Space Games

Space games are video games where the player, or players, explores outer space in a spaceship. There are several styles of space games, from single-player arcade shooters to complex MMOs, that include corporate espionage and vast economic models in addition to ships, shooting, and exploration. Space is big!

Most space games will put you in control of at least one ship, with a viewpoint from either inside the cockpit or from outside the ship via a third-person camera. Being inside a spaceship as it flies through space is an immersive experience, and the most impressive games will have a number of cockpits for a variety of ships.

Control of the ship can be very arcadey, with the ship responding quickly and easily to your controls, or they could be more simulation-based, where space’s lack of friction and gravity (usually called “Newtonian physics”) will make controlling the ship an extreme challenge that takes a lot of skill and concentration. Some games even let you choose from a number of flight models to ensure the players have the controls they prefer.

Space games are exclusively sci-fi, which gives them a lot of scope when it comes to technology, storylines, and missions. A major trope of the genre is how open the games are, offering the player a weak starter ship and a small amount of currency and allowing them the freedom to choose their own path throughout the game. It means that space games often have a number of careers or classes for players to select, along with a number of ship types. Customization options will further allow players to control their overall experience, with the same ship having multiple configurations via upgrades and add-ons.

You could spend your time ferrying goods between two distant planets, flying around space in a slow cargo freighter. Or you could build a ship with mining capabilities and spend your time drilling asteroids for minerals and precious metals. Ship-to-ship combat is another major activity that players of space games can expect. Dogfights in space are spectacular, with the sci-fi setting allowing for slick ships firing lasers at glowing shields. And it’s possible for all of these to be happening at the same time, in the same system, while dozens of other players go about playing the game in the way they want to.

Space games will sometimes have complex economic and political simulations running, though players can take as little or as much interest in them as they like. You can play the game against the backdrop of these things, or you can take an active interest in the “metagame” that each system enables. Aligning with a group or group of players to control or destabilize either of these is a long-term activity, sometimes years in the making. Or you could just shoot things.

There are less open space games to play, usually focused on space battles. Dogfighting in space, mentioned before as part of open world games, can be the sole focus of some games. These are often more arcadey in format, allowing players to fly and shoot with speed and precision amidst large battles. Missions are more story-based, too, with cut scenes and a far more direct effect on the world of the game.

Yes, from co-op games to multiplayer PVP and PVE, and even giant MMORPGs, a number of space games support online multiplayer.

Yes. Some space games allow players to land their ship on planets and moons. Some even allow the player to exit their vehicle and explore a planet’s surface on foot or in a buggy, enabling missions to take place.

Yes, several. Space, by its very nature, is considered open-world, and almost all space games will let the player explore a solar system or galaxy with very few limits imposed on their destination and progress.