This is a tactical space game that reminds me a ton of Space Pirates and Zombies, but once you overlook how visually similar they are you will see quite a few differences. Both games do have an open randomly generated galaxy to explore, tactical elements, roleplaying elements and capital ship combat. What makes Starfarer quite a bit different is how gameplay is handled. You control one ship at a time, which is similar to SPAZ, but in Starfarer you also seem to have a much larger tactical control. Even in the few gameplay demos you can see a fairly large amount of friendly ships under your control. Another big obvious difference is the UI, SPAZ has a fairly older look to the menu's while Starfarer looks to have a sleek and minimal UI. In this game you will be able to mine, explore the galaxy, trade, hire officers, customize your ships, customize your own specific character, command a fleet, make and play modifications, help pirates, hunt pirates and make a lot of choices. Starfarer is still in alpha but it does have a common pre-order policy that allows you to play all available versions as they are developed, plus you get the game for half off of it's release price. Check out this trailer to get an idea of how the game plays out, it is one of the missions from the game.



If you like what you see or are interesting head on over to their website and see what else they have to show you. The game does have a full on story that you can play through with your custom character and it does look to have a massive amount of replayability due to the whole randomly generated universe with hundreds of star systems, it also helps that the game will be coming out with mod support. There also looks to be very many options when it comes to customizing ships and building a fleet, take a look at many of the ships that are being considered right now.



It is easy to compare this game with Space Pirates and Zombies, but let them not complete, let them both be unique and interesting in their own rights. Great space games are rare, especially these days, and it's worth watching out for games like this and as soon as I can I'm going to get in on Starfarer and let you all know how it is turning out. The game is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Thanks for reading and do check it out, at least visit the site and read about it. Thanks to RPS for making me aware of Starfarer's existence.
Main Website: http://fractalsoftworks.com/

-Written by Sean Cargle