This also looks pretty good - a cross between Vampire Survivor and FTL, with a system to system campaign map:
Going to ask this question again, because its been 4 years since i last asked it, and got an amazing recommendation from BrianRubin at that time that helped me to discover Star Traders
So here is my question in case there are new candidates i should consider…
- What is the best game for a Star Trek-like experience, with away teams going down to the planet with ideally narrative-like adventures that are affected based on the skills of your landing party. Ideally also includes tactical combat, and also space combat.
- The second game I’m looking for is a recommendation of a space fleet game (ideally 4x) that includes BOTH boarding parties (ok if it’s abstracted) where you can capture enemy ships, and if 4x includes ground combat as well. Moo2 comes the closest in my awareness and the one i still play when i yearn for the above.
I follow space games fairly closely and I don’t know of any games that meet your criteria or I would be playing them. The closest I can think of is an early access game on Steam called Stellar Tactics. It is a tactical RPG where you command a mercenary crew with your own ship. You can land with tactical TB combat like XCom, there’s ship combat, and ship boarding (I think). I’m not certain if there are “narrative adventures” other than combat missions, but the story is still being worked on.
The game is a labor of love by one guy and it is taking him years, but he is making progress. Most of the systems are in place now and he is working on the story elements now.
I mean, Star Fleet II does most of this.
Imperium Galactica 2 might be the closest thing I can think of here.
Approaching Infinity delivers procedurally generated narratives and missions with most of the other stuff catered for. Might be worth a look-see.
Ohhhh very good call.
That game has been recommended to me by multiple people. I guess I really need to look into it. Not super into the idea of rogue-like mechanics in my space game but what the heck, I’m open to the possibilities.
For the sake of completeness, the Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgement Rites adventure games have 1 and 3 of your criteria. Star Trek Online has 2 and 3 in your criteria, and also has narrative-based away missions but the narratives aren’t necessarily solved based on your landing party skills (except combat, they definitely have skills there). Those three games have a certain Star Trek look to their aesthetics, and are either cheap or free to play. Some of the landing party missions are quite well done.
I only hesitate to mention them because they’re pretty obvious answers.
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary was excellent back in the day. Believe it or not, it was my introduction to Star Trek. I used to watch TNG, but never knew any of the original series characters until I played the game. I really should try to play Judgement Rites and see if it holds up for me today.
The two point and click Star Trek games (25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites) are wonderful Trek games. But it’s worth pointing out that, being point and click games, there is a bit of moon logic puzzles here and there. Plus some space combat that’s just, well, not very good.
Ohh these might also be good:
and its early access sequel:
The sequel is more crew/RPG based so your crew can affect how away missions go.
Ive played all of these except Approaching Infinity and Starcom! Added both to my wishlist. Are either worth playing now? Ive grown leary of early access, but if one is amazing as is, Id pull the trigger :)
Also going to give Star Fleet II a buy once it releases :)
Approaching Infinity is an interesting case. It was released as a 1.0 ages ago to a stupid publisher, where it languished for years.
The dev got the rights back, and has been improving it ever since. So its kind of complete and full of stuff to do already, but it’s just getting better and better. You can totally jump on that one now.
Starcom 1 does a lot of what you want, but 2 is an improvement in every way, but it’s got work yet to be done so you can wait on that one.
We’re always looking for more SF2 playtesters. ;)
Wasn’t there, long ago, a space 4x or Starflight-like that had (I think tactical surface battles) and also became like a text adventure for some missions? Like it was a bunch of different genres welded together. I swear I owned a copy of something like this.
Gonna be really old and not the answer to the request but it was the first thing popped into my head.
Space Rangers 2?
By Grabthar’s Hammer, that’s it.
I played Space Rangers when it first came out, I LOVED it except for all the puzzles…that aspect drove me nuts. Id replay again if they had puzzle mode easy lol
Awesome, sounds like a winner! Getting!
Yeah I was never a fan of them either.
Huzzah, thank you!!
From what I remember, you can say that you don’t want any more of specific mission types in SR2. You certainly could skip the RTS portion and I thought you could skip the text adventures too.