Starcom: Unknown Space

Very nice gameflow, I like the puzzle parts where you sometimes have to figure stuff out for yourself, not just wait for a quest to update. Combat is dynamic and possible for several different playstyles, ship upgrade and design actually matter. Biggest downside for me are the default keybinds. They seem to favour playing with both hands on the keyboard, not primarily keyboard + mouse. Slightly weird at first but you learn pretty quick.

Thank you Jingles for showing me this awesome gem! Loving every minute of it!

This is a bad game... I really tried with this one, but here goes: 1. The controls are terrible. They are absolutely awful. This makes for constructing the ship next to impossible. I really don't know how to do it. This wouldn't be an issue if the game held your hand at least a little, but nope its cryptic. Combining the fact that it is cryptic and poor controls has made for unplayable experience for me. I just want to build stuff but I don't know how. 2. I feel that the grandness of space is off here. I just feel like these are small ships etc in front of a desktop background. I mean, how big is this ship? Shouldn't a gas giant be a lot bigger... like way bigger? I shouldn't be able to completely bypass a gas giant in a few seconds. There's only a few planets per zone so this was the developers chance to you know... show space? Back to bypassing a planet in meer seconds. Like I think I'm stranded, wouldn't there be some useful resoruces on these planets to use? This means the game is wasting my time. Once I bypass a few planets for no real reason it kind of lost me. 3. The combat is horrible. I need it for resurces though? I couldn't find that on a planet? Then why am I taking out spaceships or going around space inb the first place? I don't know, for you see if I don't know what I am doing than I am forced to make my own conclusions. I give up. I really wanted to like this, but this feels like someone played tried to make a Paradox game into some desktop naivgator game? Like, no, it sucks.

The game progression just fizzles out at some point and you end up sailing aimlessly through space looking for more system to gain more XP to progress, turning a potentially great story into a pointless slog.

Enjoyable game. The combat is the best part and challenging at times. The loadout of your ship matters and you will find yourself flying back to build a new ship for a battle that troubles you. A few of my complaints are that the day to day flying is a bit tedious, same with the planetary science events. Your crew gets injured but not killed and then you have to sit there and wait for them to heal before doing the next event or whatever. It should be improved or cut. Buy it on sale, $10-$15 is reasonable.

Let me start by saying that I've never played Nexus and only found out that any of this existed, a couple of weeks ago, from a random youtube video. Let me continue by saying that this is possibly the greatest space exploration/mystery game I've ever played in 30 years of gaming. The story is absolutely phenomenal with enough mystery, uncertainty and questions to keep your interest but not enough to get frustrating or boring. The gameplay loop is addicting and the art style and assets are gorgeous. I'd be very surprised if this doesn't end up being game of the year for me. If you're thinking about buying it, do yourself a favor. Stop watching videos about it and just play it with as minimal knowledge as possible going into it. Uncovering the story and solving mysteries is where this game shines. 10/10 Recommend

I learned of this game from TheMightyJingles, and I have thoroughly enjoyed this 2D space exploration game. The writing and story feel well done, like Star Trek vibes. The ship-building also surprisingly had me spend quite a bit of time trying to balancr resources, efficiency, and design.

Star Trek vibes through arcade-like graphics. The ship designer is good: researching tech and gathering resources, with a little bit of creativity can result in a pretty awesome ship. Away missions are text based, but interesting, in a similar vein to Stellaris. The story is intriguing, so far. Best of all though, it is quick to dive in and get something done: finish a mission, gather some resources, explore a system, have a battle with one of the villainous factions, etc. It barely takes 5 minutes to get stuck in. And as for exploration, it has the "Civ effect", i.e., "I'll explore just one more system". I highly recommend it, and thanks to The Mighty Jingles for the recommedation.