Starship EVO Review Summary

Despite fun and rewarding ship building that surpasses Space Engineers, game-breaking bugs, unplayable multiplayer, and barebones survival hold it back.

Building is fun and enjoyable: Players consistently report that the building mechanics are fun, satisfying, and rewarding. The system offers great creative possibilities and becomes even more enjoyable once mastered.

Game has huge potential: Players believe the game has enormous potential and exceptional promise. They see a bright future with great possibilities and impressive quality.

Game surpasses Space Engineers: Many reviewers compare the game favorably to Space Engineers, citing better stability, smoothness, creativity, and customization. They feel it offers a more enjoyable and accessible experience.

Overall game is great fun: Reviewers describe the game as well-made, interesting, and extremely fun to play. The overall experience is highly praised for being enjoyable and engaging.

Ship building is engaging and rewarding: Building ships provides a rewarding feeling and is engaging enough to spend many hours. Players love the possibilities and find the process amazing and phenomenal.

Game-breaking bugs and crashes: Many reviews report frequent crashes, glitches, and game-breaking bugs that severely hamper enjoyment. The game is often described as a buggy mess needing urgent fixes.

Survival mode is barebones: Survival mode lacks depth, long-term goals, and proper mechanics, feeling like a work-in-progress or tech demo. It is often buggy and not fully realized.

Multiplayer is unplayable: Multiplayer functionality is widely reported as broken, with connection issues, bugs, and inability to play with friends. The mode feels incomplete and unreliable.

Game feels unfinished: The overall game is perceived as incomplete, with missing content, rough edges, and a lack of polish. It is not yet close to a playable, fulfilling state.

UI and menus are clunky: The UI and menus are described as unintuitive, slow, and confusing, making navigation difficult. The design is off-putting and not beginner-friendly.

Ship building and customization: Ship construction is a major gameplay pillar, allowing players to design and build spaceships, bases, and stations block by block. The system supports detailed customization of weapons, interiors, and mechanisms.

Core building mechanics: The game is centered around a versatile block-based building system that allows creating large structures, ships, and mechanisms. Players highlight the freedom to build almost anything from small handhelds to large spaceships.

Galaxy exploration: The game features a massive procedurally generated galaxy with countless star systems, planets, and alien life to explore. Players can seamlessly travel from planetary surfaces to space and engage in interstellar travel.

Space sandbox genre: The game is described as a voxel-based space sandbox that combines ship construction, exploration, and combat. It appeals to fans of the space engineering genre.

Survival mode exists: The game includes a survival mode with a gameplay loop focused on mining, building, and progressing. Players can also choose a creative mode for unrestricted building.

Frequent crashes and instability: Multiple clusters report frequent game crashes, freezes, and instability, with some players experiencing crashes every 45 minutes to 2 hours. These issues significantly impact gameplay reliability.

Poor optimization on various hardware: Several clusters indicate the game is poorly optimized, with low frame rates, lag, and performance issues even on mid-range to high-end systems. Players report sub-60 FPS on capable hardware and severe lag on good setups.

Smooth performance on high-end PCs: Conversely, some players with powerful or older PCs report the game runs smoothly and without significant issues. This suggests performance varies greatly depending on the hardware and settings used.

Frame rate issues and stuttering: Players report stuttering, jittery gameplay, and frame rate drops, particularly on planets or after extended play sessions. This affects overall smoothness and enjoyment.

GPU and resource usage concerns: The game is noted to be GPU-intensive, sometimes maxing out the GPU while not using CPU efficiently. This can lead to high power consumption and heat generation.

Appeals to space sandbox fans: Players who enjoy space, survival, and sandbox games find this game highly appealing due to its expansive building and exploration elements. The combination of space themes and open-ended gameplay resonates well with this audience.

Great for spaceship building fans: Many reviewers recommend this game specifically for players who love designing and building spaceships, with detailed mechanics and creative freedom. The building aspect is highlighted as a core strength, offering over 100 hours of fun for enthusiasts.

Good value for money: Several reviewers state the game is definitely worth its price, with some emphasizing it's more than worth it in its current state. The positive value perception is a common theme among satisfied players.

Similar to Space Engineers: Reviewers note strong similarities to Space Engineers, recommending it to fans of that game or similar titles like Starmade. The comparison suggests it delivers a comparable experience in ship building and engineering.

Price not justified currently: Some reviewers feel the game is not worth its full price in its current state, suggesting waiting for a sale. The lack of content or polish at this stage diminishes its perceived value.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $15.00.

Session length: 5.5h.

Endgame: 100.0h.

The game starts with a rough learning curve and tedious early resources, but becomes highly engaging once players complete the tutorial and reach space.

Friction: tedious hand mining; confusing tutorial; steep learning curve; slow early resource gathering; initial power system confusion.

Unlock drivers: completing the tutorial; getting to space; acquiring efficiency upgrade; overcoming learning curve.

Creative Engineer: Spends long hours designing, iterating, and refining ships, often seeking to replicate real-world or fictional vessels with high detail. Motivation: Expressing creativity through complex ship and station design and comparing designs with other games. Stance: buy.

Survival Explorer: Methodical grinding, building functional ships step-by-step, and exploring star systems with a focus on incremental achievement. Motivation: Progression from planet-bound survival to space exploration and base building. Stance: sale.

Frustrated Co-op Seeker: Attempts to set up multiplayer sessions, troubleshooting connectivity, but often giving up due to broken features. Motivation: Playing with friends in a shared space engineering experience. Stance: no buy.

Performance is positive for low (<8GB) and high (16GB+) VRAM cohorts, but negative for mid-range VRAM (8-15GB) cohorts due to crashes and low framerates.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Most players report playable performance at lower resolutions with occasional crashes and save issues, but overall positive feedback.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: negative. Many players report sub-60 FPS at 1080p and unplayable performance, especially on AMD GPUs, with few recommended reviews.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. All sampled reviews are negative, citing frequent crashes, mediocre FPS, and persistent bugs.

Steam Deck: The game is playable on Steam Deck via Proton, but requires tinkering: controller support is lacking and needs manual remapping, and native Linux support is absent, leading to potential bugs. Some users report smooth performance.

Linux and Proton: The game runs under Proton with mixed results—some users enjoy a stable experience while others encounter bugs and feel official Linux support is absent. No special Proton versions or launch options are mentioned, suggesting default Proton works. The friction is moderate, mostly due to reported bugs.

Frequent Space Engineers comparisons: Many reviews compare the game to Space Engineers, noting similarities in building and gameplay, but also differences in execution and features.

Comparisons to other space games: Reviews also compare the game to Empyrion, Starbase, No Man's Sky, and Starmade, often highlighting unique aspects or shortcomings.

Game still in development: Many reviews note the game is unfinished, in alpha or beta, and still rough around the edges. This indicates early-stage development with ongoing updates.

Developer actively fixes bugs: The developer is praised for rapid bug fixes and frequent patches, showing commitment to improving the game.

Solo developer behind game: The game is developed by a single person, often described as a passion project. This context influences expectations for updates and scope.