SpaceEngine

so good i could cream everywhere please add green penis shaped planets

Space Engine doesn’t consider itself a game, and its clear why. However, I still personally consider it a very fun experience and am very happy it has been ported to Steam. Space Engine is intended to be a universe simulation software that allows you to explore the entirety of the universe. It uses all known real life stars, planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, nebulae, black holes, and galaxies. And it procedurally generates the scientifically realistic unknowns. I like to be entirely objective in my reviews. Take out all personal bias and look at the game (In this case program) for what it is attempting to do. And it is an objective fact that I absolutely personally love the idea of a program/game/simulation/whatever else could encapsulate my realistically impossible wish to be able to explore the endless universe, and land on Pluto without immediately freezing to death, and be able to enter Andromeda and land on one of its planets, and literally whatever else. Space Engine accomplishes this with flying colors. And alongside that it fully allows for you to learn about the atomic composition of the planet, their average temperature, their atmospheric pressure, and much more. It does this all very, very well. Alongside just being very, very impressive. Every single star you look at is an interactable object you can click on and zoom into and explore the system. Some will just be boring non-solar systems. Others will be chalk full of planets with hundreds of moons. Its the entire universe, it's literally full of every single disappointment and every single excitement. Now, I’m semi-ashamed to admit I was completely lost upon first entering the program. I felt like that one game journalist who got stuck at the Cuphead tutorial but with the self-awareness to realize it was embarrassing. However I am very glad to say that the tutorials are more than prepared to show you how to easily control the program. While the file size is definitely beyond shocking for a Steam Program I can definitely understand why, it has to be for what it is. There’s only so small all that data can compress into. The graphics are stunning, however it does take a moment for it to fully render. Upon moving you will see blurs. But this is no fast-paced experience. After at most a couple of seconds the graphics will smooth out for you to gawk at. While this could be considered a negative I think objectively considering the scope of this whole thing it's done well. The music is done very nicely. It has various tracks it will play depending on what object you're looking at and/or standing on. And, sometimes, even what type of that specific object you're looking at and/or standing on. And they most certainly fit whatever it is. Now onto the negatives, which it pains me to say are there. The VR mode in this game is just atrocious. If you are looking at this solely for its VR mode just ignore this completely. For a beautiful program like this upon seeing even the idea of a VR mode I at least got hyped. Because wow, being able to see different worlds literally as if you are on them? Amazing. Until you actually enter and realize that the controls just do not exist. But there's a glimmer of hope! The Tutorials! I praised them earlier, so surely they will fix this issue! No. Space Engine just shuts down the final glimmer of hope by barring them behind PC-mode only. And if you're thinking this may just be a me problem, as I said I couldn’t grasp the controls at first, well I did learn them personally for this review and, perhaps this is just me, but I don’t think the right controller's analog stick should be pausing and unpausing time. No, not speeding up or slowing down time, if you press right? Time pauses. Press left? Time unpauses. Press left again? Pauses time now. It's literally just like a button that pauses and unpauses time. It's not direction dependent. And at the mention of time the time feature is quite disappointing. While you may expect it to like, do something it doesn’t. At some point I accidentally paused time and I only noticed like an hour later upon realizing nothing was moving. While events do occur such as planets lining up in their galaxy that's about it. Planets do not form, planets do not get absorbed by their sun. Stars do not supernova, black holes don’t fizzle. Time is just there. That's all it is. It's an unnecessary feature of Space Engine. Finally the devs seem to be focused on this “Flight Simulator”. Now this sounds interesting, perhaps they realized most people who buy stuff on steam are looking for a game. Until you realize to actually interact with it and get a tutorial you will need to read a 6 chapter manual. Not 6 part, 6 CHAPTER. (To be fair though, the final chapter is just the conclusion.) And they completely bar their previous scientific accuracy with their little preface warning “This guide is not official, and it may contain errors, not only within the writing itself, but also conceptual and even theoretical.” Now, I want to say I do not hate the idea of “Flight Simulator”. In fact, it sounds fun! Being able to fly a ship around all these various cool planets you find. But I would not wish to read a 6 chapter manual about doing it first upon my worst enemy. I would suggest taking this one back to the lab and taking a long hard thought about it first. It could be good, seriously. But in its current state to the average person this will be completely unrecognizable, uncontrollable stuff in their otherwise fun little space exploration program. As mentioned previously, this is most of what the devs are working on now. They are working on this and adding newly discovered stars and exoplanets and stuff. The exploration simulator seems to be in its final state. All that being said, if you are at all interested in space, even barring the scientific stuff, I would definitely suggest Space Engine. Whether or not you wait for a sale is up to you, I have listed the positives and negatives out for you. Space Engine is certain to provide a very interesting, awe-inspiring experience to those who are interested in space.