In my ongoing quest to find the best space games, I’ve managed to play some great ones. It may be hard to believe for some of you, but among my favorites are lesser-known titles you normally don’t hear about. But just because they’re not famous yet doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future.
Here are a few indie PC video games that are out of this world:
FTL: Faster Than Light
This top-down game is stylized similar to the first PC games I ever played. However, its hard and downright brutal gameplay has kept me coming back for more. For those not familiar with Roguelike games, the premise is that you get one chance to get to the end. If your ships destroyed or if your crew dies, you start back at the beginning. While this might not be the title for everyone, it’s great for those who are down for a challenge and want to know what it feels like to have that perfect crew reduced to ashes in seconds. FTL is a spaceship simulator that lets you upgrade power and weapons while the crewmembers of your ship face off in combat as you travel to warn the Galactic Federation. The best part about this game is that you can customize your ship and crew to suit your style. This means you can add cloaking, shields and maybe some drone defenses. There are plenty of different ships to unlock and has some RPG elements sprinkled in along with special weapons and killer robots that wreak havoc on the enemy. Every new game is unique and I’ve spent too many hours playing it over and over again.
Kerbal Space Program
By popular demand, I will now cover one of the most unique games I have ever played. It might still be in beta, but it has everything needed for liftoff. While this isn’t a Roguelike game like FTL, it is still very difficult in its own right. Whenever someone asks me how hard it is to be a rocket scientist, I recommend this game as first-hand experience. You really get to design all aspects of your rocket- from stages to parachutes – with plenty of freedom to really make it your own. Whether you prefer to start your career and start building rockets, or simply go straight into sandbox mode and experiment with every piece in the game; it has something for every space explorer. You can also orbit around your home planet Kerbin, build space stations, visit moons, and travel to other planets. While I haven’t had too much success yet, I did manage to get into space. I currently have one poor Kerbal astronaut orbiting indefinitely until I can figure out a way to retrieve him. Don’t worry little Kerbal buddy we will find a way to rescue you.
Space Engineers
This is another game that’s on my radar but that I haven’t picked up yet. This game offers some of the fun in building your own spaceships as well as mining asteroids for resources using volumetric physics and space combat. Space Engineers really combines all the gaming aspects I love into one awesome game. Everything from multiplayer, construction, physics, to large scale wars is included. A lot of gamers are designing their very own unique spaceships as well as recreating some favorites from movies and shows. I hope I can join them soon.
Space is the Place for Me
I hope this recent game list will really inspire you to check out these titles. This is really an exciting time for PC games because the stuff we are seeing was only a dream 10 years ago. Sure, they have their quirks, but these games are showing us that anything is possible in the future.
What’s your favorite space game?
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