Space Engineers
Space Engineers is an open world sandbox game defined by creativity and exploration. It is a sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration and survival in space and on planets. Players build space ships, wheeled vehicles, space stations, planetary outposts of various sizes and uses (civil and military), pilot ships and travel through space to explore planets and gather resources to survive. Featuring both creative and survival modes, there is no limit to what can be built, utilized and explored. Space Engineers features a realistic, volumetric-based physics engine: everything in the game can be assembled, disassembled, damaged and destroyed. The game can be played either in single or multiplayer modes. Volumetric objects are structures composed from block-like modules interlocked in a grid. Volumetric objects behave like real physical objects with mass, inertia and velocity. Individual modules have real volume and storage capacity.
Steam User 112
If you take a look at my hours, it will probably tell you everything you need to know. (I require the grass.)
The game is good, what else can I say, its an open sandbox with a pretty stellar building system, fantastic physics and a survival gameplay loop that is pretty easy to get caught up in. This is a game where you need to build things to build other things, there are ways do things on the quick and nasty, but "engineering" your way around things and making them look 'pretty' is a very fun loop.
The developers are some of the very few I will buy DLC just to support them, but even then the DLC is pretty decent, for the most part, some are certainly better then others, however the best part is aside from the cosmetics, the DLC isn't even required to experience everything this game has to offer, with every "update" being launched as a free gameplay update, along side an accompanying cosmetic DLC, this model I can very much approve of, and am happy to take part of.
Another example of how decent the devs are is the console release... did they dumb down the gameplay? did they consol-i-fy the ui? did they cater solely to the console release, only release DLC relevant to console and forget about their PC players?... no.. NO.. and NO!
They are very good example of a company that actually likes their product, and has something of a soul.
Can highly recommend this game to creatives who want to engineers themselves around problems, and to people who just want to smash huge ships together, can do both here.
Steam User 68
DISCLAIMER ABOUT MY RECOMMENDATION
Let me put it in a TLDR. IF you have patience and are willing to excuse an old game, buy this game. Otherwise, don't waste your money on this or SE2... yet.
Keen Software House is... a bit of a mess, I can't deny it. I wish I could give star ratings instead of yes or no for this game.
Is it fun to mess with ships, to make bases and explore opportunities with new blocks or mods.
But don't expect Keen to stand up and develop anything more than a cashgrab DLC. Bugfixes? Forget those. There's been an airlock bug in the game for so many years it's insane. Bases and ships randomly depressurizing, doors stopping, ships kersploding because you blinked twice. It's a delicate balancing act where mods become the saving grace of the engine when you start to build even slightly above average caveman levels of contraptions.
Simply put if you build a space cube you might only get one bug, mileage will vary if you decide to have fun with your creations in a pure vanilla instance.
Instead of fixing these bugs Keen decides to tell people they can't recreate the bug and close the ticket. They then pay a monkey to scour the mods section for this week's popular idea, turn it into a paid DLC, and sit back. Except this time they're doing it in the sequel at the same time, with awesome beta features such as the reintroduction of windows... yeah, it's disappointing.
I bought SE ages ago, I still love messing around in a controlled environment and I'm generally good at managing the bugs. But it's still frustrating some days to shake my fist in the air at Keen and ask them why they can't just get their heads around quality, not content. It's upsetting to love a game that hates you back.
Steam User 63
The Dark Souls of Minecraft. This is the most complex, in-depth, and mentally taxing game I have ever played; and I cannot recommend it more. A (very) basic understanding of chemistry, physics, and mechanical principals is recommended, although you will likely learn them simply by playing the game anyway. As a warning (and enticement), do NOT expect to buy this game for an occasional play. This game can and WILL consume hundreds of hours of your life, and you will be learning and improving the entire time. This game is a full time job, and you will enjoy each and every air-resistance forsaken second of it. Expect to spend hours organizing various systems, debugging your protocols, rebuilding your machines, and trying to figure out why in the name of everything holy your ship just isn't working. The fact is that this game isn't too hard, it is too good for you, it is too good for all of us.
In all seriousness, Space Engineers is the ultimate in sci-fi creative expression. I am being dead serious when I say that if you can think of it, you can build it. Anything. It won't be easy, but you CAN build it. If you love the freedom and creativity of Minecraft, the aesthetics of The Expanse, and the mind-bending complexity of Dwarf Fortress, this game is for you.
A powerful PC is recommended, although my Xbox One from 2012 can run vanilla without too much trouble. Expect to download mods.
11/10, Highly recommend. All hail Klang.
Steam User 33
Probably the best game I've ever played. There's not much you can't do in this. The hardest part is finding other people who love it.
Steam User 29
I first placed this when it first released when some friends wanted to play it. I didn't have a good time, it was confusing, I didn't understand what was going on as there were already ships just handed to you, and quickly stopped playing. I think I lasted less then two hours and then moved this game to my "Bad Games" section of my library. This was my only experiencing with the game. Never watch anyone play it or anything like that.
Skip to now, I had watched some people playing the game and it looked fun. I was understanding what they were doing. So I watched the first 15 minutes or so of a tutorial video for new players. It recommended playing a starting scenario, and then starting a sandbox on an Earth-like with lightning and other weather stuff turned Off.
So that's what I did. Started out with the basics and went from there. Built systems from the ground up. Being able to step through each process helped me to understand things and enjoy it more. If I got stuck on how something worked, I'd google it quick. But for the most part I tried to figure things out on my own first. I'm now 134 hours in, made it to space, build a moon base for easier resources to build a capital ship with, and even made a massive drilling rover that is fully automated after you get it into position.
Honestly, the hardest part of the game is focusing on one thing. I keep thinking up a new idea, a new ship, etc, and I just don't have enough time, or resources, to do it all, lol. I'm glad I gave the game another chance.
Steam User 70
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☑ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☑ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10
Steam User 36
"Space is vast. My patience is not."
I bought this game expecting to build cool spaceships and live out my interstellar fantasies. Instead, I spent 12 hours designing a ship that looked like a majestic eagle, only for it to disintegrate into shrapnel the second I pressed the thrusters.
Space Engineers is a game about trial and error, where the error is always you. The physics are so realistic that even thinking about making a mistake will cause your entire base to collapse. You will spend hours mining, refining, and welding—only to crash into an asteroid because you sneezed while piloting.
Key highlights of my experience:
Spent 6 hours building a mining drone. Forgot to add a remote control. It’s now drifting in the void.
Landed on a planet, forgot gravity exists. My ship instantly became modern art.
Trusted a friend to “help” with welding. He welded me inside the ship.
Tried multiplayer. Server lag turned my ship into a vibrating death cube.
Accidentally pressed the wrong button. Entire base vented into space. Oxygen is a luxury anyway.
Would I recommend this game? Only if you enjoy pain, suffering, and the slow realization that aerospace engineering is not your calling.
11/10, currently stranded on a moon with no fuel. Send help.