Endless Sky

So I land on a planet and check the space port for any missions and I wind up with a woman holding a gun to the back of my head. It gives me two options, one is raise my hands like a smart person and the other is "Do a karate move". I kind of just stared at the screen for a couple seconds before clicking the "raise my hands" option. The woman with the gun tells me to move or something and two choices pop up again. "Comply" or "Now do the karate move". I stared at it. And it stared back. For what seemed like eons I watched it. It was seducing me. It was corrupting my morals and everything I hold dear. I wanted to stay in the immersion but it did not care what I wanted. It wanted me to click it like Miley Cyrus wants attention. I clicked it and she went off on a rant about how she's a she-badger. 10/10 best dialogue ever, would karate chop again

Ambrosia Software may be dead, but the spirit they captured in their Escape Velocity games lives on in this Free and Open Source tribute to their games like EV Nova. You don't even need to dodge captain hector =) Thank you folks for making a such a nostalgic experience!

like the old school escape velocity game. easy to quickly leave and jump back in. can play for 10 minutes or 2 hours.

Great game playing it with my 7 yr old son, he loves the adventure of it all. The maths and hand eye coordination is good as is the great reading practice

Super nerdy game, and it's actually solid. Honestly can't REALLY say anything bad about this game because it's free and open source software. [b] But... [/b] Simply learning how to play can be very frustrating and unintuitive. The UI bombards you with information and rarely explains it. Pacing seems incredibly non-existent. Most times during battles, so much happens so quickly; I either lose instantly or win instantly, but I typically can't react to it. Pirate attacks either never happen or happen so frequently that it's a constant battle. Would be possibly be nicer if guns did less damage and pirates were consistently weaker- a set of exclusive pirate ships, perhaps. Enemies either melt your fleet instantly or die too quickly. If there's a difficulty curve, I have not encountered it yet. Fleet controls are clunky, and the AI prioritizes things in a very weird way. Would be nice to have a dedicate "orders" menu (instead of arbitrary keybinds) to tell them to do stuff like patrol for enemies. Fleet accidentally picks up "illegal" cargo, and I get constant fines without even realizing what happened. Would be nice to tell them to ignore illegal cargo and outfits. Early game is super punishing since the lower tier ships are both extremely weak and expensive. Again, no difficulty curve, so it's up to chance whether or not you will be instantly melted in any engagement. Capturing ships is super overpowered. Fleets grow exponentially with no ramifications; you can amass an army by just existing in a pirate sector and occasionally hiring more boarders. Other than that, it's very much worth a try. Once again, giving a recommend since it's free and open source. [b]This is a volunteer project, and it's super cool to see.[/b]

Quick review: This game answers the question, "What if Escape Velocity was remade but was open source instead of a commercial product?" Still a work in progress as different quest lines are being reworked/added and there are new versions to come, but if you're looking to jump from sector to sector doing the mine/trade/fight loops and upgrading your fleet with things you acquire through those loops, this is a great way to get that Escape Velocity or Space Rangers (minus ground combat) feel. Lots of different ships and parts to fiddle with and debate the effectiveness of. Boarding and looting is way too strong and makes it easy to break the game compared to playing 'normally', but you can just not do that. Worth checking out if you have any interest in EV, Freelancer, Elite, Space Rangers, you know who you are.

This is truly an amazing game, with so much detail put in to it. I've been playing for around 7 or 8 years, and the dev is continuing to put out quality updates that add new content. The tip of the iceberg game wise is a fun way to play, but you can venture down the iceberg and discover so much more. I'd recommend this game to anyone!

For those that love this Genre, which is basically Escape Velocity: Nova, this is truly a great game. I would certainly pay for a product of this quality and content. I haven't played the most recent expansions, and I still have 100+ hours in just 2-3 games. I look forward to seeing where it can go from here, and the community support is amazing. Did we mention its free? How is one of the best games on Steam free? Get it and start playing it right now.

God, this is so addictive. It's surprisingly broad, as a universe, with lots of other ships flying around to make it feel very lived in.