Startopia

Absolutely the best builder sandbox game I have played ...and still playing. The bastard child of theme hospital, Theme Park and and all the other Bullfrog panache that you know and love. Choccablock with humour, style and interest, its a place I love to visit. I would live there if I could.

There are some flaws (the combat system) but all the rest is so damn good. Lovely soundtrack Great mechanics Fun Gameplay I wish there are some sequel

Startopia is a delightful sci-fi management sim where you build and mantain a space station. Hardcore sim/management players will probably find the gameplay a little on the simple side, but it's perfectly servicable, and the big draw is the game's personality. It has a wonderfully Douglas Adams-esque sense of humor that makes the game fun and entertaining. I really feel like I can't overstate the wit and charm contained in this game. Would recommend anyone try it.

Still well worth playing to this day, runs well on windows 11 so long as the resolution doesnt go too high

It is an interesting game from the past, basically the concept of the (management) game is that you are the manager of various space stations, rotating wheel space stations to be exact. As such the first main feature stands out, you are literally playing in a donut. You build facilities to maintain the space station and accomodate the various alien visitors, while making a profit because of course it is a management game. So now to the game features: the tone is heavily inspired by Douglas Adam's Hitchiker Guide to the Galaxy, the game is silly in a few ways and doesn't take itself seriously, also has your typical British voiceover (which may be good or bad depending on how one may view it). It features a campaign that introduces mechanics the further you move along with various objectives: including making a production, trading, touristic, meditation space stations, or waging war against competitors, for my case it has been enjoyable played in short bursts. The alien species that you can hire as workers are visually distinct and each populate their respective facilities. There is a garden mechanic, that allows you to tailor your own hydroponic level (that could be frustratingly ruined by occasional meteor storms). The combat system is a bit basic, but it can be easily dealt with appropriate turret placement and overwhelming your enemy (just make sure that your guys won't go so deep that they get isolated). The bad: after a while the lack of building variety becomes a problem especially when you get access to large chunks of the space station, the camera system takes a bit to be used to, and there is an annoying bug involving the slug species. This game gets an overall recommendation from my part as it has been enjoyable, while it's not as deep as other management games, it has been charming and doesn't overstay its welcome.