Reviews

• 

  Sarxis

  Jan 24, 2022

  Better than No Man's Sky! Ok, joking aside, Star Explorers is what NMS would have been in 1996. Which, despite meaning the game is simplistic compared to other modern space exploration games, makes it quite refreshing in its retro feel. Once you get past the mild learning curve, you'll be off exploring, trading, and fending off aliens to progress through a no-nonsense, relaxed pace story. Or, you can just fly about the various sectors and star systems to have a look around, finding upgrades to your equipment along the way. Reminds me a little of Parkan and PULSAR: Lost Colony (but no MP). Try it - have fun.
• 

  Máté

  Jan 28, 2022

  A little bit ambivalent, but definitely a charming experience. Of course it all depends on the expectations and the mindset the players has when jumping into the game. On one hand thinking it could deliver a No Man's Sky level of experience is completely unfair... but on the other hand while the majority of the game's clunkiness definitely add to the charming experience, some of them rather challenge the player's patience - occasionally a lot. And that kind of ambivalence is everywhere throughout the game. Does it hurt the gameplay? Well... not

  that

  much. I can imagine some would not mind it at all and spend 30+ hours with it, while others just straight up ask the money back after 10 minutes of experience. Being able to have fun with Star Explorers definitely needs some patience and enthusiasm for old school dungeon crawler design. Since I enjoyed the hours I've spent on playing the game so far, for my part, it's recommended 👍

• 

  Killaroo

  May 23, 2022

  As somebody who's grown cynical of nostalgia-baiting media, Star Explorers won me over with it's sincere presentation. This game could've been a lost gem bundled with your brand-new Windows 95 desktop PC, or some obscure software spanning a half-dozen floppy disks loaned by your weird friend who's really into UFOs. While the graphics and UI/UX are a charming throwback in one direction, the designs within the game itself have a total Buck Rogers vibe. Most of what you encounter looks like it was ripped from the cover of "silver age" sci-fi pulp paperbacks and comic books. The game maintains this balance of nailing the look and feel of two disparate bygone eras simultaneously, making for a real immersive treat. It's the total attention to detail that sets Star Explorers apart from other games with a similar approach. To label it something akin to a "poor man's No Man's Sky" isn't fair or accurate to the experience. If I had to compare it to another recent game, I'd say it has more in common with Hypnospace Outlaw. It evokes a similar era in PC gaming and technology and rewards those who approach it and play along with the proper mindset. Another pitfall of modern retro games is the tendency to include the absolute worst aspects of older games to further solidify the connection to whatever classic trope is being referenced. Thankfully, Star Explorers sidesteps this. I never felt like I had to endure a needlessly painful feature in some slavish adherence to authenticity. The game keeps what works and tosses what doesn't work, as evidenced by the relatively frequent and robust update history. Star Explorers could've settled for being an amusing novelty, but the dev seems far more interested in making it a playable and worthwhile experience. That passion, coupled with an all-too-reasonable price point, makes Star Explorers an easy recommendation.
• 

  Karl515

  Sep 18, 2022

  Update:

  This game really feels like a walking simulator with cruel mechanics and some kind of progression that allows you to walk on more planets. It's not something that I enjoy playing, the only enjoyment from it is when I go to a cave and that cave has loot, which is about 20% of the whole game. The feeling of driving the ship isn't good as it uses old controls (wasd for moving forward/backward and looking left/right, arrow keys for looking up/down and tilting). It's not even the same as Descent as that game has good combat. UI really needs overhaul, it has a big background with small text and buttons for example, Maybe adding directional audio in the game could make the exploration better, especially in planets wIth falling meteorites. It really feels like this game is unfinished and unpolished, as it doesn't have mechanics that could improve the game (like marking planets for future exploration), and the mechanics in the game aren't fleshed out as well. The quests (atleast the first two) are "find material in this specific sector and place a beacon on it", the side quests are essentially a glorified trading system. I really like the aesthetic but it isn't enough to hold my attention. I don't like saying this especially on an indie game but for now, it isn't worth my time. If you like it then good for you, but this isn't for me.

  Old Review:

  The early game is really shi-not good. You warp from star system to star system trying to find a planet that you can first of all actually go into without freezing of burning up, has a cave, and those anthynk? crystals to finish the quests that you also need for fuel (I think I haven't tried using it). Now I've found two planets that has a cave with those crystals, out of 10 F*CKING STAR SYSTEMS (I skipped the ones that only have 1 planet and is below 1000 or above 6000 Kelvin). I actually started another save file because I haven't had any luck finding any crystals and ran out of fuel. Now I'll admit that I have only played it for 1.3 hours and don't have any patience, but I also don't have any drive to play it for another 30 minutes as there doesn't seem to be any meaningful progression (things like faster ship or having the ability to raid other motherships or something). I would love to be proven wrong and that there's actually a very robust system to build your ship or any sort of progression to justify the time that you spend just roaming around these tiny planets but until then I won't be touching this for a long time (I won't refund it as I actually like the aesthetic of the game and would love to see more updates).

• 

  Zixinus

  Nov 27, 2022

  Clunky, frustrating indie game. It's a cross between Noctis (very obscure, old game that is free, google it) and somewhat of an imitation of No Man's Sky, but designed by someone way over their head. The game obviously has lots of heart and love for its subject, but when it comes to actual gameplay it is let down. The graphics are one thing, for the price and obvious highly indie nature you can expect only so much but that's not the issue. But what makes me not reccomend the game is just inattention to detail in how the mechanics work, how the UI works, how the gameplay is designed. Let me give you a simple example. The game has a mechanic that a given planet has a temperature range. Your suit can only function between 200 and 400 Kelvin. Sometimes you'll encounter a planet that is within that range either day or night but outside of it otherwise. Can you choose to land on either day or night, so you can explore when the temperature is within your suit's range? No. If you go into a cave, does your suit have a clock so you can shelter in place while the surface is too hot or cold? No. You either land or come out of a game either taking damage or not. Another example is the FPS mechanic. You have finite ammo, even for your starting weapon but the game does not tell you this. You have an ammo counter but only tells you how much ammo you have in your weapon. The help tab does not tell you that have to reload, which I discovered by experiment. The only place you'll learn how much pistol ammo you have total is in the inventory screen. Can you restock on your ship? No, you have to buy pistol ammo on the mothership, seperately (same way you can repair your suit). On top of this, shooting feels awful, you have to be very accurate to hope to score a hit as your projectile is incredibly slow and even then the hitboxes can have you miss too easily. Not that the enemies have any intelligence or tactics. And it goes on. Everything is bare basic functioning and left at that. The star chart system could be made far clearer and simpler but isn't. You can easily find yourself in a situation where you are clicking on things and don't understand why they do not work. Another thing is the tunnels or the game's "dungeons". Narrow tunnels where you find the resources needed by the game. No refinining, no special tools, you just find them and pick them up by moving the cursor over them and pressing "e". The most frustrating thing is that there are no digging tools for the tunnels, resulting in "dungeons" where most of the wealth is inaccessible to you due to constant dead-ends cutting you off. I do not recommend this game. Not because of its obviously limited graphics and resources, but because of things within the control of the developer. The design of things, the mechanics, the inconsistent UI. The game's graphics can be excused for its indie origins but not the design of things. Which is tremendously unfortunate because the selection of loading quotes tells you that the game does have heart, it just can't execute its vision.
• 

  Latogato

  Jan 1, 2023

  Lovely retro space explorer game with a somewhat rough user interface. Has a crafting system with some fine end-game items, planets with deadly hazards, monsters, aliens, ruins and some treasure huntings. This is one of the few games i loved enough to finish, even found the "secret place", but still trying to archive the last few rare archivements. Has some small bugs, but they are just annoying, nothing serious.
• 

  ilumino

  Jan 1, 2023

  This game is surprisingly addictive. The interface and controls take some time to get used to, and understanding which planets you can land on is a little tricky at first. However, once you've got it figured out, it has a really fun game-play loop of collecting resources and turning them in for loot, upgrades, and crafting materials. After upgrading your equipment, you can visit more hostile planets and discover more interesting things. This game is definitely worth picking up for the price. Really fun.
• 

  USHiRi

  Jan 1, 2023

  Not much of a review but I feel so strong for this game even if it´s not for me since I can see I can se it for the diamond it is and I want more people to discover what I unfortunatly enjoy through gameplay. If you enjoy "Elite Dangerous" and "No mans sky" this is 100% for you! It´s a much simpler game but not when it comes depth of what it offers to you as an explorer of unknown worlds. I have only played 21minutes and understood it´s not for me. I have allways wanted to immerse myself into these games but I get bored as fudge to quick since my span for something to happen is very low. This has not hindered me from watching several videos of it with people enjoying it much as some games are not for yourself to be played but to watch. So I recommend this video of Star explorers to get an insight of the wonders that it can give if you are more patient: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAFOmKXfP2s
• 

  JC Bent'em

  Jan 3, 2023

  No Man's Sky 1999!?

  Most people compare this game directly to No Man's Sky and I understand why. I mean, it's a first person space exploration game where you jump from system to system, planet to planet, wandering place to place. But there's so many things about this game that cause me to find it so much more compelling.

  A space game for people who actually like space.

  My biggest gripe with space games in general is that they usually feel the need to place life and civilization literally everywhere. Games like Starbound or No Man's Sky place life forms and alien peoples on the

  vast majority

  of planets in the universe and if they don't they severely limit planetary exploration because those games often don't consider it something worth exploring.

  Star Explorers

  on the other hand is not afraid to depict the universe as it (probably) really is, a cold (or extremely hot) and hostile cosmic wasteland which only allows a small density of life in it's uncaring void. Now obviously it's a far cry from something like

  Space Engine

  when it comes to realism but it strikes an excellent balance. However there are many "unrealistic" aliens and monsters out there you can still find, some of which have chemical compositions which are likely not possible, but they are all sprinkled in tastefully.

  How can this game possibly be fun if I'm not being constantly attacked by space panthers and pirates!?

  Star Explorers has a very simple and expedient gameplay loop, you warp into a carefully chosen solar system, you examine and scan the various planets which exist in the solar system, and you determine which ones are safe to land on and are most likely to contain something you need (though desperation and lack of luck may cause you to take very serious risks). Once you set foot on a planet your usual task will be to locate caves and other types of "dungeons" these dungeons contain items and resources that you may need to complete quests, fuel your ship, or craft items.

  This ain't no grindy survival craft fest.

  Crafting in this game plays a very limited and mostly optional role. To craft an item you must find or purchase a blueprint, you can use some of the resources you find to craft certain items, though usually you will be able to find or purchase these items through other means. There are very few exceptions to this rule and crafting is absolutely not required to win the game. You do not even need to craft fuel, you just grab

  acknexium crystals

  , put it in your ship's fuel tank, and go!

  Planetary exploration doesn't waste your time.

  Depending on what type of player you are and what resources you require or don't require; trips to planets don't take a very long time generally. If you already have an abundance of what's on the planet, the trip may even be as short as a minute. This makes it much more fast paced as you progress through the game.

  To be fair, you have to have a very high I.Q. to play Star Explorers and not experience a Skill Issue™

  Star Explorers is very janky and will require a great degree of patience and immense failure to figure out. On your first play through you may find yourself stuck hopelessly in a star system with no fuel left in your ship, forcing you to delete your save and start again. Like I said before the Star Explorers galaxy is uncaring, unforgiving, and is not trying to make things comfortable for you. Your ship is an advanced, albeit clunky and junky, piece of technology which may require some reading of the instruction manual. While piloting the ship becomes second nature, at first you will fail to work it correctly like a 16 year old driving a car for the first time.

  Try not to crash into the friggin' sun.

  If you've managed to beat System Shock 1 then you will have no problem here.

  Loadza Bugs, and not the alien kind.

  In addition to being janky the game is quite buggy and may require some "manual intervention" to fix some of the problems. I've experience a few bugs, I'd recommend reporting them to the discord server. The dev is pretty cool and still works on the game a little bit to fix issues. There's also areas in the game that perform very poorly for basically no reason.

  I'm not telling you everything!

  There's more in the game than I have seen, the stars aren't infinite, but there's still a considerable number of them and each new game brings a new set of stars to explore! Personally, I like to catalogue as many stars and planets as I can.

• 

  Anya Flux

  May 9, 2017

  Great concept, lot of potential, but needs a lot of work. EDIT: Some more details. 1) The control scheme for flying the ship is a bit wonky and requires moving my hand off the mouse to fly the ship and back again to inspect stars. Would be nice to control pitch and yaw with the mouse and put roll on q and e. Then assign the interract button to f and the flashlight to something else. 2) It's too hard to see out of the main view port. I have to tediously comb through stars one-by-one while trying not to get disorented. Would be nice to have a system map to keep track of where I am in relation to the other objects around me. 3) I have no way of finding my way back to certain objects without manually clicking on every one hoping to find the one I'm looking for. Some kind of waypoint system would be great.
• 

  cassiels

  May 10, 2017

  There is the vast infinity of space, and there is you and your spaceship. The mothership sends you on missions. You explore that vastness, find stars, scan them, find planets, go into orbit and then land on them. The scan tells you a little about conditions on the planets but the rest you have to discover. It is a fun game. Even though it is early access there is a lot to do. If you like exploring it can be very relaxing, flying your ship, searching for stars and planets. When you do the missions you will have to look for specific conditions where you might find certain items. You will have to keep an eye on the condition of your space suit, your airtank and of course your health. When you return to the mothership you can trade, buy a better suit or weapons or upgrade them. All this is already in the game. And it is only going to get better. You will have to find out and get used to the controls, exploring the game itself. But there will be a tutorial. And then you are ready to go and discover stars, planets, alien life forms... I really like this game and I am having a lot of fun with it.
• 

  Saint Dongymybongybibbonglebonk

  Jun 14, 2017

  This game is really rough around the edges, I found it quite tough to get started as my first few planets were absolutely crap but I think thats part of the beauty of this game, it is harsh and somewhat difficult to learn but there really is a gem inside its just going to require a large amount of work from the developer to polish it up. I'd recommend if you don't mind a challange and some clunky controls in order to explore space otherwise id probably steer clear until some more updates are released atleast. Hopefully in the future more planet types an easier interface to navigate and perhaps even co-op could become a possibility.
• 

  battlescar2014

  Jul 16, 2017

  Star Explorers: You can warp to myriad stars, roam strange planets, spelunk for gems, loot alien ruins, encounter indigenous wildlife, and die doing any of these things. Can you kill every creature that moves? Yes, but that isn't the point of this game. This game, at its core, is about exploration, and it scratches my space exploration itch in a way that no game has since I played Starflight as a kid. There are loading screens, and various wrinkles still need to be ironed out, but there is plenty of content even at this early “beta” stage of development. If you're looking for a replayable, free-roam space exploration game, this one is easily worth twice the current $5 asking price.
• 

  Lady Moranna

  Aug 21, 2017

  Thanks for the game and your effort. Your ideas will have a great potential, but it will be a lot of work. The graphic ist ok and I like such thing in early access. But at the moment I don't understand your world. I hope you will work with your community, perhaps you will find other colleagues and then you will get success and your game will grow up. Here the experience and ideas: You can travel by space ship, it means you are in a hight technical era, but you has no autopilot in systems, no space map after you scan a system. You must fly a course by hand... The planets are very difficult to find, you will have luck not to crash into the sun. You don't have a automatic warning system, only the computer voice... I can't see the dangerous distance to the sun etc. Why you don't show the ecliptic orbit, with gravity wells , so it's easy to find planets and it more contemporary. In space I miss a galaxy map, a easy ride to explored planets and systems... The planets would be nice, but I hadn't found a moderate planet after 8 h (offline) gametime... You see a game must encourage you, it must reward you, inspire your mind and not to give a bad feeling and incomprehension. You wrote "I make it for my own", but you sell it in steam for customers.... I wish you will remember on us, the people who belive in your potential and your ideas. We are ready to help you in our community to get success, but you must stimulate us.
• 

  MagFlare

  Sep 12, 2017

  Star Explorers is a vastly ambitious followup to Anomalies that applies Michael Schmidt's trademark procedurally-generated alien weirdness to an entire galaxy. During my explorations, I've come across alien temples lurking on foggy green worlds inhabited by hostile entities made of steam. I've stumbled through barren, pitted deserts marked with the occasional lake of frozen sulphuric acid. I've seen lush jungles where bipedal, flat-headed aliens bathe in pools of mercury. I've also died a lot. See, the galaxy Schmidt has created here isn't cruel. "Cruel" implies that it cares. And this galaxy is terribly, terribly uncaring. Finding a planet with usable resources requires you to sift through a tremendous amount of data. When you find a planet worth exploring, it's likely this world is inimical to life -- too hot, too cold, seething with radiation -- and, as you try to find a cave that may contain the fuel crystals you need to sustain your interstellar voyage, your explorer's suit condition and air tank tick down with terrifying speed. Right now, as I'm typing this, I have Star Explorers open. I'm orbiting a red giant. I risked it all to come here, hoping against hope that one of its nine planets would contain fuel crystals. I found a planet with the right composition to grow these crystals. When I touched down and found a cave, I discovered that it was full of crystals -- but not the right sort. Just worthless emeralds. I don't have enough fuel to return to the mothership or travel to another star system. I'm trapped. Wait, though. There's another planet orbiting this star I haven't seen yet -- it must've been on the opposite side of the red giant. It's the right variety, too. I hop out of my landing craft and, after a few minutes of searching, find a cave. THIS one has fuel crystals! What's more, at the end of a corridor, I find a chest with an improved space suit, allowing me to survive even more dangerous worlds. I'll put off dying for the moment. I've got some more stars to explore.
• 

  japp_02

  Dec 20, 2018

  This game gives you really tons of gameplay features for only 5$ and is still worked on to get even better. Exploring a vast universe with random suns and planets that you can land on to complete your main mission, retrieve fuel for your mothership and engaging in varying adventures in FPS against aliens, cave hazards and hostile environments. You can freely walk in your ship, for the moment there is not much to do inside it other than accessing the landing bay for your shuttle or managing your inventory, but wandering around and simply looking outside gives the game a real atmosphere. Then, yes, in the current beta - and soon in the regular version I guess - there are now space battles against alien flying saucers that you can board to loot even more needed items. The game is NOT a walk in the park, the survival aspect is essential and funny at the same time. I have only played for 1-2 hours now and only scratched the surface for what is really amazing for such a low-budget indie game. Other games of this genre and much more expensive are really lame and without purpose in comparison. Well done ! Ok, now, a gamer always wants more, doesn't he? For example, instead of the loading screens (that only last a few seconds on my decent rig with an average nVidia GTX 960 4gb), instead of this I would like to see some landing sequence towards the planet, or actually enter my shuttle and land with some difficulty involved. But I'm sure Michael the developer has some surprises in his chest for us in the future! My thumbs up for this jewel of a space game. It is on a very solid base, no bugs I'm aware after 2 hours of gameplay, and I continue to have load, load of fun... Highly recommended !
• 

  Neil

  Jan 10, 2019

  I don't know about you, but I have a terrible weakness for Steam Sales and Early Access titles. I love hunting for bargains, and I've lost count of how many games I've tried just because they were 80% off for a week, and ended up discovering a little gem. The same with Early Access games. Sometimes I find something fresh and exciting from a new developer. Sometimes I'll find something great and nostalgic from a Retro style title or even a well made RPG Maker game. I'd say Star Explorers is one of these hidden gems, but I'd have to start by saying it isn't a game designed to hold your hand and welcome you in. I've grown used to in game tutorials and game design that makes sure you always find a med pack just before, or just after a boss fight. Star Explorers doesn't care much about making sure you find what you need. It challenges you to use your head. My first two games almost put me off trying again, and that would have been a shame. So I want to make it clear, if you aren't the kind of player who likes to spend an hour or two watching a walkthrough or reading a players guide, and learning through trial and error, this probably won't appeal. But if you enjoy exploration games which reward your time and nerve, or games which can be surprisingly immersive, this is definitely worth checking out. You're basically given the task of exploring solar systems in an area of space in order to find a safe route for Mothership, a massive mobile space station carrying the last of humanity after Earth finally fell to some unspecified disaster. Unlike a lot of the space exploration games, this one has definite frontier feel to it. Resources are not necessarily easy to find. You do not have sophisticated navigation technology or mapping devices. There aren't friendly alien space stations along the way who will sell you fuel and spare parts. It feels like Earth died just as we were starting to learn how to travel between solar systems, and the idea of standing on new planets is still new. There really is a sense that anywhere you land, it's the first time humans, and even maybe aliens, have set foot there. You will be flying from Mothership, where you can buy limited amounts of fuel and equipment, in search of nearby solar systems which may have a precious Acknexium crystal resource. If you find these crystals, you can mark the planet with a Beacon, Mothership will warp in and you can search in the next sector for a new planet with Acknexium. It's hoped that you will finally reach a sector where you will find a new, Earth like planet fit for colonization. The challenge is, apart from providing you with Mothership, and an Earth like planet several sectors away, the game doesn't much care about making the route easy. Every game is randomly generated. Most planets you find will be too hot or cold for you to explore, until you can upgrade your space suit. Your navigation system will show you an overlay giving you an idea where the next sector is, and your star map shows you all visited systems and planets, but you will have to learn how to navigate in a 3D galaxy with little more than a map and dead reckoning. First game I played, I found it hard to understand how to orient my ship and use the navigation map and overlay, but I found a planet I could land on. The planets are all wonderful places to explore and there's such a wide range of possibilities of terrain, biome and life forms available, I don't think I've seen most of what is on offer after over 40 hours gameplay. I panicked when I ran out of oxygen deep underground, lost in a cave. I couldn't remember my way back and died gasping for air desperately running around in circles in the dark. As my health dipped below 10% my character muttered to himself 'Why did I come here?'. Eerily appropriate comment, it's why I came back for more. My second game, I landed, explored, found some alien artifacts, and couldn't figure out how to leave orbit. Simple as that. After that, I decided I should look up a players guide, and take this game seriously. Since then, I've found it a lovely relaxing experience. It scratches an old itch I've had since playing Elite in the 1980's, for an old style game where I could just explore space at my leisure, land on planets, consistently be surprised and delighted by new discoveries every time I think I must have seen it all by NOW. But no, this game keeps on surprising me, every few planets, I see something new. Just keep in mind that the galaxy is a big, cold and uncaring place. It doesn't much care that you need a new Earth for Mothership and all the people on board. If you go too far, you won't come back. If you forget how much oxygen you have in your tanks, you won't come back. If you can't remember which tunnel you took on the way in... you won't come back. I have found that I've had to constantly learn what I can get away with by pushing limits and seeing when I need to learn when to turn back. Good and bad decision making. You may feel pretty sure if you keep going down this tunnel, you'll find some alien technology. But... you only have 2 minutes oxygen left and the ship is a good 3 minutes run. I'm already going to be gasping for air and losing health if I turn back now. But I'm sure this tunnel isn't much longer. Can I risk it for that rare alien technology? As it turned out, on my first game, the answer was no. You can be sure the sound of my breath inside my space helmet became suddenly much more important the next time I played. Never took THAT risk again. The music is worth mentioning. It changes when you land somewhere new, seems to be different each time, and has a definite retro feel to it. I find that I can waste a happy afternoon or evening just playing Star Explorers, feeling a little nostalgic about my old favourites from the 'old days' of gaming, and wish that they could have made something like THIS, back THEN. I realize this is a little longer that the average review, but like the game, if you're the kind of person who's willing to do a little digging to find the treasure, I think you'll end up feeling your time was well spent.
• 

  timinindiana

  Feb 7, 2019

  If your looking for a simple space exploration game with simple graphics you will like this game..This game has grown on me after 10 hours of gameplay..You can go to any sector,stars and planets then explore the caves and surface for items and fuel..As you progress into the game you can buy,find or upgrade your spacesuit,guns and get blueprints to build your own items..I just found my first Ancient ruins on a planet surface along with a blueprint to create a key so I can explore those ruins..I do not have all the items to create the key so I put a note into the solar system and planet data in the ships star chart and when I find all the items I need for the key I will return to that planet to explore the ruins..Fun little game so far.. What this game does not do..Do not expect anything like No mans sky the planets our small the graphics very basic and the trade and quest system very simple..It does take a little practice to get the hang of the game..What this game is..A very simple space exploring dungeon crawler with a whole lot of suns and planets to explore with some aliens thrown in..So far it has been a nice simple relaxing game with just enough content to keep it interesting..Just to add I have had no issues running this game on windows 7 64bit..
• 

  The Honeybadger

  Apr 19, 2019

  I recommend watching the tutorial video first. Then read the manual. If that seems like a lot of work, it's worth it, trust me. This is a very different game than other's like it I own. The galaxy map is far different, splitting sections of space into areas inside little cube sectors. The combat is simple. But, that said, let's talk about the overall playing of the game. I began and read the tutorial. Flew to the Mother ship to begin. Checked out the inventory. Quests work not by "picking" them up. Instead, you bring the item required back to the station and "turn it in" for a quest. I picked up a new laser pistol with better stats then mine. Then, set off to find a planet system to check out. Settling on a standard star, as the Mother ship recommended, I found 5 planets. 2 had temperatures I could handle using the default space suit. So down I landed on one. And there in, is the beauty of the game. Instead of having a myriad of stats to worry about, this game rewards exploration. Planets are small on the surface, letting you fully explore each you land on. This was a refreshing change of pace. With the default laser pistol and a small mapping tool in hand, I wandered the oddly lush surface. Weird plants twisted and olive green, set against a pretty blue sky. Purple lakes of dangerous chemicals threatened to eat my suit. And there, I found a cave to enter. And in that cave, were giant bugs that made noises like angry pigs. After exploring the whole planet, I went back up to the ship feeling something I haven't in many years of sci fi gaming. A sense of wonder. The eagerness to explore the next planet. What would it look like? What would the caves hold? Is it worth your money? I think so. If you learn how to play it first, and heed the Mother ships advice on the sorts of places to start, it's a bit less punishing. But for the price of a couple burgers, you can explore a neat space game. And surely, that's worth it.
• 

  Cujo

  Dec 30, 2020

  My first impressions are very good with this game. It's a poor man's No Man Sky, outshining NMS in game quality. Yes, graphics are simpler and extremely dated, but has a much greater depth than NMS and is fun to play. The developer is actively updating Star Explorers; so it can only get better into the future. Just remember you do not need the latest graphics to enjoy any game, and as long as you are good with that mind set, then you should waste no time purchasing this one.