Riftborne

Great little game with an active Dev on thier discord. Theres a feature in the game that really brought a lot of enjoyability to the game. the "Advance Time" ability. You can actually run the simulation forward by whatever amount you choose in minutes. I recommend only doing 1 - 10 minutes at a time, as sometimes if you have a close rival they can send a raid that can arrive in under 10 minutes, and you'll miss a chance to respond to it, but, theres a little warning at the bottom of incoming raids while advancing, and you can cancel, so thats pretty amazing. If you like space, empire management, economy strategy, and planning, you'll love this game.

I love this game. Please read to see if you might love it too. The game is meant to be played as a bit of an idle game. You send out orders and things happen in (realish time). The dev did get some feedback from some players that wanted a faster option and he put in an advance time option. Ive played the game both ways and honestly quite enjoy leaving the game running on my laptop while Im getting things done around the house or playing with the kiddos. I'll put a few orders in, let the empire do its thing and then come back and continue. It runs easily in the background. Ive also played in one sitting while watching sports or a show. Its pretty chill. Check in on your colonies and resources. Make a plan and let it execute. For 6 dollars its a great value on sale and at 9.99 full price, its still a very fun game. Im glad I purchased and the dev is active so Im excited to see whats in store for the future. There are a couple videos on youtube, check them out and join the fun if that sounds like your kind of game.

Absolute banger of a game still in very active development. Now with full linux support and the ability to self-host the multiplayer servers easily. 10/10

My save got bricked after I accidentally put in an 8-hour (real life hours) order for the wrong ship and there was no way to cancel it. And it blocks the whole ship-building queue so I had to fast forward 8 hours if I wanted to build any other ships. Also there is no save/load mechanism. Edit: Started a new save and after a successful raid my whole fleet disappeared. I don't think this game is really playable yet.

Have you ever wanted Stellaris but everything takes REAL actual human time? and a game plays over actual weeks? Wanna be a part of a passionate discord community and a heavily involved dev? wanna do all this in A LIVE server where this is all happening in real time? I didnt, but im seriously enjoying this game. If you dont mind a "spreadsheet simulator" eg. a game with no fancy graphics consisting mostly of menus, Riftborne is surprisingly great. Its a slow burn and takes some poking around and looking up some guides if you're slow like me.

I’ve been a little obsessed with Riftborne lately, and that’s mostly because of the multiplayer. The interaction with other players is what makes the game stand out for me. Alliances, diplomacy, trade, rivalries, raids, planning attacks, defending territory, negotiating deals...It has something for everyone. One thing I really like is that there seems to be room for a lot of different play styles. You can focus on combat, logistics, industry, diplomacy, defense, or just become the person helping hold an alliance together behind the scenes. The game rewards people who think ahead and plan carefully. If you enjoy detailed strategy and long-term planning, there’s a lot here to dig into. Decisions matter, preparation matters, and working with other players matters. Some nights it feels like a strategy game. Other nights it feels like a political simulator with space warfare. I keep coming back because no two situations ever seem to play out the same way. If you like multiplayer strategy games where player interaction actually matters, Riftborne is worth checking out.

It is fun! I am usually too much of a brainlet for those kinds of game but this is just deep enough to be interesting while remaining intuitive.

This game has been captivating me for hours. When it says it's a long-form game, they mean it. But honestly that works very well for me. It has allowed me the time to interact with whatever systems/mechanics I want without being immediately punished for not doing the "right thing in the right order". It feels like a living, breathing world. I don't fully understand everything just yet, but I know I'll have the time to figure it out :D

I appreciate games like this, the old ASCII style is very cool and it's impelmented in an easy to handle way. The entire game could be played with just the arrow keys and the enter key, making it much less cumbersome than some others of the style. I do get a bit of that "One more turn" syndrome out of this by just advancing another 10 minutes or handling that big raid coming towards me before sending out a raid myself and then handling the next big one. My only criticisms so far is that early game is a slugfest. I'm in endless defensive battles against seemingly the entire universe. From the day my people are born they learn to build ships to replace the ones that we just defended with. I feel like the defensive side needs something other than ships, something that can handle combat a little better but is incapable of raiding or fighting itself. I'm also finding asteroid and strategic bases to be of little use early on, even though you get them early. Defending them would require exposing your home world to raids, so it appears as though you're better off ignoring them until you can get another full sized base that can also produce units to defend itself. Overall the game is very cool and a neat experience, especially for the price. I get the feeling there's a bit more to learn, and that there will be more added with time so I'm eager to see how the game expands.

Interesting take on the 4x, can't say I'm not enjoying the time I've spent playing it. Good: - Timer based simulation is an interesting mechanic. Advancing through the game is great, but also letting it run as you do stuff around the house is great too. - Looks great for a text based terminal game imo - Resource collection/upgrade loop plays well especially if you're a number goes up type of guy. Looking at economy and production mechanics through a use it or lose it type of lens is also something you don't see often in alot of in 4x's. - Plenty of flavor, corporate simulation with a stock market is a nice touch. Big reoccurring theme is many of the mechanics are simple but have a ton of depth, and are super unique. Helps the game stand out among similar games with higher graphical fidelity. Okay: - Still rough around some edges, but still getting plenty of updates from the dev. - I know it's limited by being terminal base, but UI and Docs could use some improvement. Too many clicks to get to certain actions or get a highlevel idea of what's happening. Some buttons/mechanics aren't explained too well in the guide (was struggling a bit with SPU's) Bad: - May be user error, but wasn't able to find an AI difficulty toggle and AI seemed dumb? Managed to cream the AI in classic mode pretty easily, within a few irl hours had a planet with a 1m+ pop while most other planets were under 10k? Will update review as I play it more Would recommend this game if you enjoy strategy games and are okay with the terminal UI, at any price under $15 I feel like its a steal, let alone at $8 for any fan of 4x's.