Good space exploration/combat/colonising games | |
Well, there's of course Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain. It's an absolutely excellent such game, but it is rather old. It has the rather impressive quality of allowing you to research and outfit ships as you see fit rather than work from only templates. If you like Star Wars then Empire at War is incredibly good. The ground-combat element is rather rudimentary, but the empire-building and space combat is all you could ask. Sins of a Solar Empire is slightly different, but you won't find a better space-opera game anywhere. | |
You could also try Galactic Civilizations, I believe the gold version with all the content is pretty cheap now. It has the fighting, colonizing and space exploration you might be looking for, but it is, at its core, turn based.:) | |
Star Wars Empire at War. awesome awesome game. | |
I know its already been mentioned, but Sins of a Solar Empire is really good in my opinion. | |
First one that comes to mind is the classic Master of Orion. 2 is great, I haven't played 3 but apparently it's a disaster. | |
Here is a veriety of space strategies: Master of Orion/2, Star control/2, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Homeworld/2. | |
Star wars: Empire at war and it's expansion corruption are both great games and have pretty good combat. There is also Sins of a solar empire but i'd still really recommend Empire at war, it's been my favorite space combat game. | |
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, if you are into Civ games. | |
shhh first rule of master of orion is do not mention 3. it doesnt exist, its an abomination my personal suggestion would be to head over to matrix games and pick up distant worlds and its expansions. its the first 4x game ive played where it feels like you are running an empire. you can manage as much as you want and there are hundreds of ships at a time flying around under private hands. another one to pick up if you want good graphics is the sword of the stars and its expansions.. i wouldnt recomend sword of the stars 2 for another year or so until they iron out the bugs and release an expansion or two. one i enjoyed but next to unknown and hard to find these days is "birth of the federation"a 4x game in the star trek universe | |
Galciv 2 should be your only stop. It's fun and funny! | |
Master of Orion II rules this genre. There are other good ones, but this is THE game that serves as a reference to the rest. | |
If you don't mind old games Star Control 2 could be right up your alley. Oh someone already said that, color me impressed. Moo2, galciv 2, homeworld 2....Ok looks like most of your bases are covered so gonna reccomend some more obscure/less popular ones. Star Wolves games. You can buy them for cheap on steam and though not comparable to the above games in quality (if i were to give out a number, this series of games would be in the 6-7/10 region) and has more of an rts/rpg focus then a grand strategy perspective, it could be an interesting choice if you like space games and are willing to experiment a bit. Star Ruler: An indie 4x with a rather elegant research and ship design system. It's constantly being updated and improved and is also one of the most realistic space strategy games in how it uses newtonian physics and in its ship design. Well worth a look as an alternative to the other 4x space strategy games. | |
Op, the genre you'r elooking for is called "4X." If you do some searches on that, you'll find a /ton/ of stuff that fits the bill. The main series have already been suggested (Master of Orion, Galciv, Alpha Centauri..., but there's other lesser known series that you may also be interested, like Space Empires. Also, if you don't mind a non-scifi setting, there's even more classics in the genre -- in particular, Sid Meier's Civilization is considered the first example of the modern form of the genre. There were several earlier examples of the genre, but it wouldn't be too far off the mark to call most modern 4X games Civ clones, while earlier entries in the genre have relatively few direct descendants, if any at all. | |
old ones good: -freespace 1 and 2 - Edge of Chaos - Independence War 2 you become a space pirate and can board other ships. and you can trade then the stolen goods for better equipment. -eve online. (skip to 23:25 - homeworld 1 and 2(it is a really good stategy game) | |
Imperium Galactica 2. | |
If you're a trekkie there's also Birth of the Federation. | |
the best one is probably still Moo2 but my personal favorite is alpha centauri since i love civ but prefer the setting | |
Oh, man. Alpha Centauri was more then just a strategy game, it was an adventure! Mankind surviving on an alien world that gets increasingly bizarre the more secrets your scientists uncover. And the factions are divided by ideology, not nationality or race! That was an incredibly cool concept if you ask me. The best thing about these factions is that the game presents them in a neutral light; you have to make up your own mind about them. And your opinion will change with every game you play. | |
Spore: Galactic adventures (Trollface.jpg) | |
Space Empires IV and V are awesome if you can do with solid but not exactly amazing graphics. These two pretty much set out to simulate every scifi franchise out there, and are quite successful at that. Also, very active modding community. | |
Sword of the stars (the first game not the second, the second is still being fixed). It's basically civilization + total war in space. *You can customize your ships All in all it's a solid 4X game with huge amount of options and customization. | |
I'd recommend Star Ruler. It's your poor man's Sin's of a Solar Empire... | |
Sins of a Solar Empire. It has an expansion pack coming out soon, so I suggest you wait untill that. | |
I'd put up another vote for Sins of a Solar Empire, as long as you know what you're doing with strategy games. I don't, so I'm constantly getting zerged by the pirates... :( | |
Turn the Pirates off. In multiplayer, people barely use them, since they just add an annoyance that takes away from the pvp competition. Another vote for Sins of a Solar Empire, but I'd also recommend an older game: Hegemonia Legions of Iron. It's pretty neat. | |
"Was" constantly being updated and improved. That's pretty much done with now as the studio moves on to other projects. Any changes now are few and far between and not of any particular significance. | |
Put down another vote for Sins of a Solar Empire from me. Also, Sins of a Galactic Empire (a mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment). It turns the whole thing into a Star Wars game and completely rebalances the combat (not necessarily into anything better, just very different. Definitely requires re-learning early resource management) | |
The problem with 3 is that they made it so complex that you almost can't play it without turning on all the auto-management systems. For instance, each planet has something like 10 regions and you need to manage the economic potential for each region building by building. That and missiles do so much damage that every battle is over in 8 seconds once you move your ships into firing range, and usually there is almost nothing left of either side. I vote for Master of Orion 2. | |
Man, that mod is vicious. Fights with Pirates last mere minutes, and if you don't coordinate, your fleet will be smashed to bits. I love how there is more emphasis on maintaining your shields. If they drop, your ship is as good as dead. Really makes for some tense battles, where your Star Destroyer might be dominating several smaller frigates before it gets nuked because you missed the broadside get behind it. | |
Hey, I'm looking for some good PC space strategies - ie those where you get to roam around the galaxy making fleets, space stations, colonising worlds, fighting aliens etc
Anyone got any good reccommendations?