Endless Sky

Space trading sims (such as the Elite series) have two very common weak points: 1. 3D flight simulation is a game-design nightmare unto itself, which not everyone enjoys playing even at the best of times 2. a crutching reliance on randomness and procedural generaton, making the universe shallow and exploration feel pointless. This game follows—as does its “cousin” project Naev, which is also free—closely in the footsteps of the Escape Velocity (1996) series by making two simple changes to the Elite formula: 1. replace the 3D simulation with an Asteroids-style 2D map 2. bring the randomness to a minimum: each planet—there must be hundreds—is placed by hand and has a little bit of lore of its own. The result is a very accessible and very addictive trading-and-questing game, with arcade-like combat, plenty to see and explore, and plenty of freedom to set your own goals, but plenty of hand-written, branching plotlines and subplots too.

I've been playing this game for years before it was on GOG. The amount of content is MASSIVE. You'll be spending weeks of your life going through all of the story, exploring, getting better ships, etc. There are many competing storylines to try out with any playstyles, so you can easily replay the game multiple times and still discover something new. Whenever you land at a planet, CLICK THE SPACEPORT BUTTON. That's how you get access to a bunch of story bits. Those small popup boxes you can usually ignore if you aren't looking for a quick buck, but if you see a larger box pop up on the left side of the screen, that's likely going to be some interesting stuff. If you are stuck, or feel like there is less to the game than there should be, check the discord server for advice. I missed some huge parts of the game the first time around, though things have improved a lot since then. Also, there are a massive number of plugins for the game with additional content. I'd recommend not using them the first time around, but you can do whatever you like, just make sure you are having fun. This is not a AAA game. There is definitely a lot of room for visual improvements, but as far as free games go, it's pretty good. As long as you remember to CLICK THE SPACEPORT BUTTON, you will have plenty of fun content and challenges to take on. It's definitely one of my personal favourites.

First of all, it is free, so no matter the reviews, you can simply download it and just play it. But yeh...This game rocks! TLDR; 5/5 Cool game, just play it Graphics and Sound: Simple but very polished, much more than other games that you can buy and offer pretty much the same gameplay. Story: Pretty basic, pretty much as every other space game, 2 sides at war! A shady mastermind behind the scenes, etc. You get the gist. ;) Gameplay: Space sim, Isometric, Easy to learn, and this game is free...why?? With this kind of polish Endless Sky could charge us 15$ and I would gladly pay for it. And I hate spending more than 10$ for a game like that. That, in my mind at least, speaks volumes. If offers more than it should with that ZERO DOLLARS pricetag. Them Bad Things: Even though this game is an absolute banger it has some cons, minor ones, but still worth mentioning. If you HATE radiant quests...well tough luck this game is one big radiant missions throughout known space ;) Random chat messages from NPCs are limited, after 4hrs you pretty much saw all the possible messages in chat. There is an easy fix for that, haven't checked the mods yet but I reckon the solution already lies there. Game Save system is simple, for the first hour I didn't really know if my game progress got saved, but after that I learned that every time you land it autosaves so no worries. :) Most if not all of the story bits are carried through us visitng a spaceport, If you focus too much on that sweet sweet trading routes you can pretty much forget there was a war brewing in the Galaxy Aliens have cool tech, but it pretty much ends there. Wish there were some radiant missions with them but you get what you get, Them peace loving giants. <3 All in all, This game surprised me, Tbh I was kinda bored with Starfield and was looking for a space trucking sim, and just found this gem. So if you're like me, don't wait, just play. ;)

Endless Sky is a beautifully crafted 2D space RPG. You get the choice to pick from a various assortment of ships to explore a well crafted galaxy full of adventure and aliens. Each solar system has its own unique story to add in multiple hours of game play. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to chill in the moment and enjoy some classic space adventuring.