Eh, the systems were too complicated and convoluted to me ngl. It get's a 3/10 just for making play 40 hours before even telling me about how I can have stations of my own. By then I was too bored to carry on.
for real man, that game was awesome. I remember being on a server with a couple of other guys and we played a fun role on the server, basically not aligning to pirates or navy. everyone was free game to us, we had many many fights where we would be outnumbered at times 5-1 we'd win more than we'd lose. It got to the point admins banned us for a while coz people started getting a bit salty. Good times
I absolutely adored that game back then. I managed to find a great route for trading between 3 planets, that wielded great profit in a short period. I was proud of that. I explored most, if not all there was to explore, and managed to find the robot and monkey planets. I'm pretty sure there were more secrets to find. I miss that game so much. Most space games since then were either too simple, or too complex. Freelancer was just the right amount.
Thank you for supporting X4, it's an amazing game that has brought me hundreds of hours of joy. Also, Egosoft is a great developer that deserves all the praise in the world. Not sure why you included Star Citizen though. It's a bug ridden mess of a cash shop, and can't even be considered a game.
@@LTGamingTH-cam SC isnt a game ment for the poor, if you dont have a job dont bother with SC. thats how they made it and how it will saty. its 45$ min just to even gain access to the game. dont hate on just because your poor
At its best, Star Citizen is amazing. Sadly, the issue is you're constantly getting your time wasted by jank and even if the jank wasn't there it's pretty much the space sim equivalent of Forza. Your only real goal is to fill out your garage with every shiny toy you think looks cool. Ironically this is in opposition to their business model of selling you those toys for real money so you don't have to play the game to get the cash for them- if you spend money on ships you've got nothing to spend in-game credits on...
Subnautica warrants an honorary mention. It's not set in space directly but is on an amazing alien world, which required space travel to reach in the lore. It's great sci-fi. Puzzled why ME2 specifically is mentioned and not the trilogy.
If you haven't heard of these try it, i love them. 1. NEBULOUS: Fleet Command 2. Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander 3. Flight Of Nova 4. House of the Dying Sun 5. Between the Stars
I smiled at the end of this. I only played Stellaris and Starfield. I admire all the variety in the past two decades or so. This video game genre has a rich future. And I don't even recall Star Wars being mentioned!
LT Gaming! Thanks for the kind words about Liberation! Obviously I'm a space game fan but I've been loving your recent run of RTS videos too. In your voice over you mention you sometimes get angry emails. Nobody deserves that for just doing their job and I hope it's not a problem. However, speaking of angry emails, I'm not saying you have to watch Blake's 7 but... it is kind of awesome for a show from the 1980s. It's cheaply made though. The power of good writing and acting! They only had £50 per episode for special effects (true fact!) and yet managed to do an epic space opera. So roughly a similar budget to Liberation hah Regards, (The other) Luke
All these games are so good looking. Space Engineers I could really get into and nobody can deny Elite Dangerous looks and SOUNDS amazing. FTL is a classic.
elite Dangerous is a shallow and empty game. It had so much potential and FDevs completely ruined it. Many guilds have shut down, many players have left. An entire galaxy to hide stuff in and they ruined it.
Space Engineers is a lot of fun especially if you like building. I still need to finish my full size Gundam, though I gave up on making Optimus Prime. Have seen an awesome vid of someone that made Gypsy Danger from Pacific Rim lol.
@@astro837 ELITE is a life-size galaxy simulator (400 billion star systems). There is no obligation to play in multiplayer. There is a choice of co-op and single, but the galaxy and all discoveries are shared on one server. It is too large for PC, especially at the time it was created. Work on the server was chosen and it is not a bad option. The most that can complain are multiplayer players, because the game in this mode is marginal and was never created for it.
Important not is that X4 has "only" very positive reviews is mostly due to technical state of the game at launch and for the first couple of years. X4 is EASLY one of the best space sim games ever made. It's just so goddamn good that IMO it's a must have for any s-f fan.
X4 is probably the best space sim out there, especially if you like single player over multiplayer, the closest thing I could compare it to is eve and even that's an entirely different thing. The only complaint I've had with X4 is that certain factions die off too fast without player intervention.
The special thing about Endless Space is it's art style and music, really well done. Shame the galaxy isn't so endless. 250 Stars, i wished for more, but then again our PCs are most often the limit. Just with X4, only our CPU holds us back from creating an even bigger game. When you make a video about X4, don't forget to shine some light on some of the most famous mods, like Interword which alone attracts many players.
Endless Space 2 has one of the most satisfying art styles and UI I've ever seen. I love that game for those 2 points alone. The game itself is magnificent. Prefer it over Stellaris even.
Thanks for the shoutout; the thumbnail looks great (I'm a little biased)! Great list, per the usual, and one with a few that are going to be on my shortlist to pick up, like Liberation. Always a pleasure, seeing Starsector on the list- I absolutely adore the heck out of that game ... Might have to go load it up now. Thanks again and keep the great lists comin'!
You hit all the main players for sure and a few here I didn't know about. Wasn't even aware of the Steam Exploration Fest so thats a massive bonus haha! Starcom is a real gem :)
Loving that Elite II/III feel from Liberation! Can't wait to try - thank you for this list Luke, so good to have someone finding these gems! You're a Scholar and a Gentleman, Sir!
Love the list. Please in the future put more actual game play in, not just the cinematic. And warn is if games says free but actually has a paywall to access all the content. Would love more lists like this, makes looking for the next 100 hours of missing time more easy 😆
Love to see some Star Trader Frontiers. It was fun being around back when it was is very, very active development and we could nag the devs for build details, and see some of those implemented in the week.
Great game with a lot of replay value. Runs on any potato computer and also on android mobile devices. Still updated frequently. It's hard to find more dedicated developers improving a finished product at no extra charge with perhaps the exception of No Man's Sky!
I play star citizen regularly and I gotta say that I'm disappointed in cloud imperium games. They have been saying just a little bit longer for the Pyro star system for 2 plus years but have yet to release it. I have vowed to not put another actual dollar into it without them fulfilling their promises.
5:20 The bad reviews for Empyrion is due to the new DLC "Dark Faction" they released within the past year that no one liked, the base game it self got review bombed. The base game is VERY good. It uses voxles (blocks) to build ships and bases, it's a survival game so you gotta eat often, craft weapons and build ships.. and you gotta create sources of oxygen so you can explore space.
I can highly recommend Star Control 2 aka. The Ur-Quan Masters. It’s an old game that imho has aged very well; and is certainly a classic of the genre. Despite some trademark controversies, the game received a revamp and is currently available under the title “The Ur-Quan Masters”.
Not sure if you'd consider it an exploration game, but every time I think about space games I'm remember of the good hours I had with freelancer - personally I think it's an truely awesome game, dated by now, but still great!
Great list! A few more worth a look :- Astrox: Hostile Space Excavation Chorus DarkStar One Distant Star: Revenant Fleet Nova Drift Psycho Starship Rampage Reassembly Rebel Galaxy Outlaw Slipways A few sleepers in there in particular Reassembly and Psycho Starship Rampage. Fly often, Fly Safe 07 🖖😎
The banished vault should be on this list. With space exploration as its core feature, amazing art style and challenging gameplay, it is a truely unique experience.
Regarding Empyrion Galactic Survival: I highly recommend you play the Reforged Eden scenario. This free Mod makes the Vanilla game a thousand times better! And the most bad reviews come from the DLC Dark Faction which is contained in itself. I bought it to support the devs because i played the game (mostly Reforged Eden) for over 9000 hours now - and still play it!
You sadly missed a huge gem with Spacebourne 2 - Single dev made into a huge RPG with space combat, space mining and planet side aspects with an outpost and command strategy concept baked in with huge system wide battles for hostile takeover of systems or massive defense vs other factions attempting to overtake yours. It doesn't have a huge name behind it nor the advertisement of big company names, but man it delivers.
Didn't expect Space Engineers in a 'Space Exploration'-List, because there isn't much to 'explore'. But this will, hopefully, change with the next Update.
Booya! I have over 600 hours in Cosmoteer. I can't explain how much I love that game. It's not even close to done yet and I still can't stop playing it. Especially once you start throwing in mods.
I love Starfield and thank you for not being like all the other "content" creators who do nothing but hate on it for the clicks. I appreciate honest commentary so I'll be subbing :)
Thanks thats a very refreshing comment. I always try make my own mind up. 90% of content creators go with what they think is cool to say ;) Starfield has its merits!
X4 is one of the most in depth space games, but for some reason often left out of the discussion when talking about space games. Granted ist not easy to get into unless you spend some time.
I remember when I downloaded FTL, started playing and suddenly 12 hours had passed. That game has an experience entirely out of proportion to the sum of its parts.
Star Control Origins comes to mind. Really mixed feelings. The cartoony parts aren’t my thing, the combat is arcadey, but the feeling of taking your first steps away from earth and into a bigger stellar community was well done (for me).
Yes just the fact I never feature Stardock Games on the channel because of the way they treated me once. Yes never liked the cartoony parts of that game!
@@LTGamingTH-cam Oh? Damn. Well being nice is important. There's always something else I could be playing in my steam library, something else I could spend my money on.
@@neutrino109 I totally agree dude. We were a very small channel at the time. I'm not petty at all but have principals of when someone treats me bad...I won't b promoting them!
Love the list! I find special peace of mind playing space games and i love discovering new things to try. I didnt lnow the sequel to Starcom Nexus was available already, Im getting it right away! By any chance have you tried "Wayward Terran Frontier: Zero Falls"? It had been without updates for a while but just received a big one. Looks good but im not sure how deep it is.
@@LTGamingTH-cam - I don’t even have a computer 🖥️ right now. I’m planning on building my own. This Christmas 🎄 season. A Corsair 9000D computer 🖥️ case. Well as soon as it’s released. I have always loved space flight games. Like Elite Dangerous for example. By the time I’m ready to buy. Some of the flight ✈️ slim tech. You will have posted. A lot more videos 🎥. Have a great day..
Bro, that Title....that Title is all I ever wanted in a space game. Every game that ever promised space exploration literally became a FPS combat game or just flat out lied. NMS,ED,SC etc
X4 is amazing. When i bought it however, i raged quit because of the default controls and bugs in the tutorials. I tried to return it but passed the steam refund time 🤣. I'm glad I didn't because when it works, damn is it immersive and fun. Highly recommended. Gameplay is par excellence, but the game has some distracting bugs and is not intuitive. Also what seems like a gameplay bug is usually a misunderstanding of the gameplay systems.
I started out with a Titan starter ship with Squadron 42 for $75 USD and never bought anything else. I played many hours a day for nearly 2 years, probably over 1000 hours of enjoyable gaming. Sure its incomplete, updates are hit and miss, and you need a mega strong PC to run it, but its still fantastic and worth the $45 or so USD minimum to buy in. There is no need to spend fortunes of IRL money in beta because you can buy nearly everything with in game currency. Multiple times (wipes) I have owned nearly every ship in the game and earned so much money that I would give away 50 million uec when I would see someone took a big setback. I will start playing again once they get server meshing because even with only 1 solar system of 4 planets its a pretty empty universe when a game server only supports 150 or so players.
Yeah but most game devs never even TELL YOU how much money they spent on the games they develop. I mean Rockstar has been (apparently) working on GTA6 for the past 12 years, and I'm sure they've pour at least $1billion into it, from all the cash they still make from GTA Online.
I wasn't aware that I actually knew and played so many space games. :-) I'd add Star Valor, Approaching Infinity and Space Pirates and Zombies too, maybe just for fun also Aurora 4x because it's so weird and unique. Depends on where you draw the line in terms of "exploration" but the first two should easily fit the bill.
Its X4 which tops the list :) I have started doing that on some videos but this was a bit of time pressure to get out. So il have to rely on Timestamps :)
surprised no-one in the comments even mentioned starship evo... sure, it's a long way from being finished but i'd say it's ship building is the best out of the voxel style games...
@@LTGamingTH-cam it's being made by one guy but he's done plenty already, the game already has a whole galaxy of stars/planets and on top of spaceships you can make hovercrafts, mechs as well as your own personal firearms...
X4 for me was tought getting into. I owned it since it came out but could not get into it. It was not until timelines that help me experience things that I will get to experience as I go forth in X4. so it was not a bad but I do understand you position. Thanks for the video.
A small coffee break game that's probably not big enough to make it onto such lists would be Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. Less than a dollar and a quite strong just one more round itch.
My favorite space game of all time was Freelancer, and I’ve been trying to find something similar ever since. Really wish we could get a remake of that with modern graphics.
Shoutout to space engineers, the best sandbox/builder type space game in the last decade with nothing coming close to dethroning it. I just wish it had more survival aspects. Praise Clang!
I may have to re-visit X4.... I have about 6 hours on it years ago and really didnt think much of it at all - hence the tiny hours. Stellaris and Elite I have hundreds of hours on.
Excellent video. I tried looking for a lot of the titles you talked about to see if they are available on a tablet. Sadly no. Not a single one. Can you do a video on eve echoes. A tablet version of eve online. Thanks.
Why would a dev turn on you for featuring their game and exposing it to new potential players? Every list you put up there are several games I've never heard of and quite a few of them end up on my wishlist.
For Starfield, Bethesda took a few of the concepts from Star Citizen and ran off with them, let their old incontinent dog drool on them for awhile then jammed them into a half baked vegan gluten free brownie and then forgot to set the timer to finish cooking it.
As much as I love Starfield, I'm still frankly surprised it's on this list, as, boy howdy, it certainly has its problems. Still, noting Space Engine made my day. Thanks!
Well, Star Traders Frontiers is a hidden gem indeed. Not sure why that Arbiter reminds me of Mira Fedor from Marianne de Pierres' 'Sentients of Orion' novels.
Im hoping to get back into Elite soon. Star citizen is attractive but at the same time I’m just not sure. I’m running a good combo of mods right now that has kind of saved Starfield for me, for now. I want so badly for X4 to be a good game for me and there are some mods that almost get it there but there are a few fundamental things I cant stand about it: Turret groups, pigeon hole ship design (basically other than weapons, everything else you fit on a ship is the same with very minor tweaks), and the in system/out of system combat calculation system the game uses. Basically within a ship size class, every ship Will have the same sensors, there are no options to buff hull/armor over shields, missiles are worthless, stealth isn’t a thing, and if you are building a ship/fleet you plan to use in systems you arent playing in than there is no strategy needed for the builds (just max everything out and put on the highest damage possible weapons)
I'd like to point out that Eve Online isn't "a free to play space mmo", it's a subscription based mmo (and an expensive one too), which happens to have a free mode that is extremely capped (you can only use some ships, train some skills, etc). It's basically the old one month trial they used to have, except now there's no time limit. Sure, it's useful to get an idea on whether you'll like the game or not, but it's very far from the real thing. I think this is an important point because some people might say "Eve is pay to win" since you can only do the cool stuff paying subscription, when in reality it's just a "pay to play" game where, like I said, you have a free trial mode to see if it's worth your money. Nice video anyway.
Even with mods, Master Of Orion needs Stellaris sized maps. Srellaris needs Master Of Orion simplicity and devs who stop monkeying with the planetary construction mechanics.
Oh yes there has been one, but only one (if you put SC below X4). Shores of Hazeron. Basically an MMO version of X4 with players instead of NPC races, but with 1999 graphics. It also had designable ships with actual full interiors. First person boarding and commanding and equipping individual crewmembers and troops. It also had fully accessible 1/10 scale planets, citybuilding (at the time also building with full interiors) and 20 virtually infinite galaxies. It had a far better distant spacetravel model than any of the other spacegames in existance: actual acceleration unti you reach the ingame lightspeed, or warp wich is the same but up to 45x faster (90x before the reduction of warp speed). It was like first person Stellaris in a way where you could encounter both more and less advanced players and choose whether to observe them, wipe them out, ignore them or help them. You could also just scare them by putting a huge ship over one of their cities. It was like X4 meets Starcitizen meets Stellaris with horrible graphics and quite a few bugs. Now it has a singleplayer version called Hazeron Starship, but that didn't get AI to replace players, so it gets boring after you colonise a few planets, since you have no threats. Also the new fully 3D ship designer is kinda tedious so it ruined the experience of designing your own ships for most people. I love X3TC and X4, but full interiors and a virtually endless amount of accessible planets and having to actually fear other players was an experience unlike any other. Shores of Hazeron to me was the absolute pinnacle of spacegaming and it is a shame it is no more. My only hope is egosoft adding planets at some point or Hazeron adding good NPC empires like X4, but I'm afraid neither will ever happen.
@@ivanpetrovic8257 Fun Hazeron story: I had messed around with it solo once, and later invited some friends to start a small empire we were messing around with. Roughly around the time we were gearing up for our first moon expedition, a ship the size of our entire city showed up in orbit. "Hey yeah you guys spawned in the middle of my empire and that's not desirable for you or me." he scouted us out an awesome planet outside his empire to colonize and gave us a fully upgraded ship just big enough to pack everything we needed into it. He even named it after an important planet in the sci-fi book our leader named our empire after.
I would add Juno: New Origins to this list. Its a KSP clone, but it's honestly better in many ways. Nicer aesthetic, more in-depth builder come to mind.
Great and complicated array of four major sub genres in the space genre. Btw, can you please fix the spelling error for Faster in the Faster Than Light stamp in the description's timecode list?
Wondering if anyone can help me, chances are its no longer an active game. but ive been trying to remember a spaceship MMO that was out years ago. after the introduction you had to pick a faction, 1 of them had vertical orientated ships while the others were more like a U shape, like some Wipeout racers and were built horizontally.
Interestingly enough I have plaid most of the titles on this list, except for the last one, but I do have it as I am learning the ropes. I find X games harder than Avorion. Yet both games should play the same to an extent.
Fun video but while Eve Online and even Eve Echoes are very polished games with a lot of depth and unparallelled graphics I wouldn't reccomend to anyone due to how the economy works and the skill system and the multibox accounts putting a new player at near 100 years behind in terms of progress alone when they start playing. These people won't even feel the punishing losses on top of what I mentioned earlier, and the beginner player will be devastated from the most insignificant ship or station losses.
The story is as bad as the game, there are things that does not make sense. The only good thing is ship building which is sad because the ship is used only as loading screen. Ah sorry the game has pronounces too, it's very important.
Only Star Wars Galaxies does it right. You can go out to space to kill imperials or do some mining BUT you also have your ground game too. Go hunting, craft, decorate your house, upgrade your space ships, etc. Not ground only, like most mmo's and not space only, like EVE Online, Freelancer, etc. Newer entries could also include Starfield, which sucks big time because it feels like Fallout 4, which also sucks cause it doesn't feel like a Fallout game and Star Wars Outlaws, which feels like a Star Wars game !
Thank you for the praise on X4 🤩
We always support X4 as its given me so many hours of amazing gameplay! Still looking for the ideal time to make a standalone video :)
Best space game ever!
X4 is the *Best Space Game OF ALL TIME* Nothing is better than X4.
Should focus on working on your horrible AI instead of typing random comments on TH-cam
@@8Tarkus8 go back play your 2d space game Buddy.
X4 is the best Space Game *OF ALL TIME* I have over 3000 hours in X4. I played it almost everyday for over a year and I still love it.
Eh, the systems were too complicated and convoluted to me ngl. It get's a 3/10 just for making play 40 hours before even telling me about how I can have stations of my own. By then I was too bored to carry on.
X3 is the best Space Game of all time, X4 just looks better!
Wish they would make a freelancer sequel. Loved that game 20 years ago.
Try Underspace
for real man, that game was awesome. I remember being on a server with a couple of other guys and we played a fun role on the server, basically not aligning to pirates or navy. everyone was free game to us, we had many many fights where we would be outnumbered at times 5-1 we'd win more than we'd lose. It got to the point admins banned us for a while coz people started getting a bit salty. Good times
I absolutely adored that game back then.
I managed to find a great route for trading between 3 planets, that wielded great profit in a short period. I was proud of that.
I explored most, if not all there was to explore, and managed to find the robot and monkey planets. I'm pretty sure there were more secrets to find.
I miss that game so much. Most space games since then were either too simple, or too complex. Freelancer was just the right amount.
Thank you for supporting X4, it's an amazing game that has brought me hundreds of hours of joy. Also, Egosoft is a great developer that deserves all the praise in the world.
Not sure why you included Star Citizen though. It's a bug ridden mess of a cash shop, and can't even be considered a game.
X4 I will agree with you on. SC we just need to wait and see ;)
X4 best space game ever!
@@LTGamingTH-cam SC isnt a game ment for the poor, if you dont have a job dont bother with SC. thats how they made it and how it will saty. its 45$ min just to even gain access to the game. dont hate on just because your poor
@@giligameshlol, sc cultists always surprise.
At its best, Star Citizen is amazing. Sadly, the issue is you're constantly getting your time wasted by jank and even if the jank wasn't there it's pretty much the space sim equivalent of Forza. Your only real goal is to fill out your garage with every shiny toy you think looks cool. Ironically this is in opposition to their business model of selling you those toys for real money so you don't have to play the game to get the cash for them- if you spend money on ships you've got nothing to spend in-game credits on...
Subnautica warrants an honorary mention. It's not set in space directly but is on an amazing alien world, which required space travel to reach in the lore. It's great sci-fi. Puzzled why ME2 specifically is mentioned and not the trilogy.
If you haven't heard of these try it, i love them. 1. NEBULOUS: Fleet Command 2. Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander 3. Flight Of Nova 4. House of the Dying Sun 5. Between the Stars
Played them all and most been on the channel 🚀
Starsector is the best space and sandbox game I've ever played
@@8Tarkus8 2d game...
Boring.
@@efxnews4776 you mindset is
@@efxnews4776 your clearly not an adult or a true gamer lol pixel art is the best
@@giligamesh X4 is way better.
@@efxnews4776 never even heard of it. clearly not that great of a game
I smiled at the end of this. I only played Stellaris and Starfield. I admire all the variety in the past two decades or so. This video game genre has a rich future. And I don't even recall Star Wars being mentioned!
@@ericlarson7556 buddy, X4 is literally Stellaris in first person.
Woo, Space Engineers represent!
LT Gaming! Thanks for the kind words about Liberation! Obviously I'm a space game fan but I've been loving your recent run of RTS videos too. In your voice over you mention you sometimes get angry emails. Nobody deserves that for just doing their job and I hope it's not a problem.
However, speaking of angry emails, I'm not saying you have to watch Blake's 7 but... it is kind of awesome for a show from the 1980s. It's cheaply made though. The power of good writing and acting! They only had £50 per episode for special effects (true fact!) and yet managed to do an epic space opera.
So roughly a similar budget to Liberation hah
Regards,
(The other) Luke
Thanks for the message Luke! As a fellow Luke I can say it was truly appreciated 🚀 look forward to more from Liberation 🚀
All these games are so good looking. Space Engineers I could really get into and nobody can deny Elite Dangerous looks and SOUNDS amazing. FTL is a classic.
I really enjoyed my time with hard space ship breaker. Definitely worth checking out if you want to explore giant ships
I was about to try ED until i saw that you need to make an account. A big nope for me
elite Dangerous is a shallow and empty game. It had so much potential and FDevs completely ruined it. Many guilds have shut down, many players have left. An entire galaxy to hide stuff in and they ruined it.
Space Engineers is a lot of fun especially if you like building. I still need to finish my full size Gundam, though I gave up on making Optimus Prime. Have seen an awesome vid of someone that made Gypsy Danger from Pacific Rim lol.
@@astro837 ELITE is a life-size galaxy simulator (400 billion star systems). There is no obligation to play in multiplayer. There is a choice of co-op and single, but the galaxy and all discoveries are shared on one server. It is too large for PC, especially at the time it was created. Work on the server was chosen and it is not a bad option. The most that can complain are multiplayer players, because the game in this mode is marginal and was never created for it.
Important not is that X4 has "only" very positive reviews is mostly due to technical state of the game at launch and for the first couple of years.
X4 is EASLY one of the best space sim games ever made. It's just so goddamn good that IMO it's a must have for any s-f fan.
Agreed 🚀
X4 is probably the best space sim out there, especially if you like single player over multiplayer, the closest thing I could compare it to is eve and even that's an entirely different thing. The only complaint I've had with X4 is that certain factions die off too fast without player intervention.
@@kegaran2365 You should try Astrox Imperium. Often called single-player Eve, well rocks are even more huggable.
The special thing about Endless Space is it's art style and music, really well done. Shame the galaxy isn't so endless. 250 Stars, i wished for more, but then again our PCs are most often the limit. Just with X4, only our CPU holds us back from creating an even bigger game.
When you make a video about X4, don't forget to shine some light on some of the most famous mods, like Interword which alone attracts many players.
Il have to check out these mods! And Endless Space 2 has beautiful music :)
Endless Space 2 has one of the most satisfying art styles and UI I've ever seen. I love that game for those 2 points alone. The game itself is magnificent. Prefer it over Stellaris even.
Thanks for the shoutout; the thumbnail looks great (I'm a little biased)! Great list, per the usual, and one with a few that are going to be on my shortlist to pick up, like Liberation. Always a pleasure, seeing Starsector on the list- I absolutely adore the heck out of that game ... Might have to go load it up now.
Thanks again and keep the great lists comin'!
We appreciate your Thumbnail and will be looking to use more. You have a great eye for these shots :)
excuse me, i might have missed it in the video, but where is the screenshot for the thumbnail from? thank you very much in advance
@@xenther6854 Hi there! It's from Star Citizen :)
You hit all the main players for sure and a few here I didn't know about. Wasn't even aware of the Steam Exploration Fest so thats a massive bonus haha! Starcom is a real gem :)
That was the goal as always. Found a new title myself while making this one :)
Loving that Elite II/III feel from Liberation! Can't wait to try - thank you for this list Luke, so good to have someone finding these gems! You're a Scholar and a Gentleman, Sir!
That is greatly appreciated :) Yes Liberation is a lot of fun for a more indie title. And the Dev is also a gentleman :)
@@LTGamingTH-cam It's groovy 😀
@@suvetar the rock track in station is awesome ha
Love the list. Please in the future put more actual game play in, not just the cinematic. And warn is if games says free but actually has a paywall to access all the content. Would love more lists like this, makes looking for the next 100 hours of missing time more easy 😆
Love to see some Star Trader Frontiers. It was fun being around back when it was is very, very active development and we could nag the devs for build details, and see some of those implemented in the week.
Tom really liked this game!
Great game with a lot of replay value. Runs on any potato computer and also on android mobile devices. Still updated frequently. It's hard to find more dedicated developers improving a finished product at no extra charge with perhaps the exception of No Man's Sky!
I play star citizen regularly and I gotta say that I'm disappointed in cloud imperium games. They have been saying just a little bit longer for the Pyro star system for 2 plus years but have yet to release it. I have vowed to not put another actual dollar into it without them fulfilling their promises.
I LOVE Starcom. Wish it was bigger and had more of a story developed for it.
5:20 The bad reviews for Empyrion is due to the new DLC "Dark Faction" they released within the past year that no one liked, the base game it self got review bombed. The base game is VERY good. It uses voxles (blocks) to build ships and bases, it's a survival game so you gotta eat often, craft weapons and build ships.. and you gotta create sources of oxygen so you can explore space.
I can highly recommend Star Control 2 aka. The Ur-Quan Masters.
It’s an old game that imho has aged very well; and is certainly a classic of the genre.
Despite some trademark controversies, the game received a revamp and is currently available under the title “The Ur-Quan Masters”.
Not sure if you'd consider it an exploration game, but every time I think about space games I'm remember of the good hours I had with freelancer - personally I think it's an truely awesome game, dated by now, but still great!
Iove Mass Effect 2, I was overjoyed to lose no one in the suicide mission.
Great list! A few more worth a look :-
Astrox: Hostile Space Excavation
Chorus
DarkStar One
Distant Star: Revenant Fleet
Nova Drift
Psycho Starship Rampage
Reassembly
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
Slipways
A few sleepers in there in particular Reassembly and Psycho Starship Rampage. Fly often, Fly Safe 07 🖖😎
Thanks very much! My fave comments to read! :) These will be included on future lists!
@@LTGamingTH-cam Mint! Reassembly is unique.
FTL players should have a look at the mod FTL Multiverse which expands the game 10-fold.
The banished vault should be on this list. With space exploration as its core feature, amazing art style and challenging gameplay, it is a truely unique experience.
Regarding Empyrion Galactic Survival: I highly recommend you play the Reforged Eden scenario. This free Mod makes the Vanilla game a thousand times better!
And the most bad reviews come from the DLC Dark Faction which is contained in itself. I bought it to support the devs because i played the game (mostly Reforged Eden) for over 9000 hours now - and still play it!
I tried RE but its just not for me. Makes it too grindy imho. Plus, its not really a mod per se.
You sadly missed a huge gem with Spacebourne 2 - Single dev made into a huge RPG with space combat, space mining and planet side aspects with an outpost and command strategy concept baked in with huge system wide battles for hostile takeover of systems or massive defense vs other factions attempting to overtake yours. It doesn't have a huge name behind it nor the advertisement of big company names, but man it delivers.
Didn't expect Space Engineers in a 'Space Exploration'-List, because there isn't much to 'explore'.
But this will, hopefully, change with the next Update.
Master of Orion i instantly recogniced the Umbral Choir theme, I defo gonna play them again my next run
Thank you for putting me on the list ❤
Most welcome! I'd like to play more of your game. You have featured many times on our lists 🚀🚀
@@LTGamingTH-cam I really appreciate that! And let me know if I can help 🧑🚀
@@ReentryAnOrbitalSimulator yes ive joined the discord might make contact to look at featuring the game! :)
Not sure if it belongs on this list, as it is still in early access, but I have enjoyed many hours in Cosmoteer: Starship Architect and Commander.
Booya! I have over 600 hours in Cosmoteer. I can't explain how much I love that game. It's not even close to done yet and I still can't stop playing it. Especially once you start throwing in mods.
Really nice idea to make these kind of themed recommendation lists when a Steam sale hits!
Appreciate it 🚀
I love Starfield and thank you for not being like all the other "content" creators who do nothing but hate on it for the clicks. I appreciate honest commentary so I'll be subbing :)
Thanks thats a very refreshing comment. I always try make my own mind up. 90% of content creators go with what they think is cool to say ;) Starfield has its merits!
@@LTGamingTH-cam Earned you a sub to speak truth and not memes!
@@Be-rowe exactly we won't bend to a trend!
X4 is one of the most in depth space games, but for some reason often left out of the discussion when talking about space games. Granted ist not easy to get into unless you spend some time.
2:30 How dare you publicly feature our game that we're making to sell to the public! REEEEEEE! ;D lol
I remember when I downloaded FTL, started playing and suddenly 12 hours had passed. That game has an experience entirely out of proportion to the sum of its parts.
Star Control Origins comes to mind. Really mixed feelings. The cartoony parts aren’t my thing, the combat is arcadey, but the feeling of taking your first steps away from earth and into a bigger stellar community was well done (for me).
Yes just the fact I never feature Stardock Games on the channel because of the way they treated me once. Yes never liked the cartoony parts of that game!
@@LTGamingTH-cam Oh? Damn. Well being nice is important. There's always something else I could be playing in my steam library, something else I could spend my money on.
@@neutrino109 I totally agree dude. We were a very small channel at the time. I'm not petty at all but have principals of when someone treats me bad...I won't b promoting them!
Love the list! I find special peace of mind playing space games and i love discovering new things to try. I didnt lnow the sequel to Starcom Nexus was available already, Im getting it right away!
By any chance have you tried "Wayward Terran Frontier: Zero Falls"? It had been without updates for a while but just received a big one. Looks good but im not sure how deep it is.
Awesome! I also did a 60 secound review of Starcom in Shorts and gave it a solid 8/10 :) I haven't seen that game and il check it out now! :)
I have over 3000 hours in X4 to me it's the best one on the list
Thank you for posting this video 🎥🍿🍺🇺🇸👍. You have a new subscriber. Keep up the great 👍 work.
@@shadowr2d2 really appreciate it 🚀🚀
@@LTGamingTH-cam - I don’t even have a computer 🖥️ right now. I’m planning on building my own. This Christmas 🎄 season. A Corsair 9000D computer 🖥️ case. Well as soon as it’s released. I have always loved space flight games. Like Elite Dangerous for example. By the time I’m ready to buy. Some of the flight ✈️ slim tech. You will have posted. A lot more videos 🎥. Have a great day..
I think I may have added Cosmoteer. I've been thoroughly enjoying that game and it's overwhelmingly positive on Steam. It's also very affordable.
Great Suggestion!
Bro, that Title....that Title is all I ever wanted in a space game. Every game that ever promised space exploration literally became a FPS combat game or just flat out lied. NMS,ED,SC etc
What's the best space exploration game to you? I like your vibe!
X4 is amazing. When i bought it however, i raged quit because of the default controls and bugs in the tutorials. I tried to return it but passed the steam refund time 🤣.
I'm glad I didn't because when it works, damn is it immersive and fun.
Highly recommended. Gameplay is par excellence, but the game has some distracting bugs and is not intuitive. Also what seems like a gameplay bug is usually a misunderstanding of the gameplay systems.
Getting the controls setup is vitally important!
I've never heard of Liberation but just one look made me fall for it. I've bought it now... tomorrow I'll be firing it up.
Star citizen: $700 MILLION in crowd funding and still no finished game. Bitter? I am not bitter. Why do you ask?
Ewww PDF flag
I started out with a Titan starter ship with Squadron 42 for $75 USD and never bought anything else. I played many hours a day for nearly 2 years, probably over 1000 hours of enjoyable gaming. Sure its incomplete, updates are hit and miss, and you need a mega strong PC to run it, but its still fantastic and worth the $45 or so USD minimum to buy in. There is no need to spend fortunes of IRL money in beta because you can buy nearly everything with in game currency. Multiple times (wipes) I have owned nearly every ship in the game and earned so much money that I would give away 50 million uec when I would see someone took a big setback. I will start playing again once they get server meshing because even with only 1 solar system of 4 planets its a pretty empty universe when a game server only supports 150 or so players.
Yeah but most game devs never even TELL YOU how much money they spent on the games they develop. I mean Rockstar has been (apparently) working on GTA6 for the past 12 years, and I'm sure they've pour at least $1billion into it, from all the cash they still make from GTA Online.
Based profile pic
@@Capt_CrimsoN based, but disgusting
Approaching Infinity is worth a look. Traditional Roguelike set in Space.
@@rosskelly4618 the first Everspace was a roguelike...
@@efxnews4776 I said "traditional roguelike" . This is turn based old school graphics .Definitely worth a go
I wasn't aware that I actually knew and played so many space games. :-) I'd add Star Valor, Approaching Infinity and Space Pirates and Zombies too, maybe just for fun also Aurora 4x because it's so weird and unique. Depends on where you draw the line in terms of "exploration" but the first two should easily fit the bill.
How did Star Valor not make it onto this list!!
Thanks for the rest tho :)
What is that first game at the start of the video? Might be worth putting the game titles in the corner on the clips? Love the content of your videos
Its X4 which tops the list :) I have started doing that on some videos but this was a bit of time pressure to get out. So il have to rely on Timestamps :)
X4 foundations to me is tbe best space sim ever, i have 5k hours on it, and it is without a doubt my dream game.
surprised no-one in the comments even mentioned starship evo... sure, it's a long way from being finished but i'd say it's ship building is the best out of the voxel style games...
One I need go look into more! Generally I don't put Early Access on Upcoming lists but made one exception here 🚀
@@LTGamingTH-cam it's being made by one guy but he's done plenty already, the game already has a whole galaxy of stars/planets and on top of spaceships you can make hovercrafts, mechs as well as your own personal firearms...
we love starcontrol games, old & new!
I don't(and won't) play EvE but I do love keeping up with the Drama. XD
I'm tempted to get into it!
@@LTGamingTH-cam No, just don't, no
With Empyrion, many players are complaining about the expansion / DLC. The base game by itself is pretty decent. Not perfect, but very enjoyable.
X4 for me was tought getting into. I owned it since it came out but could not get into it. It was not until timelines that help me experience things that I will get to experience as I go forth in X4. so it was not a bad but I do understand you position. Thanks for the video.
Much appreciated. I fluctuate in my likes and interests a lot so really just an advisory list :)
Weird...
Listen, you should try the sandbox, i myself have 5k hours of gameplay, and i still crave to play more.
hmmm, this made me want to re-install Space Engineers and finish making a full size Gundam
A small coffee break game that's probably not big enough to make it onto such lists would be Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. Less than a dollar and a quite strong just one more round itch.
Will check it out now :) Thankyou :)
OMG Infinite Space! I haven't thought about that game in years! Downloading again...
My favorite space game of all time was Freelancer, and I’ve been trying to find something similar ever since. Really wish we could get a remake of that with modern graphics.
@@dialamx1 you should try out Rebel Galaxy Outlaw.
Shoutout to space engineers, the best sandbox/builder type space game in the last decade with nothing coming close to dethroning it. I just wish it had more survival aspects.
Praise Clang!
I left it off a big list awhile back...and wow they let me know about it haha!
Starship Evo has a better crafting model than SE...
Saying Elite is a mile wide and an inch deep hasn't been true in years. Please do a deep dive on ED.
Nah, still pretty true...
Very good list ! Thank you.
I may have to re-visit X4.... I have about 6 hours on it years ago and really didnt think much of it at all - hence the tiny hours. Stellaris and Elite I have hundreds of hours on.
I want to get back into strategy games more! So might jump in!
Excellent video. I tried looking for a lot of the titles you talked about to see if they are available on a tablet. Sadly no. Not a single one. Can you do a video on eve echoes. A tablet version of eve online. Thanks.
Why would a dev turn on you for featuring their game and exposing it to new potential players? Every list you put up there are several games I've never heard of and quite a few of them end up on my wishlist.
It was odd. Was asked to feature a game by the dev. He then had a tantrum over the footage I used. It was insane haha
Watching the intro....yeees this is what I'm looking for..at last ! Then reality set in.
Great list. Have you ever reviewed "objects in space "? Really good little Space exploration Game… I thought so anyway.
I really like that game and it's a shame the dev left it behind. Really great suggestion though we will never see it finished 🚀
For Starfield, Bethesda took a few of the concepts from Star Citizen and ran off with them, let their old incontinent dog drool on them for awhile then jammed them into a half baked vegan gluten free brownie and then forgot to set the timer to finish cooking it.
You should feature also Starship Simulator I think.
To X4, its the best Star Wars mod simulator you can play right now :-)
As much as I love Starfield, I'm still frankly surprised it's on this list, as, boy howdy, it certainly has its problems. Still, noting Space Engine made my day. Thanks!
Well, Star Traders Frontiers is a hidden gem indeed. Not sure why that Arbiter reminds me of Mira Fedor from Marianne de Pierres' 'Sentients of Orion' novels.
EVE online: Come home from Work and get to work. Still, I enjoyed it for over 10 Years. Fond memories!
Im hoping to get back into Elite soon. Star citizen is attractive but at the same time I’m just not sure. I’m running a good combo of mods right now that has kind of saved Starfield for me, for now. I want so badly for X4 to be a good game for me and there are some mods that almost get it there but there are a few fundamental things I cant stand about it: Turret groups, pigeon hole ship design (basically other than weapons, everything else you fit on a ship is the same with very minor tweaks), and the in system/out of system combat calculation system the game uses. Basically within a ship size class, every ship
Will have the same sensors, there are no options to buff hull/armor over shields, missiles are worthless, stealth isn’t a thing, and if you are building a ship/fleet you plan to use in systems you arent playing in than there is no strategy needed for the builds (just max everything out and put on the highest damage possible weapons)
I'd like to point out that Eve Online isn't "a free to play space mmo", it's a subscription based mmo (and an expensive one too), which happens to have a free mode that is extremely capped (you can only use some ships, train some skills, etc). It's basically the old one month trial they used to have, except now there's no time limit. Sure, it's useful to get an idea on whether you'll like the game or not, but it's very far from the real thing.
I think this is an important point because some people might say "Eve is pay to win" since you can only do the cool stuff paying subscription, when in reality it's just a "pay to play" game where, like I said, you have a free trial mode to see if it's worth your money.
Nice video anyway.
Empyrion, space engineers, X4 and NMS: Masterpieces. Regarding Moo I prefer Moo 2
Can't believe you don't have Star Valor on this list
I'm sure you will get over it 😉😂
I love Star Valor! Is there some drama revolving around it or something?
Empyrion is bloody amazing, try it, buy it, love it.
Even with mods, Master Of Orion needs Stellaris sized maps. Srellaris needs Master Of Orion simplicity and devs who stop monkeying with the planetary construction mechanics.
I only play 2 space sim in the last 2 years. Star Citizen & X4
You should check Ostranauts
And X4 foundations takes the proper place as top dog of the space games.
There's never been a better space sim game as X4.
Happy birthday X universe.
Oh yes there has been one, but only one (if you put SC below X4). Shores of Hazeron. Basically an MMO version of X4 with players instead of NPC races, but with 1999 graphics. It also had designable ships with actual full interiors. First person boarding and commanding and equipping individual crewmembers and troops. It also had fully accessible 1/10 scale planets, citybuilding (at the time also building with full interiors) and 20 virtually infinite galaxies. It had a far better distant spacetravel model than any of the other spacegames in existance: actual acceleration unti you reach the ingame lightspeed, or warp wich is the same but up to 45x faster (90x before the reduction of warp speed). It was like first person Stellaris in a way where you could encounter both more and less advanced players and choose whether to observe them, wipe them out, ignore them or help them. You could also just scare them by putting a huge ship over one of their cities. It was like X4 meets Starcitizen meets Stellaris with horrible graphics and quite a few bugs. Now it has a singleplayer version called Hazeron Starship, but that didn't get AI to replace players, so it gets boring after you colonise a few planets, since you have no threats. Also the new fully 3D ship designer is kinda tedious so it ruined the experience of designing your own ships for most people. I love X3TC and X4, but full interiors and a virtually endless amount of accessible planets and having to actually fear other players was an experience unlike any other. Shores of Hazeron to me was the absolute pinnacle of spacegaming and it is a shame it is no more. My only hope is egosoft adding planets at some point or Hazeron adding good NPC empires like X4, but I'm afraid neither will ever happen.
@@ivanpetrovic8257 you lost me on 1999 graphics...
@@ivanpetrovic8257 Fun Hazeron story: I had messed around with it solo once, and later invited some friends to start a small empire we were messing around with. Roughly around the time we were gearing up for our first moon expedition, a ship the size of our entire city showed up in orbit. "Hey yeah you guys spawned in the middle of my empire and that's not desirable for you or me." he scouted us out an awesome planet outside his empire to colonize and gave us a fully upgraded ship just big enough to pack everything we needed into it. He even named it after an important planet in the sci-fi book our leader named our empire after.
I would add Juno: New Origins to this list. Its a KSP clone, but it's honestly better in many ways. Nicer aesthetic, more in-depth builder come to mind.
Everspace 2 is amazing well worth the money!
I was gonna throw hands if outer wilds wasn't on this list but seriously the game made me cry
You should checkout Underspace and PULSAR: Lost Colony if you haven't already.
Have covered both and really good suggestions! :)
Qanga
It’s neat
Shoulda been on the list!
It only just came into EA and its very early.
Great and complicated array of four major sub genres in the space genre.
Btw, can you please fix the spelling error for Faster in the Faster Than Light stamp in the description's timecode list?
Now that's attention to detail ;)
Wondering if anyone can help me, chances are its no longer an active game. but ive been trying to remember a spaceship MMO that was out years ago. after the introduction you had to pick a faction, 1 of them had vertical orientated ships while the others were more like a U shape, like some Wipeout racers and were built horizontally.
Elite Dangerous really is the best VR game to date.
Interestingly enough I have plaid most of the titles on this list, except for the last one, but I do have it as I am learning the ropes. I find X games harder than Avorion. Yet both games should play the same to an extent.
Love Star Citizen,… especially when it works properly,… 😂😂
BwahHHHHHHAaaaahahahaahhahahahwhahahaha cough ahahahahahaha
Starsector is amazing!
Fun video but while Eve Online and even Eve Echoes are very polished games with a lot of depth and unparallelled graphics I wouldn't reccomend to anyone due to how the economy works and the skill system and the multibox accounts putting a new player at near 100 years behind in terms of progress alone when they start playing. These people won't even feel the punishing losses on top of what I mentioned earlier, and the beginner player will be devastated from the most insignificant ship or station losses.
Hey, great list! But you forgot me (Star Valor) 😥
We will remedy that soon 🚀
@@LTGamingTH-cam hey that would be awesome! Thank you! 😃
Starfield is a pretty Good game! It got all the hate at the launch because it wasn't available on PlayStation
@@Ciki92 nah, the game sucks, no seamless transition, weak gunplay, boring exploration, and loading screens, lots of loading screens.
The story is as bad as the game, there are things that does not make sense. The only good thing is ship building which is sad because the ship is used only as loading screen. Ah sorry the game has pronounces too, it's very important.
@@efxnews4776 The loading screens are like 2 seconds dude lmao I even have videos on my channel that show this.
Only Star Wars Galaxies does it right. You can go out to space to kill imperials or do some mining BUT you also have your ground game too. Go hunting, craft, decorate your house, upgrade your space ships, etc. Not ground only, like most mmo's and not space only, like EVE Online, Freelancer, etc. Newer entries could also include Starfield, which sucks big time because it feels like Fallout 4, which also sucks cause it doesn't feel like a Fallout game and Star Wars Outlaws, which feels like a Star Wars game !
Absolutely loving Elite: Dangerous
Elite dangerous is the best of all of these games
@@tak2ulata doesn't even have ship interiors...
Something that the best in this list and even some of the worst ones have.
You missed the GOAT - Freelancer with the HD mod ;)
What about Freelancer one of the best games and huge space to explore