In The Black

Great space combat sim with a ton of potential. Elite, this is what space combat should look like: Hull, armor, kinetic weapons, missiles, speed, range.

Only get if you want to throw down the vbux for at the moment a few short unconnected missions over and over again or PVP multiplayer. It does look and feel great to play with a joystick and rudder pedals. Hopefully they keep rolling out content because at the moment it simulates the emptiness of space too well.

without a doubt the best spacecombat game i´ve played to date. if you yearned for EXPANSE-esque CQB... you´ve found it. you can feel this is EA (a little rough around the edges), however having a flight/combat-system this in-depth, complex and realistic that is FUN to play in is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unique :D especially set in space. can´t wait to see what this develops into.

Tasty AF.

Best flight model of any space sim I’ve played, and incredibly satisfying combat. I see some reviews complaining about lack of content at launch, but honestly there’s enough to enjoy here already to more than justify the price. Making a game like this in the first place takes passion, so I expect the devs will keep building on the solid foundations already here. This could become the new standard in space combat sims, happy to support the devs in their vision on this one.

First off -- Play The Demo!! Before you buy, play the demo to see if you like it. This is a well-executed game for an under-served niche, but not everybody enjoys this niche! In this game, momentum matters, consideration of your thrust vectors matters, all three spatial dimensions matter! I enjoy arcade sims and dogfight games like Squadrons, but sometimes I want to scratch the same itch that the space battles in The Expanse scratch. Mindfulness and planning are as important as speed and distance. (This is especially true during the missions that take place inside large interior spaces -- momentum matters, and that wall will not jump out of your way!) I highly recommend space and flight enthusiasts check out this game, it's a version of flight and combat that you don't see very often. The game is early access so it's still in development (don't expect it to be a finished product yet), but it has a good level of polish already. But please, for everyone's sake, try the demo before buying to see if you actually like it.

I'm going to give the mildest recommendation for this game, because the gameplay is great! It hits all the sweet spots for a certain space sim audience that wanted a methodical, semi-realistic space shooter that does not simply involve space jousting. Bugs abound (hopefully not for long), content is sparse, features are bare, but the foundations are solid and can definitely be built upon to make an amazing game. It's barely more expensive than a movie ticket here so definitely worth the price. HOWEVER you should be very aware about what exactly you are getting into: It's a [i]multiplayer-first, always-online, early-access, indie, niche[/i] game. A hard pitch to sell. Unfortunately, it reminds me a lot about Infinity Battlespace, which had the exact same pitch and is struggling to maintain its player population. Furthermore, it is a always-online game with no (public?) plan for its end of life, which is not exactly reassuring for such a small game. At the same time, it seems to be mostly a side project that does not require massive development funds, and digging in the project's history revealed that it used to have a Peer-to-Peer structure so [i]maybe[/i] there is a private backup plan but I'm just speculating there. Time will tell if In The Black will manage to find and retain its audience, but in the meantime I'm having a blast!

Incredible how they managed to fit 6 Degrees of freedom and realistic space movement in such a manageable set of controls. Hate space sims with 300 key bindings! This can fit all the keybinds on my Ps4 controller. Amazing game. Satisfying Railgun.

meh

strong atmosphere, strong presentation, a fun experience