Relic Space

This is a very nice EA title. To only have hit Steam just a few days ago it is very stable. I had no issues at all with it. Currently the Developers have stated that thy will eventually get around hopefully Steam Deck verified, but then again this is one of those games that honestly are better sitting at a desk playing in my opinion. So what is Relic Space? I am only a bit over an hour into the game and just completed the tutorial but pretty much the back story is sometime most likely in a few hundred years humanity has spread out through-out the asteroids, outer planets and some various space bases out past the Jovian system. Something happens that from the the imagery appears to cause the Sun to turn into a black hole. Now it isn't stated that, but the rendering is the typical modern rendering of today what a Black Hole would look like. Any way, bits and pieces of lore are found along the way that are gather by our protagonist that may help hold the key as to what really happened. However just like when the Earth was still around, Humanity has still managed to broken apart into a number of factions, each one are trying to take over as much resources and territory as the others. Also more that a few, if not all are also hunting these relics, some hoping to harness their power for good, while others may be out to turn against the other factions. This game is turn-based which I love. It's like also got an interesting story as well as the battles get a little tense at times even more so when you get massively outgunned in an ambush, which is where strategy comes into play. Do you play a cat and mouse game, or do you go head on against multiple enemies at the same time. Each map you go to (sector if you will) has a fog of war implemented so you have no true idea just how many enemies are there and how many ambushes await you. I would say it is a love child between Sid Sid Meier's Starships and something like Drox Operative for example. You do have a number of camera view options which helps on the planning. Also there is a number of ship types and weapon types you can equip with which further bring nothing new, but mix together some of the best of the best core ideas from prior games. I highly recommend that game.

its a pretty good game at the early game when you still feel like combat is strategic. later on , you realize you are just running the same missions over and over and making money any other way is pretty much impossible. half way to victory you very often find yourself fighting a swarm of smaller , faster ships , that simply surround you and blow you up while blocking any move. i couldn't bring myself to grind the rest of the way doing the same repeating missions.

It looks like a cool game at first, with tactical combat, 4 skill trees, possibility of trading, absolute freedom of travelling in space and doing different kinds of quests and upgrading your ship. But then, say 4-5 hours later you realize that you just got yourself into a farming game. The combat is not that tactical anymore, you just use your few skills again and again as soon as the cool down lets you. Then you eventually afford better ship so you buy an extra weapon and so you can take down deadlier ships - but guess what, with the same maneuvers/skills as before. You just have more DPS, more shields, more power. I am so sad to give 'not recommended', because the game actually has all that I like, except that the tactical combat is so repetitive and so boring.

Relic Space feels a lot like a trimmed down Space Rangers 2, or a turn based Star Valor, depending on the way you see things. You have your space craft, and needs to help your faction reach military or economic dominance, by dealing with its opponents, and collecting relics for them. So in a way, I suppose it could also feel like a turn based "Drox Operative 2", but I haven't tried it yet. Anyway, the space combat works well with the roguelike formula (moving 1 tile at once). The game has some ineratia, making you expand energy to turn or stop. It still has some Eearly Access flaws : I had some UI lock issues (I got into situations where the only command that worked was to warp to another sector), and some informations are missing (or I missed them), like where each commodity is produced, but it feels already like a solid game alreadu, I had good fun with the game in its current state. I just hope these UI issues will quickly get ironed out, and I am looking forward for more content.

Interesting game, but falls flat, imo. It had a 1.0 release, but it seems...unfinished. There are definite ui deficiencies that should be addressed. You can't move the map around freely, so you'll need to constantly zoom in and out to make sure you're moving to your target efficiently. Screen is a bit cluttered with information and I couldn't see anyway to turn that stuff on or off. The movement of the ship is a little janky too, though I feel like that's more of a feature of the game than something inherently wrong. I bought this game when it was in early access and was hoping to play it for a bit once it fully released, but again...I feel like it's not quite complete yet.

[list]Not gonna like, this game came as a pleasant surprise to me.[/list][list]I came across it thanks to the Space Game Junkie podcast, and though the price made me hesitate, the guys' positivity about the game made me pull the trigger.[/list][list]What do you get?[/list][list]A turn based, 3D, procedurally generated space roguelike. Pick your starting character, do missions for your faction(s), fight baddies, buy better gear, etc.[/list][list]This is all embedded in a larger conflict between factions, where each acts individually, kind of like in Drox Operative, and your actions will affect the balance of power.[/list][list]What I like:- It's fairly easy to pick up, though there's a bit of a learning curve in managing your fuel, energy, heat and systems.- The 3D graphics. It's not Elite: Dangerous, but very pretty to look at.- The Soundtrack.- The combat - clearly the heart of the game. Yes, it's turn based, but still quite fluid and fast paced, with various tactical options coming from the game's "terrain", ship types, equipment, and pilot abilities. It gives strong "one more turn" vibes.- Doing missions for the factions and gaining standing with them and access to better stuff (and I look forward to more mission variety).- Customizing your ship with new equipment from better reactors and engines to heat sinks, utilities, and different weapons types.[/list][list]Room for improvement - keeping in mind it's early days for the early access:- Some of the controls can be a bit janky, esp. in some combat situations where your ship appears to randomly lose target lock, and you have to click the target again to fire at it.- While the sectors are all of manageable size, faster zooming in and out + panning would be great, or having a map view of the sector available.- Fuel feels like a mixed bag. While the game is not too stingy with fuel consumption and refuel prices, losing track of it can send you into a spiral - you can emergency refuel, and if you have no cash, it will be for free, but it will come at a cost of standing with that faction. The emergency refuel will not be enough to jump to a new sector, and if the sector you're in has no missions or similar, it may be hard to dig yourself out of that hole. However, you can buy fuel scoops that let you refuel in gas clouds which are (more or less) liberally sprinkled through sectors, and for me so far almost eliminate any fuel concerns.- As to be expected, there's some bugs, though the only ones that are really bothersome to me so far happen in some missions where one of the target markers doesn't spawn and you have no idea where to go (seems to happen mostly on patrol missions). So I just avoid those missions for now till that's fixed.- In the heat of combat it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of your ship's status - since the game plays so well, it's easy to get caught up in the action and not pay attention that you're overheating until the big warning pops up, or that you're losing energy, or that your shield has relay damage which is damaging your hull integrity. But this is quite possibly an issue on my end, and I have to get better at paying attention to these things. :D[/list][list]Overall, I'm enjoying this very much, though, and I look forward to more content down the line, esp. more missions/stories, and I'm crossing my fingers for mod support to allow players to add ships/factions/equipment of their own. :-)[/list]

Very neat space roguelike that deserves way more attention. It's very satisfying just to fly around and upgrade your ship. I really appreciate the dark theme and the very well designed, highly accessible UI. Both mouse and keyboard controls work flawlessly. There is a simple yet fun trade system that adds to the depth of the game. Combat can be brutal sometimes but never unfair. Overall, great game!

Fun game with the potential to be an excellent roguelike with nothing else out there like it. Right now, though, the middle difficulty seems WAY too high. Ridiculously, ludicrously difficult. Also, RNG is all over the place with how many enemies you encounter. Could have a a very peaceful couple hours or you could be constantly harassed by packs of 4 or 5 ships right from the first sector in your single-weapon starter ship. Worse, they’re stupidly tenacious. I’ve had a pack of EIGHT enemies in like the third sector of the game chase me for hundreds of turns until I ran out of fuel and failed the mission with no chance of having enough DPS to get them all down. I’ll try it on the lower difficulty next, but the mere presence of an even higher difficulty is positively comical.

Fun and pretty deep space roguelike with 4X elements. Your faction grows, defends from enemies, builds stations, even researches new tech - often with your help. You have the destroyed Solar System to play in with various environmental effects from microasteroids to gas clouds and old derelict ships to plunder. Your movement in fights matters and you have to plan your course. Firing weapons builds heat. Using ablities consumes energy. There are numbers to play with for you via skills and various equipments. There are some petty bugs (FOR NOW) but the dev is working on them. The story isn't complet (YET) but procedural quests give you things to do. And the game is completable with them. And honestly, there are too few space roguelikes. And this one is good.

I am liking the game so far with the core of having a AI nation play a 4x game and you just being one of there pilots/captains leads to a nice rogue-like with quite a dynamic faction system as various stats for your allies can determine how the game plays out. For instance if you have low intelligence rating you will be ambushed by more shady empires or you could help procure a relic that will unlock new technology for your faction giving you the edge. The Combat system is reminiscent of space rangers a favourite of mine where the weapons fire automatically (though can be done manually) as well as the turn based system having everyone move at the same time keep its quite fast paced and enjoyable. However this early access so there are things to be done and balanced my original game 3-4 hours in it got to the point where the enemy was so powerful I just get killed immediately and was forced to restart. Now I am happy to say i had no idea what i was doing at first however I will also say the progression speed of factions seems very high with thousands of turns taking place sometimes a faction can get 5-10 stat increases in a row making it very hard to keep up if at all with the non player factions. I understand the concept of having them develop faster due to player intervention however its a bit too rapid making the game feel more like a huge rush not giving time to take your time and smell the roses as they say. I would also like to see a higher amount of player choice when it comes to how they can influence a faction as currently it seems based of missions and occasional events. For instance introduction of trading resources to help build up capabilities or having overall faction direction such as helping them prepare for a attack somewhere to trigger the invasion event. Regardless I will be doing a few runs during the course of Early Access and would recommend it for its current price tag as i am sure I will hit the 1-1 hour to cost ratio quite soon :)