Top 14 Space Simulation Games to Buy in the Steam Summer Sale!

Is this a game?, If it is then what name is this game

X4 is a must-buy. Spacebourne 2 is worth trying; however, there is lots of work to do. For example, a landing computer for docking is not in the game.

No Space Engineers?

Simulations and arcades is a different genre

Star citizen ost spoted

Thank you for covering Children of a Dead Earth, that game is absolutely awesome and I always love to see it get some appreciation!

Subbed because of your hard work pronouncing "Magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters" correctly. ;)

I've been using Space Engine since years before it moved to steam. I think I first got it around .95. There wasn't even magma yet. It's definitely worth having for anyone who loves the beauty of space and wants to just explore.

Play X3 Albion Prelude!
Way better than X4!

yeah good old games, but nothing new

X4 is trash

Empyrion is one of the very best games out there, not just space themed, but generally. If you like free form playing more than following prompts, this is a MUST, even at the regular price.

not being sarcastic, all these games are cool and all esp ED, but you missed the money grab star citizen. Even though i don't respect CIGs leadership on the project throughout the years its still an amazing project regardless, when you can play through the bugs if the server has 5 people on and you're still getting a avg server tick of 4.

P. S. If you're on the spectrum in a totally different dimension then Space station 13 is the game you're looking for. probably one of the best games ever made. that is if you can read

Now which of them would be suitable as engine to make a TC for a universe ? Required features are realistic orbits, acceleration-driven travel and wormhole jumps.

Thanks for mentionning DeltaV ! This is one of my favs of the moment !

What game is shown during the introduction?

Where the hell is Kerbal space program ?

I played Void Destroyer 1, saw a lot of potential but it was not fully realized by the sheer insane scale of its difficulty. Nice to see a second game came out and experimented more with the single-ship vs fleet control mechanics the dev created.

Children of a Dead Earth is incredible in its realism. You WILL understand orbital mechanics by the end!!

Or just play StarSector, 2d sandbox, level up your character/characters, manage and arm your ship/ships, join factions or create your own, recruit other characters, explore, wage wars, discover lost relics, ships, technology.
Really one of the best space games i have ever played, way better than most of these presented.

These game lacks cute girl element😂

Starsector is a good 2D Space Sim, but since it's not on Steam, not a lot know about it.

Thanks very much for the really tight chapters and info. liked.

Don't know what it is about X4, but I always end up missing and revisiting X3.

You miss Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw... A really great game!

Nebulous Fleet Command definitely worth a shout..

i saw the other comments, space engineers is a sandbox only if you play on creative it has survival

The UI and gameplay in NMS is infested with so many insufferable console tropes ... Why do I have to actively brake to not move in my ship? Why does the inventory look like a screen of apps icons on a mobile? Why are interaction screens so oversized yet castrated? Oh, right, "multiplatform", or worse, "crossplay". Game design reduced to the dumbest common denominator, rather than optimized to the platform's respective strength. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Nice list. 07

what about KSP? Nice list otherwise

I hate gamers for the X4 score. Despite some of its shortcomings and clunkyness it's without the shadow of a doubt one of the best space games ever made.

I miss the Hotdog plants in Empyrion; they removed them years ago, and it is now plant protein.

I’m a space gamer with thousands of hours in every, Kerbal and elite dangerous. Played many of the games in this list but I just can’t get into x4. Tried a couple times and lose interest after a few days every time. Why?

And nothing new... just old stuff ((

Empyrion is the best!

Where’s Everspace 2??

Where's SE? 🔫

ED - I “completed” the training after 4 hours, and therefore no longer had the opportunity to return the money to Steam. About 2 years have passed since then, and the game has not been launched since then. The elite are very - VERY - unfriendly to newcomers, especially in the field of complicated management.

No Space Engineers? ;(

The Soundtrack of Star Citizen in the Background is still the very best. Nice Easter Egg :)

I like to build, not to destroy.

Its supposed to be huge, yet I still run into loads of players....and earth, I've never seen earth and the only time I ever wanted to go game wouldn't let me jump 200 or so jumps to get there

Come on man, there are currently 3 people online on steam playing Evochron. How can you recommend such a game?

I have 3.5k hours in EGS, it is one of the best space games out there. Countless planets. Land on what you think is a great planet to explore and then find out you cannot take off because of the high gravity. Spend a couple of hours cutting your ship to bits to reduce weight to take off. Just so much to do and the multiplayer side of it is excellent also.

It takes a bit to GET to the space sim part, but Terra Invicta has a pretty cool space combat model for fleet combat alongside the 4x gameplay.

Timelines is underrated. As soon you start to uncover the secrets you get it. I honestly wish there would be many more missions like that.

I'm so glad ΔV: Rings of Saturn is getting attention here, and also Children of A Dead Earth

I only discovered X4 some days ago and my only regret is to not have know it's existence sooner. It reminds me Eve online but with more interactions, it's hard to get in it but when it's done you don't play to anything else.

X4 has unusually high bad ratings compared to its quality because of the almost complete lack of any tutorial. As an expert PC gamer I found this one hard to get started in. I even put about 5 hours into it several years ago and got distracted only coming back to it recently. Once you get over that hurdle of having not fcking idea what is going on, or what the point of anything is and how to navigate and open up new solar systems, the game really takes off. I would wager than less than 30% of people who try the game ever make it even that far. I would suggest that anyone trying this game should make a minimum goal of the following. All can be accomplished withing the first 10 hours and it will open the possibilities of the game up to the point you will know what to do next.
1) Build a custom ship
2) Build a basic space station
3) Set up a second ship to automatically mine and sell resources.

This is the foundation of this game. Once you get here, the sky isn't even the limit, because you are in space.

Empyrion Galactic Survival is a dead game. They had thousands of daily players using online servers having a blast, blasting each other to bits. In a game where over 1/2 the items you can build and put on your ships are weapons or ammo of some kind it makes sense that it is obviously a pvp game. Devs sadly gave the carebears a 100x voting multiplier and cut the legs out from under the pvpers. They carebears could already just use any of many pve only servers but they insisted on playing in pvp servers without any actual risk of losing anything. The devs nurfed the count of guns you can put on any ship including capitals so much that no one is any serious threat to anyone else. Furthermore they nurfed pve content by making NPC outpost which players would regularly raid for supplies and weapons to be completely impenetrable. Overall this was an amazing game and it is a joke of its former glory. I would say if you like pvp, action, or even any symbolance of realism, avoid this game. It will absolutely disappoint.

Elite Dangerous is a fun game for about 2 weeks till you have done everything. I wouldn't get into that one unless you plan on playing it once and soon. Much of the support for that game has already been discontinued, their most recent DLC was a disaster with "Mostly Negative" reviews, and the game is likely to shut down their servers literally any day. I would bee surprised if they are still up an running even in a year.