SpaceCraft

Beginning is a little confusing but once you figure it out thegame is very engrossing.

relax , spaceships , crafting

❌ Not Recommended (for now) I really wanted to recommend this game. After roughly 75 hours of playtime, I can honestly say that SpaceCraft has an incredible foundation and a lot of potential. Unfortunately, its biggest enemy right now isn't the gameplay itself. It's the amount of time the game asks you to spend... simply waiting. Looking back at my playtime, I'd roughly estimate it like this: Around 30% exploring planets and gathering resources. Around 1% actually dismantling shipwrecks. The remaining nearly 70% was spent watching progress bars, waiting for machines to finish, waiting for materials to smelt, waiting for crafting queues, or waiting until I could continue with the next production step... where another timer was waiting for me. Eventually, it started feeling less like a space survival game and more like a loading bar simulator. I understand that SpaceCraft isn't supposed to be a cozy game, and I don't expect instant progression. Slow progression can absolutely be rewarding. However, there is a huge difference between long-term progression and artificially extending playtime. A game should respect the player's time by filling it with meaningful gameplay, exploration, interesting decisions, or rewarding challenges. Waiting is not gameplay. Progression often feels unnecessarily time-gated Many important mechanics are locked behind extremely long progression walls. For example, I finally unlocked Base Builder Tool 3.0 after roughly 70 hours, allowing me to properly dismantle shipwrecks. Wrecks are something players discover very early, yet the tool that allows you to fully interact with them arrives dozens of hours later. The same issue appears throughout the game. Many important mechanics are barely explained, while essential information is hidden until much later. This makes planning ahead unnecessarily difficult. A good example is finding materials that can later be processed in a Recycler without having any indication of when or where that machine will become available. New players constantly have to guess whether they should keep materials or sell them because the game simply doesn't tell them what's coming later. Showing future technologies in the tech tree with a simple "Unlocked at Tech Level X" label would already solve a large part of this problem. Quest progression needs better pacing The quest system also needs another balancing pass. Some quests appear far earlier than they actually feel enjoyable to complete. A good example is the mission that asks players to explore the dark side of planets. Yes, the quest is technically possible with early-game equipment, but at that point most players are still using solar-powered ships because fuel engines haven't been unlocked yet. This turns the mission into an exercise in waiting for sunlight and constantly managing power instead of enjoying exploration. The quest isn't difficult. It's simply tedious, especially for new players who are still learning the game's mechanics. That difference matters. Ship building has potential, but needs improvement Building your own ship is one of the coolest ideas in SpaceCraft. Unfortunately, I also found it unnecessarily confusing. The game barely explains some of the building mechanics, and I was disappointed that structural blocks cannot easily be rotated into different orientations, or at least the game never properly explains if and how that's possible. If certain placement limitations are intentional, they should be communicated clearly. If more building options exist, players should be taught how to use them. Considering how important ship building is, the tutorial leaves too many unanswered questions. Performance The performance also needs work. The game looks good enough, but it doesn't look demanding enough to justify the amount of FPS drops and stuttering I experience, especially near larger player bases or populated areas. My PC normally has no trouble running significantly more demanding games, so this feels like an optimization issue rather than a hardware limitation. Bugs I'm honestly not even going to judge the game too harshly for bugs. It's an Early Access title. Bugs are expected. However, systems like the Recycling Plant currently appear to be broken for many players, myself included, and there are still several mechanics that either don't work consistently or aren't explained properly. Final thoughts I don't want this review to hurt the game. Quite the opposite. I genuinely hope the developers read reviews like this because I believe SpaceCraft has everything it needs to become an excellent space survival game. As someone who considers himself a casual player, I don't mind games that take time. But long-term motivation and artificially dragging things out are two completely different concepts. Right now, SpaceCraft often mistakes one for the other. A player should stop playing because they've had an exciting session and want to come back tomorrow. Not because another progress bar told them to wait twenty minutes. I truly hope the developers continue improving progression, quest pacing, crafting, performance, and quality-of-life systems. If those areas receive the attention they deserve, I'll happily change this review to a positive one in the future. For now, however, I unfortunately can't recommend it.