Info about Starcom: Unknown Space: Official game description: Starcom: Unknown Space is an action adventure RPG of space exploration, ship building and fast-paced tactical combat. Enter a vast open-world universe filled with alien factions vying for power, strange worlds to explore, mysteries to investigate, and a sinister enemy that threatens the galaxy with an ancient power. Explore ------- Explore a fully-open world universe with over a hundred star systems filled with undiscovered planets, mysterious artifacts, lost derelicts, and strange phenomena. Over 230 anomalies to investigate, each uniquely illustrated and with their own story. Build Your Starship ------------------- Transform your small scout ship into a powerful starship of your own design with an innovative shipbuilding system. Make a deep space explorer, a fast strike craft, or an armor-leaden battlecruiser. Experiment with different designs and share your blueprints with others. Discover & Research ------------------- Every new scientific discovery grants Research Points allowing you to unlock new modules and enhancements with a deep technology research tree. Choose techs that favor your preferred gameplay style: Upgrade your plasma cannons or unlock long range missiles? Better armor or shields? Unlock crew specializations first or a larger hull? Make Allies & Enemies --------------------- The galaxy is full of unique alien factions each with their own motives. Decide who you will trust, trade with, hire, or vaporize. More Features: -------------- * 60+ main story and side-quest missions to discover * Train your command crew to improve their skills and ship management bonuses * Smart autopilot to known locations, discover fast-travel gateways to distant systems, or venture into the unknown void * Alien factions will change their disposition and behavior depending on your actions * Collect, analyze, and trade over 100 different artifacts * Detailed, searchable ship log of every encounter and interaction * Save anywhere outside combat Fans of _Starcom: Nexus_ should know that the overall game mechanics have remained similar (with a lot of improvements), this is not a direct sequel-- it is a brand new story. New players will not need to be familiar with the plot of _Starcom: Nexus_ to jump right in. Release date: 2 Sep, 2024 Categories: Open-World Exploration, Ship Customization, Tactical Combat, Resource Management, Research and Discovery, Single-player Story, Faction Management - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Engaging, polished core gameplay (weight 0.97): The game delivers a polished and engaging experience with a well-balanced core loop, intuitive mechanics, and streamlined features. It offers a vast, handcrafted universe to explore, rewarding curiosity and thoughtful decision-making. Many reviewers express strong enjoyment and highlight the game's addictive nature, comparing it favorably to classic titles and noting its improvements over previous installments. - Deep, rewarding ship customization (weight 0.67): The game features a deep and rewarding ship customization system, allowing players to design and upgrade their vessels with a wide variety of modules and weapons. The system is intuitive and encourages experimentation, with resources refunded when disassembling parts. This aspect of the game is frequently praised for its balance of simplicity and depth, contributing significantly to the overall enjoyment. - Evokes classic space exploration (weight 0.43): The game evokes a strong sense of space exploration, often drawing comparisons to classic sci-fi franchises like Star Trek. Reviewers praise the well-written quests, atmospheric world-building, and the feeling of discovering new worlds and alien cultures. The game's visuals, while sometimes simple, contribute to the overall immersive experience. - Engaging, well-written narrative (weight 0.17): The game features well-written and engaging dialogue, contributing to a compelling narrative experience. Reviewers appreciate the depth, quality, and relevance of the writing, noting the realistic character interactions and the incorporation of humor. The story is often described as thought-provoking and well-developed, enhancing the overall immersion. - Rewarding exploration, dynamic factions (weight 0.15): Exploration is a core focus, rewarding players with discoveries, research points, and progression. The game offers flexibility in interacting with alien factions, allowing for diplomacy, combat, or theft, influencing relationships and creating a dynamic universe. The game world feels alive due to multiple factions to interact and contend with. - Engaging, strategic space combat (weight 0.11): The game features engaging combat that is easy to follow and offers a sufficient level of challenge. Reviewers appreciate the ability to damage individual modules on enemy ships, leading to strategic battles. The combat system is often described as smooth, intuitive, and satisfying, especially as players upgrade their ships and unlock new technologies. - Satisfying research, diverse weapons (weight 0.08): The game features a satisfying research system and a diverse range of weapon types, encouraging experimentation and customization. Reviewers appreciate the progressive increase in technology and the noticeable impact of upgrades on gameplay. The combat is often described as well-balanced and enjoyable, with a good sense of progression through research unlocks. - Enjoyable crew interactions, commentary (weight 0.07): The game incorporates enjoyable crew interactions and commentary, adding depth and personality to the experience. Reviewers appreciate the crew's banter, insightful advice, and the sense of them being alive and engaged in the events. These interactions enhance the overall immersion and make exploration more rewarding. - Good, engaging story (weight 0.07): The game features a good and engaging story that is well-written and provides a positive experience. Reviewers appreciate the story's ability to guide them through the game and its mysterious and captivating nature. The story is often described as simple but effective, adding depth to the overall gameplay. - Improved sequel, refined experience (weight 0.06): The game is a solid sequel or remake of the original, with improvements in various aspects such as interface, graphics, and gameplay. Reviewers appreciate the refinements made to existing systems and the addition of new content. The game retains the enjoyable elements of its predecessor while offering a more polished and engaging experience. - High-quality audio, appealing visuals (weight 0.06): The game features a high-quality soundtrack and appealing visuals that enhance the overall atmosphere. Reviewers praise the music for its relaxing and fitting nature, and the sound design for its impact. The graphics, while sometimes simple, are often described as beautiful and well-suited to the game's style. - Evokes nostalgia, classic space games (weight 0.03): The game evokes a strong sense of nostalgia, reminiscent of classic space exploration games like Star Control and Solar Winds. Reviewers appreciate the game's ability to capture the spirit of these titles, scratching an itch for old-school gameplay and exploration. The game is often described as a modern update to these classics, offering a familiar yet refined experience. Common complaints: - Unclear quest objectives/directions (weight 0.37): Many reviewers found quests lacked clear direction, objectives, and map markers, leading to aimless exploration and reliance on external guides. This lack of guidance often resulted in player frustration, with some even abandoning quests or the game entirely. The issue was present throughout the game, with some reviewers noting it got worse towards the end. - Repetitive, grindy gameplay loop (weight 0.28): The core gameplay loop of exploring, scanning planets, and engaging in combat becomes repetitive and grindy. Long travel times exacerbate the issue, making the game feel tedious. This repetition diminishes the fun factor and replayability. - Limited replayability/content (weight 0.09): The game's static world, linear story, and limited content contribute to low replayability. The map feels empty, and the game lacks dynamic elements or a New Game+ mode to extend the experience. This makes the game feel short and not worth the price for some reviewers. - Clunky ship builder (weight 0.06): The ship builder is clunky, limited, and lacks quality of life features. Ship building is slowed down by resource gathering, and the ship's speed is slow, making travel tedious. The ship building options feel somewhat limited, and the reviewer desires more asymmetry in ship building. - Excessive resource/research grind (weight 0.05): The game has a significant grind for materials and research, making progression feel slow and tedious. Resources are scarce, and there's no ability to reset research, restricting experimentation with different builds. This grind detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game. - Lacks localization/features (weight 0.05): The game lacks localization options, voice acting, and mod support. The translation quality is lacking, and there are an unusually high number of typos in the game's text. The game also lacks an economy, currency, trading, and mining elements. - Underdeveloped crew/research system (weight 0.04): The crew system is underdeveloped, with limited skills and ineffective training. The research tree is shallow, lacking meaningful specialization options. Exploration is repetitive and lacks skill or strategy, and crew dialogue during exploration feels clunky and annoying. - Underwhelming ending (weight 0.04): The ending felt perfunctory, lacked impact, and was underwhelming compared to the first game. The game ends abruptly with an unclear conclusion, leaving the player wanting more. The universe felt somewhat lifeless, with clear-cut ally/enemy relationships and predictable reactions. - Slow and uninspired combat (weight 0.03): Combat starts slow, with weapon types gated behind acquisition, study, and research. Combat feels fidgety with mouse and keyboard, requiring more dexterity than comfortable. Some combat playstyles are superior, narrowing the viable options, and combat lacks variety. - Limited resource acquisition (weight 0.03): Resource acquisition for ship upgrades feels somewhat limited, and finite mining locations make consistent resource farming difficult. Early game ship customization is limited until resources and research points are acquired. The game does not have enough weapons and modules to use. - Ship builder usability issues (weight 0.02): Accidental deletion of ship components during building lacks an "undo" option. Ship building is slowed down by resource gathering, especially for higher-level modules. The ship designer could be improved by allowing parts to be moved aside instead of disappearing during redesigns. Gameplay feedback: - Core loop: explore, scan, investigate (weight 0.32): Exploration is a core mechanic, involving traveling between star systems, scanning planets, and investigating anomalies. This often leads to text-based encounters, resource gathering, and the discovery of new technologies, alien races, and quests. The game rewards thorough exploration. - Deep, modular ship customization (weight 0.3): The game features in-depth ship customization using a hex-grid system and modular components. Players can design ships to match their playstyle by balancing offense, defense, and utility. Research, crew skills, and resource management all contribute to ship strength and capabilities. - Resource management and research (weight 0.12): Resource management, trading, and research are key elements. Players gather resources through exploration, combat, and trading, then use them to research new technologies and upgrade their ships. The game uses a barter system for trading. - Exploration with freedom and guidance (weight 0.07): The game balances guidance with player freedom, offering a main storyline while allowing open exploration and side quests. Fast travel options are available, but many discoveries await off the beaten path. The game does not hold the player's hand. - Text-based narrative and logs (weight 0.04): The game features a story delivered through text-based interactions and still images. A log records events and dialogues for later review. Players may need to take notes on the star map. - Simple, real-time arcade combat (weight 0.04): Combat is real-time and direct control, often described as simple and arcade-like. There is no pausing to plan things out. The game features a balance between free travel and fast travel. - Dice-roll skill checks (weight 0.02): The game features a D&D-style dice roll system for determining the success of operations on planets, influenced by crew stats. Crew skills grant passive bonuses on the ship and are crucial for away missions. - Inspired by classic space games (weight 0.02): The game shares similarities with classic space exploration games like Star Control and Starflight, but is often simpler. Some reviewers note that the game modernizes the Star Control 2 formula. - Alien diplomacy and alliances (weight 0.02): Players interact with alien factions through dialogue boxes, making choices about alliances and conflicts. Diplomacy involves navigating interactions with warlike aliens. - Simple planet scanning mechanic (weight 0.02): Exploration often involves flying to a planet and clicking scan, which reveals either 'No Anomaly' or 'Anomaly present'. Scanning planets reveals resources or alien technology. - Simple, slow-paced adventure (weight 0.02): The game features a slow-paced adventure with simple controls, mechanics, and story. Exploration is a major part of the game and is simple and fun. - Generic gameplay comments (weight 0.01): These points are too general to be useful. They describe the gameplay as 'fine', 'simple', or 'not intuitive' without providing any specific details or examples. Performance notes: - Stable and polished performance (weight 0.1): Many players report a stable and polished experience, noting smooth performance, absence of crashes and bugs, and good optimization across various hardware configurations, including Steam Deck and older machines. Some players encountered minor issues, but they were not significant. - Steam Deck and Linux compatible (weight 0.01): The game is compatible with Steam Deck using default Proton settings and supports streaming to other computers outside the home network. The game also runs on Linux. - Dark Nebula slows progression (weight 0.01): The "Dark Nebula" and "Void Inhibitors" slow down player progress, with the former paradoxically increasing ship speed despite its intended effect. - Occasional crashes and bugs (weight 0.01): Some players have reported crashes and bugs, but they were often resolved by reloading the game. - Small size and fast loading (weight 0.01): The game has a small storage footprint and loads quickly. - Memory leak on Steam Deck (weight 0): Some players have reported a memory leak that causes performance degradation on the Steam Deck during extended play sessions. This issue can be temporarily resolved by restarting the game. - Potential GPU overheating issue (weight 0): The game may cause GPU overheating, requiring players to manually set a frame rate limit to prevent this issue. - Resolution change scrolling issue (weight 0): Some players have encountered an issue where the game constantly scrolls up when attempting to change the resolution, even without a controller connected. - Sound issues reported (weight 0): Some players have experienced sound issues that required troubleshooting. - Simplistic game engine (weight 0): The game engine is simplistic. - Acceptable sound quality (weight 0): The sound quality is acceptable. Recommendations: - Engaging space exploration experience (weight 0.47): The game is highly recommended for fans of space exploration, sci-fi, and classic games like Star Control. Reviewers praise its engaging mix of exploration, combat, ship customization, and story-driven gameplay. Many suggest it's a relaxing and captivating experience, often compared to Star Trek or other space operas. - Value proposition is debated (weight 0.22): Reviews are mixed regarding the game's price point. Some reviewers find it well worth the full price, citing the amount of content and enjoyment received. However, others feel it's overpriced for what it offers and recommend waiting for a sale or price reduction. - Game is highly enjoyable (weight 0.2): Many reviewers express strong positive sentiment, describing the game as a gem, amazing, and a must-play. They praise the story, graphics, and sound design, often giving high scores and recommending it without reservation. These reviewers express enthusiasm and enjoyment. - Desire for more content (weight 0.13): Many reviewers express a desire for more content, updates, DLC, or a sequel. They enjoyed the game and want to see it expanded upon with more quests, story content, and features. This indicates a positive experience that left them wanting more. - Compared to Starcom: Nexus (weight 0.06): The game is often compared to Starcom: Nexus, with many reviewers recommending it to those who enjoyed the first game. Some consider it an improvement over its predecessor, while others find it similar but not as outstanding. New players can enjoy it without playing the first game. - Great casual, relaxing experience (weight 0.04): The game is often described as a great casual experience, suitable for relaxing and unwinding. Reviewers suggest it's a good time-waster and a breath of fresh air, especially considering its indie development. It's considered a positive surprise and a good game for relaxing. - Praised as indie masterpiece (weight 0.02): The game is praised as a masterpiece, especially considering it was developed by an indie developer or even a single person. Reviewers recommend purchasing it to support the small indie developer and highlight the high-quality experience created without large teams or budgets. - Higher difficulty recommended by some (weight 0.01): Some reviewers recommend playing on a higher difficulty level to avoid repetitive combat and increase the challenge. This suggests that the game's difficulty can be adjusted to suit different player preferences. - Arcade-style gameplay, gamepad recommended (weight 0.01): The gameplay and combat are described as fairly arcade-y, best enjoyed with a gamepad. The game is more arcade-like than a deep 4X experience, making it suitable for casual fun in short bursts. - Replayability varies by player (weight 0.01): Some reviewers express a desire to replay the game after finishing it, while others feel that completing the story once is enough. This suggests varying levels of replayability depending on individual preferences. - Solid 8/10 score (weight 0.01): Several reviews give the game a solid score of 8/10, indicating a positive overall impression despite any criticisms. - Praise for developers' work (weight 0.01): Reviewers congratulate the developers and praise them for doing an excellent job, indicating a positive overall impression and appreciation for their work. - Hope for a sequel (weight 0.01): Reviewers express hope for a sequel, with the ending suggesting the possibility of one. This indicates a positive overall experience and a desire for more content in the future. - Surprisingly enjoyable experience (weight 0.01): Some reviewers express surprise at how much they enjoyed the game, especially after getting help from the community or doing research. This suggests that the game may have a learning curve or require some initial effort to fully appreciate. Other player notes: - Evokes classic space exploration games (weight 0.05): The game is frequently compared to classic space exploration titles like Star Control, Starflight, Escape Velocity, and Star Trek Voyager, evoking a sense of nostalgia and familiarity for fans of the genre. It successfully captures the essence of space exploration and sci-fi adventures, blending RPG elements with action. - Decent playtime, content lacking (weight 0.04): Reviewers indicate the game offers a substantial playtime, around 30-40 hours, but some feel it lacks depth or content in certain areas. There are requests for more content, and some find the exploration aspect to be uneven, with empty spaces that don't always reward the player. - Developed by small, passionate team (weight 0.04): The game's development by a small team or a solo developer is frequently highlighted, with reviewers often impressed by the scope and quality achieved. The developer's passion and engagement with the community are also noted positively, suggesting a dedicated and responsive approach to game development. - Desire for modding support (weight 0.01): Players are interested in modding support, hoping for custom ships, content, and mission editors to expand the game's replayability. The game's potential for modding is seen as a significant advantage, promising endless content and customization options. - Active developer community engagement (weight 0.01): The developer is actively involved with the community, responding to feedback and providing updates, which fosters a positive relationship with players and demonstrates a commitment to improving the game. - Story through snippets and events (weight 0.01): The game's story is delivered through snippets of dialogue, planet events, and item descriptions, focusing on a central mystery involving ancient relics while prioritizing immediate survival. The narrative approach is creative but can be overwhelming in its detail. - Text-heavy, lacks voice acting (weight 0.01): The game relies heavily on text, with no voice acting and minimal graphics, which may appeal to some players but could be a drawback for those who prefer more visual or auditory engagement. - Trade routes and resource prices (weight 0): The game features a dynamic economy where different planets offer varying prices for resources, allowing players to exploit trade routes for profit. This adds a strategic layer to the gameplay, encouraging players to explore and optimize their trading activities. - Hidden, difficult achievements (weight 0): Some achievements are difficult to find, potentially catering to dedicated explorers who enjoy thoroughly searching the game world for hidden content. - Automatic aiming for plasma guns (weight 0): The game includes a feature that automatically aims and fires plasma guns, simplifying combat and reducing the need for precise aiming. Emotions: No emotions}