Spaceship trading game

Having you jump from rock to rock in search of fuel and materials to continue your journey towards the center of the universe. And once you get bored maybe try out some mods to bring back the freshness.

Stellaris manages to find the middle ground between complex strategy gameplay and custom-made storytelling. Every anomaly you research has the potential to turn into a multi-episodic story that changes your society forever. This may sound like it limits your freedom. Among the most well-known games on our list is Kerbal Space Program, a physics-based space exploration simulator with an educational focus.

Developed by Squad, this quirky game lets you design, build, and launch spaceships operated by little green men. But stuff like calculating the right angle your ship needs to breach the atmosphere will slowly become second nature. Well, if you keep at it. This ambitious MMORPG seeks to give players a complete simulation of what living in a galactic empire would be like, together with some more fantastical elements to keep things interesting. All of these are littered with resources to obtain, NPCs to meet, and challenges to overcome.

But CCP Games has been focusing on streamlining the new player experience as much as possible for the last couple of years. Give this a try if you never have before.

It certainly is all that. Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. When the clock runs out, you respawn and do it all over again — this time armed with everything you learned in your previous life.

We love how dynamic the world feels. One puzzle can only be solved when certain planets align, which only happens at specific times. The Paradox team behind medieval story generator Crusader Kings 2 turn their talents skywards, and the results are stunning. Stellaris is a deep, gripping strategy game about building up a space-faring empire and squashing any foe in sight. It has all the exploration of a traditional strategy sim, but your relationships with other factions take on more weight than usual.

It keeps getting richer through regular updates: for that reason, you ideally want to buy the PC version, which is ahead of the console edition its UI is easier to navigate with a mouse than a gamepad, too. Dive in, and prepare to lose all track of time. Mass Effect is the space RPG by which we measure all others. The original trilogy, and particularly the second game, remain masterpieces.

And thanks to the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition , it's even easier to relive the excellent series all over again. The combat improved as the series went on, but Mass Effect 2 has the best sense of pace, and does the best job of ramping up the stakes before a thrilling — and potentially heart-breaking — conclusion.

If you only have room in your life for one online FPS, make it Destiny 2. When it comes to the actual shooting, Destiny 2 makes the act of pulling the trigger more satisfying than perhaps any other FPS on the market. X4: Foundations just happens to be one of the latest installments available. Where you fit in with this universe is generally up to you.

While the big talk around right now is sending man to Mars, this game will give you the chance to get a head start on the fun. There are plenty of secrets to unfold, research for breakthroughs, domes to construct, and of course a colony to keep powered.

An even older title than Surviving Mars which is still finding just as many players jumping on regularly is Elite Dangerous. Speaking of a technical game, this title does rely on players watching their fuel much like any real-life vehicle.

Developers have been bringing more updates to this game to help keep it going with new improvements. In fact, at the time of writing this description of the game, developers recently put out a big 2.

Of course, since the original launch, the developers have managed to come out and deliver several updates that greatly turned things around. Of course, being set in space and literally having some of the most hypnotizing space battles in cinema, Star Wars had to have its own strategy title.

That would be Star Wars: Empire at War and surprisingly, it's one of the few strategy games for a franchise that's more fixated on warrior space monks and their laser swords. That's why Empire at War is a refreshing change of scenery for Star Wars games. As such, this is like getting two RTS games in one package. Space strategy games mostly stress out players with domain management and empire expansion that they forgot what's actually nerve-wracking in space: the fact that there are only a few sheets of metal between you and an unforgiving void.

It's a ship management simulator that also doubles as a strategy game. Players give orders to their crew amidst battle and other space travel predicaments. Oh, it's also a roguelike so do expect to start from the beginning upon failure. One of the most ambitious strategy games set in space, Distant Worlds: Universe stays true to its name and gives players the whole universe as their playground. It's everything a space game can be, a 4x strategy title and ship management simulator that also doubles as an RPG.

When not upgrading their space vessels or forming an armada, players are given the chance to corner the in-game market and economy. Empire management is also a thing but players shouldn't expect to learn everything after a few dozen hours. It's a complicated game. Despite Homeworld's popularity, not many games were able to reproduce the same formula or even attempted to follow suit. Then there's Nexus: The Jupiter Incident; it made a noble attempt and ended up with a commendable result.

It's an RTS through and through, so players only have to worry about managing their ships and making some foresight-fueled maneuvers.

The graphics surprisingly hold up well to this day and the game is dirt-cheap. That doesn't mean it's no good though as Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is right up there with Homeworld as one of the foundations of future real-time 4x games in space. Sid was born, did some stuff, then decided to become a writer. He finds respite in the sweet embrace of mass media escapism after having risked his life too many times as a journalist covering warzones and depressed areas.