Into the Stars

If you like space games, survival, choose your own adventure, and turn based combat this is the game for you. It is very rough around the edges since it is new game from a small indy studio. Has a feeling of a episode of desperate survival Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. If you are familiar with the 2d game 'FTL' this has a lot in common with it. Lots of potential for improvements if they keep at it. I'm having fun despite the annoyances. 1. Combat is just OK. 2. City management feels kinda pointless. Needs adjustments. 3. Camera controls are annoying 4. Ship character models (Not portraits) are poor and distracting since the other visuals are much better.

If you like FTL but think that it is too combat orientated you should have a look at this. As in FTL you fly through a galaxy, being chased by an enemy fleet. Nevertheless, instead of fighting, the most important part is keeping an eye on the resources. Your civilians need food and oxygen, your ship needs fuel. If you ran out of resources you will loose the game quickly if you don't reach a planet in time. To get resources you must mine planets. This is done automatic by a probe (but return less resources) or by a little minigame, which gets a bit repetitive. By sending away teams to planets you can upgrade your ship, which is essential because new modules are often more efficient. These missions, despite being only text windows with little interactions, are quite nice. As in FTL, you get a situation and have different options to proceed. Making a wrong decisions and your crew gets hurt or even killed. To keep you citizens happy you can build a little city out of 6 slots. This is the least interesting part of the game and feels unfinished. If you stay in a sector too long or got detected by an enemy patrol you must fight. The combat is very static and “semi-turn based” since you have to wait until the weapons reload. In general you have 3 colours for weapons and shields. Same shield colour neutralise the shot. I enjoyed it quite much. It is different from other space games were the biggest gun wins the battle. However, I think it's not for everyone. The “outside-view” graphic is really nice. There are still minor bugs in the game but I hope they will fix them soon. On the downside, the game gets repetitive after some time. I didn't managed to reach the end sector yet, but especially the first sectors always feel the same at (re)starts. But it is the same as in FTL. It really shines in these moments when you run out of resources and must decide whether it's better take the risk entering a enemy-patrolled system or trying to reach another system (too?) far away...

As the others said, it's definitely a slow game. It's a neat concept and has plenty of potential... but they unfortunately missed the mark. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars instead of one is because I liked the idea behind it. Otherwise it's reasonably tedious and boring overall, although it has its highlights. Sadly the UI is fairly buggy too, and has a tendency to lock up or freeze. Unless you can get this for only $1 or so and want it for %@#'s and giggles, don't bother

... but bugs made me pretty upset. First: there seems to be no possibility to launch it in fullscreen. No immersion. Secound, when running like 2-3 hours it just won't continue at one point - eg i was starting a shuttle mission and it just wouldn't open the shuttle crew screen. I was also unable to open the menu and anything, so i had to close the game. This is just frustrating after a 2-3 hour ride... But nevertheless it's a very good game with a nice concept. Those who liked FTL will also like this one. I recommend purchasing this during a sale or in a bundle.

This game is actually fun! I like the concept a lot and the gameplay is entertaining!