs and their habit of creating a new bug for every one they quash. Overall though, the game is worth trying out, ESPECIALLY if you like space and sci-fi building games. If you find yourself having a hard time, you'll find that the community is very polite and glad to help you. Honestly Space Engineers's community is one of the best communities surrounding any game in my opinion. Anyway, the game has some issues here and there, but if you're not an impatient person, and if you enjoy the premise of this game, I recommend you try it out.

Now onto the in-depth portion of the review:
Earlier I mentioned this game is a fusion of sandbox-builders, space sims, and survival games. The survival aspects of the game were quite literally an afterthought, so it's not nearly as core to the game and its mechanics as in something like, say, Subnautica, but it's implemented well enough that it feels satisfying to start with nothing and mine, refine, and build your way across the solar system. The survival side of the game is very similar to Astroneer.
The other two aspects are where the game shines brightest: building-sandbox and space sim. I'll start with the latter. It accurately simulates space-based physics and having to work within the vacuum of space, as well as how spaceships would realistically operate- having to manage power consumption, keep each area pressurized, manage the storage, transportation, and consumption of raw materials within the ship, and having to think in all three dimensions in order to orient yourself in space and navigate it. It is no arcade game, you have to take it seriously. Regarding the sandbox-builder part, the game gives you so much freedom and comprehensive tools that it's comparable to Minecraft, especially given that both games have a creative mode. You can plan out your ship designs down to the last block of armor, and build it piece by piece until it's exactly the work of art that you had in your head.

There are other parts of the game worth describing as well, namely the multiplayer and mods. With multiplayer, you can either host a game for you and some friends to play in, or your can find a dedicated server to join (or host your own if you want). Most servers have their own communities and regular players, and there are a great variety of servers focusing on roleplay, PVP, PVE, or just creative-mode shenanegins. Regarding mods, the game's modding community is highly dedicated, and highly prolific. There are mods galore and many of them are such high quality that you'll find yourself using them in every game you create. You can add mods to servers, as well, so you can have your friends download your special list of mods to play with together.

Now, I'd like to go into greater detail about the issues surrounding the game that I spoke of in the introduction. Space Engineers is made by Keen Software House, who has, in recent years, been fumbling with the development of the game. Compounding problems such as constant bugs, quirks of the physics engine, having a custom engine made largely of spaghetti code, and needing to make money from the continued development of Space Engineers, has resulted in a growing dissatisfaction among the veteran players, myself included. Don't get me wrong though, if I were stranded on an island with a PC and my choice of a videogame, I'd choose Space Engineers to play for the rest of my days. I love and appreciate the game despite its flaws and ugly spots, and I insist that anyone who likes space, spaceships, and building sci-fi stuff should try the game out. However, it would be wrong not to warn them of the game's three main issues, which I will list:

1. Bugs. While there are few major, game-disrupting bugs, there are a plethora of smaller ones. If this game ever dies out, it will be a death by a thousand cuts. There's always *something* not quite working as it should. Sometimes a skin won't apply until you restart the game, sometimes it will be a turret that forgets to stop shooting at a destroyed target, sometimes it's a vent refusing to pressurize a room even though it's totally sealed, sometimes a piston will begin taking damage because the game doesn't know what else to do with the physics that are happening, or sometimes a contract will fail to mark as completed. The bugs are numerous and varied, but it's rare that you encounter one that triggers a crash or a disconnect.
2. Multiplayer lag. Multiplayer has been significantly improved in the past couple years, but things like lag and latency issues are still fairly common on servers. How bad it is mostly depends on the server, and how many things are happening at once, but it's a rarity to go an afternoon without experiencing a few brief hiccups. Even joining your friend's two-player world puts you at a mild risk.
3. The developers themselves. I've kept my eye on Keen for years now and still can't figure out what to make of them. On one hand, they're passionate, they care about the community, and they listen fairly well to feedback. On the other hand, they handled Medieval Engineers very poorly, they're struggling to figure out how to keep the revenue flowing while spending so much time on Space Engineers and are thus utterly flooding the game with DLCs, they're a tiny company with lots of ambition, and they have attracted a lot of fans who want a lot of things from them. Keen Software House is very much a company that works on the "Two steps forward, one step backward" principle, and one that is prone to biting off more than they can chew. I believe they mean the best for their games and their community, but they struggle to achieve this, and it remains to be seen how they finish development on Space Engineers.


So there's my yet-again-revised review of Space Engineers. The game has tons to offer, and is the perfect outlet for space-based creativity, but it requires one to learn to tolerate and work with its bugs, lag, and eager but butter-fingered developers. It's my most favorite game of all, and although it's frustrating at times, I'm certain this game will become my most played game on Steam, and I hope that by the time Keen is done with the development of this game, I can revisit this review one final time to tell everyone how great it's become. Until then, try it out, see what you think, talk to other players if you need help, and don't feel bad about refunding it because it's just not ready for you yet.