Stellar Tactics

Stellar Tactics
N/A
Metacritic
81
Steam
76.954
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$19.99
Release date
22 September 2016
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
81 (1 221 votes)
Recent
81 (11 votes)

A Sci-Fi role-playing game featuring turn-based ground combat, space exploration, deep character customization and a massive living universe with over 160,000 star systems. Equip your ships with the best equipment you can find, gather a powerful crew of mercenaries and set out into the void!

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Stellar Tactics system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.5Ghz
  • Memory: 3 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5770 1024MB | NVIDIA GTS 450 1024MB | Intel HD4000 @720P
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 6 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: OpenGL 2.0 or above - *PC Integrated graphics chipsets require 4 GB RAM, e.g. Intel HD series.
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Prawn
Prawn

AWESOME 9.69/10
apart from the slight annoyance of being unable to sell ammo so it just hangs around on the floor once you have max ammo of that type, i feel this deserves a reduction from the perfect score of 10 by 0.31 definitely not just so I could write 69

Akrysos
Akrysos

The ground combat is not very nuanced, the space combat is not much better. The leveling system is too basic The interstellar travel is monotonous and arduous. The game's over all concept was intriguing but not very well applied.

Substance E
Substance E

Still extremely rough but seems to be getting there

Game feels like a mash up of standard CRPG content and space trucker turret combat games like Rebel Galaxy

Unfortunately this also means that it (at the moment) largely falls flat in delivering properly on either end (a problem the Between the Stars guys also seem to be having)

Still gets a positive from me simply because I can see that the dev gets it (for a lack of a better term), understanding what makes each good and is largely held back by the fact that it's one guy (supposedly)

Better delineation between ship types and more variation in missions are "on the road map" as of writing this which would go a long way toward adding more depth to what feels like it's more of a EvE style space box and less of a linear story based rpg

If nothing else, worth jumping on to keep them cranking out updates and coming back to in a year or so to see what's come of it

Abe Froman
Abe Froman

I'm not sure on this one simply because it's unfinished. If this were the final product I would not recommend it. As it gets frequent updates and the developer is very engaged in community forums, I'm optimistic it will improve. My first impression is a Sci-Fi with mechanics inspired by Divinity Original Sin, but with less depth of course. I enjoy the rpg element of advancing characters (increasing stats and skills as well as equipment), though it seems like it'll be a serious grind to get serious skill advancement. I have a pretty capable system (water-cooled, Ryzen 9 5950x, RTX 3090) and load times are still long and I have occasional crashes to desktop. Since the game is still in early access and not stable, it should increase the frequency of autosaves. The story isn't particularly compelling but it does give a reason to "go here, do this." There is a lot of tedium involved: space travel--particularly between star systems--can involve a fair amount of time staring at the screen as you move through space. Systems such as navigation, crafting, and on-the-ground movement are a bit clunky and not intuitive. I find myself using the wrong shortcuts (like trying to use Q and E to rotate the screen) since the controls are different from what every other top-down RPG has used. Combat is ok though encounters take too long. I find myself needing a break from the game after 3-4 fights since they are a bit repetitive and slow.

All that being said, the game is extremely ambitious with several complex components/systems. As more content is added and those systems are improved, I expect the game to only get better.

antiherozero
antiherozero

I love the concept of this game and it's procedural, open-ended mechanics. This is a very different experience than a linear, on-rails game, especially in the EA stage where the story missions aren't complete yet. You can still play endless procedurally generated missions however, and there isn't a lack of objectives to complete, it's just more open world and choose your own narrative style of play.

mpnokie
mpnokie

Nice game gives me the Traveller RPG nostalgia. You can do everything I want, go planet side, fight and board other star ships. Jump from system to system, mine, trade, loot, etc.
I wish there were more player images to select from and would love a flat-out robot/droid npc. It would really up the cool factor if when docked I could walk around inside my ship if I wanted to. Stock my ship's locker, talk to crew etc. Other than boarding every ship you see there really is no way to know what the layout is.
Leveling is a grind and I must be doing it wrong because I'm supposed to be level 30 to proceed on the mission and after 139 hours my character is still only level 10.
Boarding starships will give some small loot but they don't sell for much so it seems better just to destroy them.
One big complaint is if I want to hire a new crew member they will be below my level and even though they get points for stats they do not get points for skills so their skills will be terrible,

inƒamy nΣxus
inƒamy nΣxus

It's very in depth, i mean to say when i finished the tutorial got in the ship did some missions to get the FTL drive i thought to myself that i really had a handle on the game....and then i went into FTL space....FREAKING MASSIVE I FELT LIKE I FLEW PAST A THOUSAND SOLAR SYSTEMS TO GET TO MY DESTINATION! I was really blown away by that because each of those solar systems can be explored! So many things you can do! I have not tried mining or space combat yet as i am early in the game and still getting the feel for space, ground combat i love and is what i like in turn based ground fighting! Many many different items, weapons and armor (can be modded if has mod slots), grenades, you can name your characters and make them what you want and tailor what role you want them to fill, now it has psionics....man it's a trip. I see myself enjoying this game for a very long time! 8)

kilon
kilon

The game overall is well made but in the end is misleading in one but very important aspect.

Difficulty

The description does not mention this is a very difficult game anywhere. The fights start very easy and once you get to fight the captain just a few fights later the difficulty raised 10 fold at least. As a game dev myself it just makes no sense to me why the game does not mention that is a hardcore game or why it starts so easy and suddenly it becomes so hard.

I requested a refund the difficulty killed the fun that I had with the game.

Other than that I think its an ok game , especially if we take into account its early access.

EDIT: To reply to the dev , yes I did indeed set the difficulty to easy , unfortunately it does not seem to affect the bug , I still lost as fast as playing normal the same exact fight.

vitalik1700
vitalik1700

I kind of fooled myself back in 2018, when I bought this game. Instead of Stellar Tactics I was hoping to get Stellar RPG. Nice high-quality RPG with rewarding character progression, interesting story and other cool things like appealing visuals. Stellar Tactics offers none of that. What it offers is an endless grind. Specifically, you get to repeat ad nauseam:

1) Ground missions. Just random mission generator that gives you an area full of mindless dummies you have to smash for meagre loot.

2) Space fights. Find hostile ship. Smash it's shields, then weapons, then engines. Do another ground mission.

3) Skill training. Let me quote official wiki on this: "It takes about 2-3 hours starting with a basic schematic to learn the exceptional and rare versions by crafting and subsequent salvaging.". And yes, it's what you HAVE to do since there is no thing like "go buy schematics".

4) Interstellar travel. There are 160k (!) systems and they all feel absolutely the same.

5) Level up. Wait for a looong time to level up. Then just add 5 points to attribute that increases your favorite weapon's damage. Even guys from aforementioned official wiki don't know if other attribute-related mechanics work.

Soo.. I hate Stellar Tactics and I hate it a lot. One of the biggest disappointments I had.

P.S. Also, this game is irredeeamably ugly. Ugly levels, ugly weapons, ugly annoying interface. Ugliness was one of the main reasons I disliked it in 2018, and nothing got better over the years

Aphromaniac
Aphromaniac

Decent, deep turn-based, squad strategy

contedamonlavette
contedamonlavette

ST reminds me of my old tabletop gaming group and the many years of truly excellent gaming we enjoyed. The rpg and tactical combat mechanisms are reminiscent of old style Traveler or Worlds Beyond. But the epic nature of the universe building and how the developer wants us to eventually be able to experience it is what I find so familiar. Back when I was in the junior hi/hi school/college stage and the game worlds that my buddies offered still felt so vast and fascinating. I do think that the developer should do his best to give Nexus and the other trainer sites an easier time of producing trainers. That or give his players access to a cheat console or something. Grinding is part of the rpg experience, but I just don't want to have to re-grind through the same stuff for 100+ hours each time I have to start a new campaign! Either because Steam lost my saves, or those saves are not compatible with the latest iteration etc.

predaxe
predaxe

no hours into it really, but what i did get through was pretty interesting and complex. There's a ton of potential to be one of the MEGA titles here, and I love that it constantly shows up in my updates. I've been putting off actually playing this game because I did really like what I experienced but I want to experience a better version of that. Yes, it does need some work/ refining, but as it stands it's still well worth the price of admission.

Soulstain
Soulstain

I'm only 7hrs in, so I'm only scratching the surface but this seems to be the space game I've been looking for now that the story has been added. It scratches all of the itches with space combat, ground tactical combat and looting to top it off. I can see myself getting lost in this game for a very long time if the fun continues.

[GWJ] - PCMAN
[GWJ] - PCMAN

Pretty polished for an early release. Minimum glitches. Nice combinations of game plays. Space, ground, missions, rpg elements. Enjoying the hell out of it.

Emrus
Emrus

A very good RPG game. Quite unique combination of game mechanics. I'll recommend it for RPG, turn base tactical and space game fans.

hel45
hel45

Provisional thumbs up with only 9 hours in, but i have to say that this game is very successful in grabbing your interest.

Jaspericusdhoom
Jaspericusdhoom

I truly think this is one of the best space RPGs' about. Good combat both in space and on ground. Boarding ships which is a mechanic very much ignored in any other game i have played both past present and future (SC anyone) Dev is really pro-active if you have a problem or find a bug he gets straight on with a solution no fuss or cliche arguments . Really worth joining the devs discord channel.Keep up the good work. If i could give it 5 thumbs up i would. I will leave open for comments (polite please) and will help anyone new to the game if possible.

Lord Shmesh The Squishy
Lord Shmesh Th…

An Early Access game that actually does what it says on the tin!??!!? Frequent Updates?!?!? A one man dev!? Color me shocked and surprised. You dear human will get my hard earned cash money and I can't wait until the game is fully completed and I will happily be along for every step of the journey. Good luck, and may Your God help you on your journey.

shhhlee2
shhhlee2

I know it is still early release but I have to say no. It takes too much time waiting, you have to wait to you move between planets in space, its like watching paint dry. Killed it for me. Up to that point it was OK only. Combat is mehhh and actually a bit annoying because if you move the cursor a little just before you click you can move the character rather than shoot. Dangerous. I will come back to it perhaps in a few years but if the general play is still the same then it will still be a no.

Nerk
Nerk

Unfortunately the weird phrasing and writing of the dialogue killed this early for me. I've had it in my wishlist since 2016, i guess i'll wait a few years more until the quality improves lol

heavywolf
heavywolf

Reminds me of some of those old school games from the 90's and early 2000's. Pretty fun and for the price can't beat it.

L3WM4N
L3WM4N

I have changed my review to a thumbs up due to the developers work ethic. It appears to be a small team (I've read one person?) and they've very prompt with responses and helping people and appear to still be actively working on the game. It can't be an easy task and I'm impressed with the work done so far. To leave a bad review was shortsighted on my part as I did not do my research prior to complaining. That being said...

Besides that, I love the game so far. It's got a lot of potential. Bugs can be expected in Early Access and after my initial crashing, it appears to have smoothed out. I'm a diehard Fallout 2 fan and these games really strike the nostalgic feeling. I've only recently got into piloting my ship which is a cool feature that I didn't even know existed at first! Really looking forward to diving in deeper and seeing what else there is! I wish more boxes were lootable even tho too many items can be daunting in RPGS, I still wish some of these cool looking crates had stuff inside them for me :). Lol. Lootwhore much?

Shapka™
Shapka™

One day it will be finished, and my grandchildren will thank me for buying this game in 2018.

MrPanda
MrPanda

Almost fell asleep trying to play this. I will recomend hoping it will improve in the future, thats it.

Graham Aker
Graham Aker

I love turn based game, being a DM myself, and this one seems to going in the right direction :

- The interface is complete, a little buggy sometimes and clungy, but it gets the job done
- The combat is great, even if sometimes the mouse show you a percentage but it's just a place to go, so when you click, the character just move there instead of attacking
- The story seems good enough, still on the early stage, so i hope it gets interesting
- Space travel is basic but offers a lot for a game of this magnitude. I hope more option will be added, like a button to directly land or dock into a space station without waiting to approach it.
- I still haven't mastered space battles but it's a plus and i can't wait to buy a new ship and being a space pirate

Overall a great game for players who love turn based game, sci fi stories and good old rpg games !

AngelButtLicker
AngelButtLicker

Satisfying turn based combat, fun space combat and not overly complicated. Maybe that is why I keep coming back.

"Keep up the good work Developer."

Supergob
Supergob

It's not complicated, but it's deep. The tactical combat is on point, the space exploration is ok (not great, but really ok). All in all, for an early access game, it's awesome.

It can be slow though. I hope the dev up the speed of the game.

northstar.trumpet
northstar.trumpet

maybe this will be better when there is an end product but for now, it crashes way too often for it to be enjoyable.

scarabuz
scarabuz

Nice old school game. Reminds me of PnP Traveler RPG.

DogTrooper
DogTrooper

POS doesn't work. Crashes at launch of game 100 percent of the time. 9 hours played? Never another bug. 9.9 hours wasted trying to get the game too work! Finally got it to work... Leaving the mine in the beginning again crashes the game. After crashing leaving the mine. The game won't even load to main menu anymore.Loaded at last. Great First ship battle Great! Win first ship battle CRASH... Getting the picture...UNPLAYABLE!!!!!!!!!!

Hirudora
Hirudora

Good game good admin team on steam. These guys listen and answer :)

izvon2017
izvon2017

So ive been waiting to get this game when it will come out of EA. Lately bored i was browsing torrents in search of new/old/good games (try before you buy is the best option for me).

And so i wondered why not try this? since its years in development when my eye catch the title

After playing old gog build for about 12 hours ive finally realized its high time to get this.

When got it on steam ive seen patches/content had made a lot of progress.

Overly im getting great experience in the game.

Just treat it as trpg sandbox with space combat elements and loot.

Since honestly there is not much story content here at the moment,

So you just amass your crew, do missions, get loot, level up, get money, upgrade your ship modules, try to get a better ship.

Many mechanics are still to be implemented.

But honestly while i see some flaws and rly lack of guides/info (i had to search wiki/discussions/patch notes a lot to figure out boarding and interstellar teleportation mechanics) i never had a glimpse of regret about buying it in its current state. Had a lot more fun for my money already then with other titles. It just perfectly scratches that itch.

Dagdorval
Dagdorval

Amazing project by a one man team! is it perfect AAA title? no. Is it an amazing achievement of passion, full of cool ideas, and incredible depth/options? You bet! The price is right, the game is really fun, and while the ui and feel is definitely indie, I always love popping back in to see development progress and enjoy the variety of gameplay.

Warsun
Warsun

Character skills , perks, gear is done well and engaging.
The game is surprisingly vast in things you can do;
(mining, pirate hunting, mission running, scanning, exploring, crafting etc).

A blast to play once you get your footing. I would recommend for anyone who likes turn based RPG/tactics games.

Tuck Fheman
Tuck Fheman

I must be doing something wrong. I've played 5 hours and have yet to see any spaceships or flight aspects of this game. I'm stuck in some facility trying to solve some mystery causing zombie-like people and I can't find a way out of it. That's my only gripe.

The part I'm stuck in is pretty cool, just tedious, I feel like I'm missing a big part of this game without a way out so far. I keep losing interest because I'm doing all this detective work on some virus and I can't get out of this part of the game, it just seems like I can go to a few floors in the same elevator over and over again looking for someone or something with no way out of it.

I'll update this semi-review if I can ever find a way out of this lab portion of it, This is way to long of a grind to get to any other part of the game IMO.

UPDATE : 7+ hours in and I finally got out of the first part with the virus! I'm not sure how much time I wasted going in circles in the first part, but I'm damn glad to finally be out. I'd almost given up on this game but watched a guy playing today and decided to re-install.

The story is really good so far, but I'm not much on reading a bunch of text and that's likely why I took so long getting out of the initial setting on the ship. I'm also kind of new to RPG games so I wasn't really checking the log for help, but I learned now that instead of just guessing or trying to remember what every character said ... I should just check the log, doh! That made things a lot easier to progress out of the first part.

The game still has some quirks, but once you get the hang of things it's pretty fun and the combat is pretty cool and varied enough that I'm still digging it. Upgrades are coming slowly it seems, I'm still on my first weapon I believe and even though I did get a better weapon off someone I killed I can't use it yet since I'm not skilled up on it.

Overall it's a really good game for this genre. One thing I really like about it is that so far the balance between combat and discovery/storyline has been pretty even. So bravo for that!

Games like Encased (in my few hours of play) haven't had much combat and it started becoming a grind just walking around, but it's still a really good game with a great story. And Phoenix Point (although not a typical RPG) is just the opposite where it's just battle after battle without much of a break ... and even though I enjoy the game, it's hard to play it for more than an hour or two at a time due to this.

8/10

james.bunk
james.bunk

At first, I was impressed by this game. The turn based ground combat was interesting. Unfortunately, the nature of the game has become tedious. It has become a grind that never ends to get resources to improve your character only to have a skill go up by 1 level. Game play has become monotonous without motivation or reward.

Shaggs
Shaggs

Incredible to find unknown gems like this game. It's clearly a labour of love, and should be played by any fan of space rpgs. It's like a cross between baldur's gate, system shock, UFO, and well, I haven't even gotten past the intro chapter yet but am just loving it.

Arbuckle
Arbuckle

Great game with huge potential. Regularly updated and just got a graphics overhaul, the dev is very involved.

junkrig
junkrig

Really wanted to like this game. Totally love the concept. The turn based tactical combat is pretty solid and I enjoy it. The weapons / loot / crafting system feels like it is probably deep. Beware, however, that the in ship battles are real time and are like a whole other game within the game, which makes the rest of the game largely unplayable for me. Not sure why that design choice was made. Was hoping for more of a turn based tactical experience throughout.

Plinto
Plinto

I like this game a lot. It's rough around the edges but the dev knows what they want and it has been consistently updated since I bought in years ago. If you love turn-based tactics I would say definitely give this game a shot.

lykynz
lykynz

Not quite what I was hoping for here and to make matters worse, in the 14 hrs of play I've put in the game has crashed 3 times. This product has been in Early Access forever because I let it sit in my wish list forever. Got the game on sale and it's hardly worth the sale price. There's many good concepts and the overall experience can be addictive, but choppy graphics and random crashes are not the sign of a successful brand. Enjoy my donation....

Smig
Smig

✔️First impressions were pretty good. It borrows a lot of familiar mechanics from similar games, and shows promise of systems unique to the setting.
Here's video of my first experience with the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srgWaArUOag

Soberlife420
Soberlife420

great combination of genres and the moment i installed my ftl drive it felt like what i wanted elite dangerous to be more like, UI is a bit clunky however, and i have only ran across some minor bugs and nuances. I can only recommend this game to people that aren't little babies about bugs and UI.

BigMonkey
BigMonkey

I bought this game a while ago, I was hesitant at first but damn this game pulled me in. I haven't gotten too far but the story is well done, mechanics are solid and it just looks like its getting better. I usually don't make comments on games but this I want to share. 9.5/10 excited for more updates

choco110
choco110

Game good but when you enter portal game part keep crashing alot i hope they remove if it keep crashing... no point puting it there if game gona crash.

Leo
Leo

I like the core of the game but the thing crashes so often that most of my time played is menu navigation and reloading.

navindaxon
navindaxon

I have enjoyed this game so far (I'm a few hours in, and plan to continue playing). Here's my rundown of what I've experienced.

Tactical Combat

The tactical combat is fine. The core mechanic is to right click on the target, then select from a number of target areas, each with variable chances to hit. The action economy is based on action points, which are expended as you take actions. AP recharges on the following turn.

At least in the early game, it is quite effective to just target 1 enemy at a time, burn them down, and then move on to the next one. I would say the combat does not feel particularly dynamic or deep, but it is satisfying. Items have a substantial impact on the flow of combat.

I expect, that as development continues, combat will improve and become more dynamic.

Minigames

Space combat, hacking, and a few other things seem to constitute minigames. I enjoyed them. Space travel is a bit clunky, and reminds me of JRPG overland fast-travel, but with some combat thrown in. It's fun, if a little repetitive.

Story

The story seems to be a standard space-fantasy storyline, marking you for ascension (i.e., you in particular are special). Anyone who has played any other fantasy rpg ever will probably not find it surprising. It's possible that the story goes in more original directions later on, or is executed with a high degree of skill; I haven't made it deep enough to get that vibe, though.

However, the way the story is told is nice. You find logs, have conversations, etc, all of which allows you to engage with the lore at your own pace and to the extent you desire. Furthermore, while the story might not be the most interesting one ever, it does the job of tying things together, and is interesting enough. I'm looking forward to playing through as much of it as is currently available. That said, written dialogue is a bit stilted. I think it could be improved by editing it for brevity.

Really Good Stuff

This game is like a cross between X-Com, FTL, and a few other games. It really works as a whole and scratches that scifi sandbox itch.

Bad Stuff

The camera can be described as "claustrophobic." You are zoomed in very close to your character models, which makes navigating environments a pain (and actually prevents you from fully seeing some of the rooms you enter). I wish the camera could zoom out 2 to 3 times further. There is no minimap either (though there is a map bound to the m key), and it isn't possible to fast navigate around the environment by clicking on the map.

Map scroll speeds (whether using the wasd keys or the mouse) is way too slow. For some reason you can set camera rotation rates, but not the horizontal/vertical movement rate. With the lack of minimap functionality, this makes navigating a huge pain. It would be alleviated somewhat if you could zoom out more.

There are a number of quality of life improvements that could be made. For example, when exiting combat mode, it would be nice if characters simply autoreloaded their weapons, instead of having to manually click the F-keys and the R key to cycle through everyone. Additionally, the menus are clunky, but functional. Sometimes I would click things expecting one function, only to realize I needed to click a further button to get the effect I desired. Oh, and there's no sense of economy in the game. At start, there's no baseline for how much "expensive" is vs how much "cheap" is, so there's no way of knowing whether it's worth it to keep certain items, or simply salvage them all, when your inventory inevitably fills up. Furthermore, there are two tutorials: the one you can skip, and then the follow up in the ruins. The shipboard one is way more interesting, with the phage and all, while the Jhemm one is sort of meh by comparison.

Really, I expect most of the bad stuff to be fixed as development continues. None of the really annoying things are directly related to the core gameplay mechanics, and that's better than a lot of other early access games I've played.

Death by Kouign Amann
Death by Kouig…

I bought this game 4 years ago. I cant believe for the life of me that this is still in Early Access. The game has gone a long way but I think its a project that nobody cares given its speed. The graphics looked half bad back then, but now 1/2 a decade later they look full bad.

I cannot see why this game is even listed anymore. The only reason I can see is someone not returning fast enough.
The developer has a loose roadmap that follows updating the community when he feels like it.
The original idea was good so I feel I'm bitter how deeply disappointed in all manners this project has been.

Slider834
Slider834

This game is in early access as I write this. Though it is in early access it is a actually a functional and marketable game as is. The developer continues to add his vision to complete his view of the masterpiece. I love this game as this small developer has implemented his vision for it! I have no regrets supporting this game's early access.

If you ever played the epic classics of space RPG's like Elite, Privateer, or the incredible Traveller RPG, the game follows in that genre. It is not overly weighted down or complicated. You have a huge universe to roam, hunt, explore, and mine. Countless systems and stations. You can follow the story line developed or set out on your own like I did. Being a "Traveller" fanatic that I am, that is what I did. It has given me over 80 hours thus far of enjoyment with my little band of mercenaries..lol. I look forward to it getting only better as the developer adds more features, stories, and ideas that are sometimes from the community.

For me the only problems encountered thus far were an occasional crash when mining for a long period of time and about 2% of the time a crash when attempting save.

Warhawke
Warhawke

This game could be amazing if it didn't crash on every loading screen/transition. Devs please stop any and all development tasks you are working on and address the crashing issues. No amount of features added will overcome the fact that it crashes constantly taking any hard won progress with it. After that address the weapon balance issues as some are massively OP and others totally useless. Honestly, this game could become a cult classic in the genre if you can just get the crashing stopped.

romartin
romartin

I'm enjoying this game very much. All the systems that are in place so far are fun. Ground combat is a well done tactics implementation. I have done a bit of space combat and it is fun also, though it seems to have a steeper learning curve. Character development takes place though several separate systems. Combat leveling is straight forward ; fight and you advance. Other areas of leveling are separate, such as crafting, repairing equipment , ship systems, first aid and many many more level as you practice them. The developer seems dedicated to fleshing out the game. Highly recommended for tactics or rpg fans.

Grot
Grot

I've played Stellar Tactics for about 14 hours now. So far it's been fun. I wasn't expecting a very story driven game like the EA stuff, there is a story but as of right now its more of sandbox setting. The game is still in development so things may change either by the developer or community later on. The game has a unique meld of boots on the ground turn-base combat (think of XCOM) and space sim combat (think of Stellaris). Stellar Tactics is not a melding of full-blown version of these two games it has the essence of the two. It continues to be updated and I have only experienced two bugs in the game. (I don't recommend leaving through an exit to the next level as a 'party' stop your 'party' just in the last room and then leave the 'level' through the 'portal' with only your main character. It's been fun, I enjoy RPG and this is very open type "no set classes", you can go solo or put a team together - your choice. Does it have cutting edge graphics - nope, does it have unique game play - nope, but I think it has a unique combination turn-base ground movement RPG combined with space sim ship combat in a open sandbox environment. Is the universe a little small right now - yes, but it is still in development. I'm hopeful that it Stellar Tactics will continue to have additional content, its universe continues to grow little by little, and perhaps the game's fans get to contribute to the game. We'll see, the universe wasn't created over night in whatever retelling you've heard so even creating a virtual one will take longer, but I'm hopeful and patient. Thanks for your Work and Time so far I've enjoyed being someone somewhere else... far far away.

coffinpest
coffinpest

I'm only about 5 hours in and this is one of those games I look forward to sitting down and playing. I love crpg's and I LOVE squad based isometric games like Shadowrun, Xcom and Satellite Reign. It's classic squad based game play with all you'd expect, abilities, attacks, blocking, reloading, etc using action points so don't expect anything new but it does all of the classic stuff very well. The visuals, in my opinion do the job and do them really well from dimly lit mines, techy bases to space they pull off the feel they go for. The story so far (remember only 5 hours in) is actually not at all horrible and while maybe not totally original, is interesting and engaging enough to keep me wanting more. Add to the fact this is all done by ONE person and it's amazing it all works as well as it does and it DOES work REALLY well. SO well that this is my first Steam review. It scratches an itch for those older games like Baldurs Gate and I love that. 1 sector down...9998 more to go! Yes...seriously.

TesserrecT
TesserrecT

At the moment of this short "micro" review, the game is on early access and i only played 4+ hours of it (so this opinion will be modified as i experience more of the game).

Gameplay: there are 2 sections A) on foot it feels a little bit clunky, but its fun. Its a combination between an squad rpg (like Xcom) with progressive skill tree that evolves depending on your actions and play style and B) at the moment of this review i only spent 30 min or less on space so i cant say that much yet

Graphics: it looks ok for a game of its type and size (in features and options, not in weight which is around 7gb). It performs great on a Gtx 750ti (a pretty old gpu), so its a good job for an early acces title from an indie studio. In a latest update they improved the visual appareance of the space (which looks nice, but as i said in Gameplay section B " i only spent 30 min" so i cant say how it looked before).

Sound: nothing special. It does it job, but i didnt found a catchy song or an epic one that could call my atention

History: As far as i know, they are working on the history yet (its not complete) but from what i played is enough to justify playing the game and nothing else (dont expect a Nier Automata history, but it has some interesting moments)

Overall it was a good experience up to now, but its too soon to recommend it 100% to others. I will modify this review once i reach a point where i feel that i need to add/modify this revies.

For its price, its an excelent deal

briankriens1
briankriens1

I am getting a total vibe from just about every scifi IP out there, and that's a good thing :)

Arsat
Arsat

In any case, I'm already enjoying it.
Skill-based abilities, i.e. the more you do something, the better you become at it.... that's what I like best in RPGs.
Space... well... I haven't had battles there yet.
The story is rather mediocre so far.
Many weapons, many addons...

Unfortunately too long loading times again and again
Unfortunately freezes every now and then when loading
Missions still too monotonous

Translations are still to come.

A 7 out of 10 so far, but I don't think it hurts to support the developer financially.

Jagged Assassin
Jagged Assassin

It's just not ready to be played for any amount of time. It's got too many issues just doing the walk-through. Too much time trying to sift through the "manual". It has a lot of promise and I was hoping to get an updated "Starflight" up yester-year. It looks like a community is growing and more things popping up from that, than the actual game person(s). I want to like it, but I requested a refund and would pay the additional 8$, I saved if it was ready to go.

The Great Cornholio
The Great Cornholio

Super fun game, but save often. I know it's still in early access, but at this point you might want to rename it to Task Manager Simulator. It seems like every other area you enter the loading screen freezes up, and I need to end task. I'm running it as admin, and even tried setting compatibility mode to windows 7 and 8.

Still a very fun game, and i have found it to be worth the regular restarts.

jordanl.l300
jordanl.l300

I am a fan of CRPG style games - so Isometric - quest heavy - choc full o dialogue and decent archs and game story.

This is a lovely Sci-fi title with its own version of the flood - or space zombies - or plant creatures from Mass Effect - you get to fly a ship around space when you're not disembarked and do ship to ship combat and capture ships and there's a lot of ships in the game - and even in early access there's a lot to do and fun to be had. W

Will definitely be one to buy

Desert Hermit
Desert Hermit

Old school gamer here and have to say I love this game!
Yes there are bugs but in about 20 hours game play time haven't seen any that break the game.

Pros:
1. Space combat with shield/weapon management and chaff for those pesky missiles.
2. Asteroid belt and planet based missions and mining.
3. Voiced crew members.
4. Crafting/salvaging system
5. Socketed items for item augments!
6. Translocator to teleport back to the ship at the end of those long missions(Don't forget to pick it up at the faction merchant).
7. Tactical combat with a sprint feature which really helps avoid using your AP's for melee characters to run up on the mobs and still have AP to attack with. This is a big plus!
8. Diablo style loot categories. Found a legendary warp drive with high energy output which is awesome because the drive powers every thing on the ship and you need high power output for energy system to run efficiently.
9. Great looking character/mob models.
10. Shipboard stash for throwing extra loot into to free up your backpack.
11. Great graphics for indy game
12. Fairly intuitive UI but haven't figured out mining and mining with drones which there are how to videos that I just haven't watched yet.

Cons/bugs:
1. Sometimes a crew member gets stuck in a wall and will fly across the screen to rejoin team.
2. Space station merchants are too far from main entrance and feels like wasting time running to them IMO. (Translocator does teleport you back to your star ship which helps).
3. Upon entering new area with load screen some crew wont follow the group and you have to load a saved game to fix the issue. Game saves on all load screens so that lessens the frustration.
4. And the last con for the game is that I have to keep reminding myself this game is still early access and I have to appreciate it for what it is: A great game that everyone who likes space rpg's should at least give it a shot!

Pro tip: Communism has never worked wherever it was tried.

Dravenloft
Dravenloft

NICE TACTICS AND NICE SPACE EXPLORATION

Cotto
Cotto

Game is currently unplayable. Crashes every 15 minutes or so.

Dojah
Dojah

When I originally bought this game I could tell it was a diamond in the rough, and that it needed more work. I played for a few hours, did the tutorial and first mission or two. I decided to put it on the backburner and wait for more polish.

This game is good. Its not finished, but it is fully playable into the endgame with a promise of even more systems to come. yes it can lag; I experience screen studdering after a few hours, closing and restarting the game fixes it . Its a beta by a small team, and personally I cannot wait to see this as a full launch.
Great Dev, who has a clear vision and roadmap with innovative ideas but also isn't trying to reinvent the wheel. I like where this game is at, and love where it is going. If you are a fan of TRPG, support this guy... and if we are lucky he might have another ace or two up his sleeve after completing this~

dankar31
dankar31

My simple tough of this game is GREAT, with a few modification like instead of reading to have narrative redacted to voice acted this game could be and simply a AAA game. It is amassing this game is created by one man alone. Truly at the price it is, it become must for any RPG lover to have. obviously the creator of this game is RPG lover. Definitely it still need some twick and readjustment but at it stand rite now it is very playable.

You do risk nothing by trying it, with STEAM policy on purchase game you will be totally reimburse if it do not please you but I fought you will let go, The story is good for my taste and give it a good start , after that the story become yours.

Give it a try you will not regret it!

Tess Quinn
Tess Quinn

This is by far, the most underrated game on the market. Considering this is a 1 man project, the dedication, the time he spent, the unique abilities it has. This game combines everything I ever wanted in a game and more! This game is worth every penny!

Onyx
Onyx

A must have for Retro Space RPG lovers. Great developer, listens to the community and adapts the game to what the gamers say. Love this one. Almost 200 hours in it and still going strong.

reklessabrandon
reklessabrandon

The game has been in production for a very long time. I bought it very early on, close to it's original release date, because I love team turn based tactics games and putting it in space sounded like a great combo. I've given it a try multiple times. I recently gave it another shot and I can't get out of the starting quest area without multiple crashes and UI bugs.

I lost over an hour of gameplay because of a crash and my most recent autosave was multiple transitions before that. I was trying to keep manual saves going, but I'm shocked I still lost that much time. After dealing with that many crashes and losing a large chunk of time I just can't keep trying to make it work.

The game still feels awkward and uncomfortable to play. Everything just feels clunky. Jagged Alliance was made a generation ago and is still smoother than this. The quality of turn based tactics games being developed right now, even with a single developer, are leagues ahead of this game in terms of feel, design, art, playability. I feel like that is by design at this point as it's not any better than it was years ago. The dev(s) are still really active, but I'm probably giving up on it at this point.

Godsdemon 03
Godsdemon 03

I say MEH. That isn't an option. The models bug out going thru doors, they get stuck, the bags when they drop on the ground have a tendency to lock up the game when you loot them. (I had to re-kill the phages to get my FTL story unlocked a couple times due to this) The space combat is atrocious. There is a learning curve with it. I'm having a hard time liking that aspect of the beginning space combat of the game. There's a memory leak in the game over a prolonged amount of play it will crash to desktop. SAVE OFTEN!

arnackus
arnackus

Highly addictive (For my part). Good fun, with LOTS of content. Some of the missions are a bit repetitive, but theirs plenty of other stuff to do.

angrytrex
angrytrex

When they finish it I think it will be good. I find that it's really repetitive, really grind intensive for a single player game, and I tend to fall asleep at the keyboard because the ground combat is somewhat slow and trivial most of the time. Knowing this, i've actually used the game to counter my insomnia on occasions when I could not drift off to sleep, and this is why i'm going to give it an overall thumbs up

It's a huge galaxy, but just like any random generated galaxy game after a while it's all about the same copypasta solar systems. Some of the systems i've been to have literally nothing of value, and are just time wasters.

A lot of time is spent in loading screens because the game forces you to zone in and out of various places. They could save a lot of time allowing things like crafting on the ship or picking up trade orders without zoning into the actual station.

I tried to do some crafting, and it took me two full nights of playing doing nothing but left mouse clicking the same button over and over again to grind to the next level of gear. After succeeding in crafting, my characters rolled combat so badly that I increased the difficulty, and they still rolled over stuff.

The story really seems pretty good so far though, and it's not a bad game. Needs a sideways rating and some more time to cook.

Drakaden
Drakaden

A fun game overall, lots of freedom on what you feel like doing, i recommend it, it's very good.

ericmaxfield
ericmaxfield

Its early access still and I find myself strangely sucked in trying to figure out some of the gameplay features.

Couple of tips getting started.
* turn up default screen brightness. I spent the first mission mostly in the dark thinking graphics sucked.
* after you get FTL drive you need to fly to a special zone (jump point) to use it. Read the system directory on the top left of your screen to find one. Then in FTL space you navigate to the system of choice paying attention to the description for level hostility and trade station. Then there is a button on the directory when you are close enough allowing you to enter the system
* find a FTL drive to open up the game but its confusing if you choose the wrong system. Pay attention to the directory of the planets and look for trade stations in neutral territory with a reasonable level. My first time i was randomly patrolling an empty sector for hours trying to figure out how to interact with it. After i found an inhabited planet i got owned because they were way overlevelled compared to me and the faction agent wouldnt give me any missions.
* keep your default ship. It will last a long time. Also mining laser has to be equipped while docking then you go find asteroids and mine them for ore by clicking on your equipped mining laser and targeting the asteroid. You then wait a while and eventually little boxes will float to your ship as ore.
* havent quite got the hang of drone management or refining ore for crafting or the trading system. Its such a huge undertaking so hoping the items i produce are worth it.

I know there is a built in guide in the game but i found it a little overwhelming at first and these were the issues i had when i felt like i was ready to give up the game before i realized there was more to it.

Now I am at the point where money seems like it can flow pretty easily and i can buy whatever i want. The procedurally generated battles are starting to feel kind of repetitive and the whole thing is turning into a bit of a grind fest. But I still find it compelling enough to carry on a little while longer.

The game definitely needs improvement to the story. After the half hearted attempt at story in the introductory mission the procedural generation really seems to take the heart out of things.

However as an early access it feels like they focused on the right things first getting the game functional and targeting the story after. And they do have some compelling gameplay. If they can find a way to give a better sense of character progression by giving story context and maybe making the acquisition of gear a little more exciting instead of randomized loot I think they have a winner.

I feel the emptiness of the world they created and while they try to fill it to some extent with procedurally generated characters and loot it just falls a little flat. I wiped out an entire space station and am rewarded with a bunch of randomized generic loot and more credits... Give me something I actually need to move the story forward (mad max did this pretty well i thought by the progressive upgrades to the magnum opus that felt integrated with the story).

In the end i am abandoned to meaningless existence in endless space hoping for the day when the galaxy might reveal its true nature and i might find that the real game has only begun.

Keep trying guys its a good effort and it is showing promise.

FedexFede
FedexFede

Great game made by a solo-dev. Easy to learn with depht mechainc-wise (stats, skills, systems). Really fun if you are into old school rpg

zero_signal
zero_signal

Hands down, this is the best game I have played in a long time. It combines my favourite genres - sci-fi tactical RPG and open world space exploration. If you love X-COM, Fallout 1/2 and/or Shadowrun this game will be right up your alley. It takes a lot from these games but it is so much more. I am constantly surprised by this game how complex, detailed and in-depth it is. When you level up you increase your base stats but you increase your skills by using them, which should always be the case in RPG games. Random rarity generated loot, item durability and repairing connected to reliability, weapon modifications, hacking, salvaging... name a few. I wish I have found this game sooner as it is a definition of hidden gem. Yes, it has been in Early Access for several years but it's one of these few games on Steam where it is completely justified as only solo dev is working on this title and it gets constant updates on progress. Besides, it already has more content than some other finished games. Keep up the good work, you got yourself a fan.

HangarPilot
HangarPilot

Just buy it. Don't even wait for a sale!

This game has been on my wishlist since 2016 ... now I wish I had bought it sooner. After a couple of bad experiences I vowed never to buy another Early Access game. But the game just looked too good to resist any longer and I bought it at the outrageous full price of $19.99 (joking by the way). I've already spent nearly 40 hours in it and feel I've got my money's worth!

Yes it's a mesh of X-COM, X3, Elite Dangerous, Freelancer, and for those old enough to remember the 1990's ... Wing Commander Privateer!!!

With so much going on (space travel, space combat, ground combat, missions/quests, crafting, mining, trading, RPG leveling, skill trees, perks, etc. etc. etc.) it's easy for a game to try to please everyone and not do any ONE of them well. Not the case here -- each element stands on its own and has excellent depth. I've yet to find a feature that feels like window dressing.

In the 40 hours I've been playing, I've had 1 crash to desktop, and only seen two bugs so I'd say the game seems very stable. In fact, the game seems almost complete with one minor exception ... the story. That's right - after an intro/tutorial you're just left to your own devices and you can travel, trade, craft, mine, explore, take missions, etc. There's plenty of fun to be had doing that ... can't wait for the story elements to be added!

EDIT/UPDATE: After over 200 hours I still absolutely love (and am possibly addicted to) this game! December patch included some performance improvements and has effectively eliminated any crashes/lock-ups for me. The developer even fixed a couple of minor bugs I reported!

Bengri
Bengri

This game keeps getting better as the dev updates it. I love the tactical battles on the ground and the ship battles. Crafting and salvaging are my favorite things to do.

rompier02
rompier02

This game is still in EA. I will not go so much into the details because it will most probably change as it progresses towards 1.0. I will give a simple summary : Game is about your Main Char being touted as part of a group of people in the galaxy chosen to fight a greater evil. In the current state story mode will end after you got your first ship. After that it is free play. It is divided into a couple of parts being money management to buy ammo/ weapons & equipment, Space dog fights which is in Real Time & Ground combat which is in Turn Base.
The mechanics are ok at this point but can be polished to be better. Ground combat focuses on range weapons & melee - 2 H/1 H & unarmed. Take note that grenades has it's own skill. Medico & hacking is also available as a skill. They all have 1 thing in common in that they will grow with usage. Be a pistol toting merc & your skill in said weapon will increase. Each weapon skill have its own tree & perks.

Space combat is about manouvering during dogfights & outfitting your ship with the right equipment such as normal/epic & legendary. With usage your spaceship skills such as piloting/weapon skill will improve.

Exploration is jumping from 1 planet to another via FTL. Go somewhere to do quest for factions or just simply go to explore. Take note the threat level of enemies depends on the star system levels. Mining is also an option if you are into it.

I do have to admit that after awhile the repetition of doing all the things will be a drag in the current stage. However before reaching that point there will be enough to have fun. Good luck if you get this.

Chaoslock
Chaoslock

This is a game of love.
I've been following its dev for years and he's dedicated, talented and respectful to the community.
The game is fun and is getting important updates even to this day.
Support this game if you can, it deserves it.

theshockcable
theshockcable

No I will not recommend this game any time soon.
So many times my game crashed.Few times had to completely start over
I got my ship and the game loaded me back within the ruins before i got my ship

This game is riddled with bugs.

5.4 hours to get a ship going through annoying mazes!

Pros:

nice concept for 2016, that seems like an older game like a dos game or windows 95
really old school.

Cons:

no navigation to quest nodes on foot

save file issues that make you have to completely restart a new game

completely crap combat rolls making npc over powered and making combat unbalanced

creator believes everyone wants to start out in a crappy fighter and work their way up , not in 2022 where there are better games to do so.

System map is horrible like a crappy version of eve online's

Crew clip through locked doors and then get stuck forcing you to have to reload save
map is freaking lazy and horrible, you have to guess which merchant is which . Basically you have to run around till you find the merchant you need.

OVERALL:
6 hours i will never get back nor my money :(

opuntia
opuntia

This is a beta/pre-release game.
That being said, it is well thought out, has a great balance of tactical and strategic elements as well as great character development. The game keeps getting better with updates/improvements coming at regular intervals and the developer clearly cares about the scope and quality of the the gaming experience. For a pre-release game I have encountered very few glitches.... So , Yes! if SCIFI RPG open exporation games are your cup of tea you will greatly enjoy this game as it sits right now, and with bigger and better things still to come from it in the future.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I've been buying games on Steam for years, but this is my 1st review. I am really loving this game, and it runs perfectly on my mid-range PC. So much to do in this immense universe, I think I'll be here for a while:) AND it's still in EA, I can't imagine what the future has in store. It's worth every penny, just buy it.

jest
jest

Aggressive Oblivion-style level scaling. Easy ground combat that plays out the same way from level 1 to infinity, even on extreme difficulty.

Poor weapon and stat balancing. Big guns with no stat investment supercede everything else. No point in using melee (2h is especially bad). STR barely adds damage to melee and only 1 HP, while PER adds lots of ranged damage/accuracy/effective range. Most guns have AOE attacks by default, melee requires using high cooldown skills. Just get rocket launchers and miniguns on every character and delete everything. Ammo flows like water, you have infinite money and can buy it everywhere.

Shallow tactical combat. Every mob behaves the same way. You're always fighting the same 2 reskinned enemies, no matter where you go or how much you level. Skin-deep mechanics and poor balancing (guns up close more useful than melee) don't support meaningful tactical interactions.

Been checking back on the game for years, but the core combat has barely changed. It plays almost exactly the same as it was on release, with a few extra calculations tacked on. The developer is dedicated but focuses on quantity over quality, leaving the core combat unattended. The universe is vast, however it's all a superficial illusion due to the scaling ground combat.

Will update in the future if the combat improves, as I appreciate the epic scope of the project.

FortressOfSolitude
FortressOfSolitude

Old school CRPG fans will adore it. Stellar Tactics has a bright future, despite the retards.

shames
shames

------EDIT after 3 likes

I rarely change my reviews, simply because I know what I like or don't like. Stellar Tactics is an exception. And it is a good one. I liked it from the beginning, but now closing in on a hundred hours I have come to realize, that this game is simply it. These Tactics are even more Stellar than I thought.

ST is the new gold standard for turn-based isometric strategy games. In fact, ST does so much so right, that one has to wonder, why all the other games fail in comparison - even big name titles.

ST's first step on the road to success is versatility. There will always be gamers with opposite tastes for what makes a game interesting. Well, ST has the answer. Choose yourself. There is not that single stupid choice of easy to nightmare diffculty, whose only difference is the number and the bullet sponginess of opponents in an encounter.

In ST, you tailor your own game. And you can change it, whenever you like.

Today, you're in the mood for space action? Choose many encounters. Or are you in the mood just to get to the ground action? Choose rare encounters instead. It makes a huge difference. And the difficulty of the encounters is chosen separately. So is space and ground combat. Another example is survival. You're a fan? Choose equipment decay. Or not.

It is impossible not to like the setup of this game, because you decide your own cup of tea.

Next step. By far and wide the most fantastic feature of gameplay is the ability to call a shot. A sure hit, of course with a cooldown. We all know that moment in time, when the success of an entire mission hangs on that one shot. We all know, what failing a 99% in that moment feels like. And no, that is not and never was the fun of random numbers, even if certain big name titles sell it as that.

ST does better. ST is better.

With the ability to call a shot one has the feeling of actually controlling the flow of combat. A feeling of accomplishment. A feeling of mastery. And a feeling of being responsible, if an encounter goes south. In a nutshell, with this one compenent alone, one tastes the sweet feeling of playing the game - as opposed to being played by it.

Next step, equipment. Tired of having to have that one weapon - or else? Or worse, tired of only being offered one weapon for your class to begin with? In ST, there is no class. There are skills. And what kind of equipment you use hangs on a hell of a lot more than just damage. For instance, this is the first game I seem to remember, where it actually makes a difference what range a gun a has. When beginning the game, the common factor of encounters is tiny spaces. One needs damage, and not the tricksy type. Just. Make. It. Dead. Now. In other words, business as usual. Then again, once one steps into the vast, wild blue yonder of 160,000 star systems, the maps start to vary. Not only are there caves, but a factory may have long, long corridors. And suddenly one realizes, some encounters would have been sooo much more easy, if one had the ability to chew up the hairy scary before being in melee distance. It almost feels like an additional angle of tactics. Which adds fantastic variety beyond a boring one-answer-fits-every-situation.

Maybe one of the biggest surpirises is that a hundred hours into a playthrough one is still going over loot with a magnifying glass. Because it's worth it. Sure, in the beginning one expects a high equipment turn-over, but once one knows what to look for, cherry-picking becomes the name of the game. And that is in no small part due to yet another feature, a proper inventory system. ST doesn't force the player to carry back junk to sell it. Salvage it right here, right now for repair parts and blueprints. In my case, not counting mission rewards, this meant seeing a merchant in my first forty hours exactly once. But once one gets comfy ignoring merchants, there is the realization that IF a merchant indeed has a cherry, one gets it for pennies on the dollar. And all of a sudden a visit to a trade hub becomes quintessential shore leave. When was the last game, in which you had fun window shopping?

Which brings us to yet another highlight, equipment attachments aka "mods". No, one doesn't have to go through the hoops to "make it interesting". Attach them, unattach them, the world is your oyster. Which led to the funny fact that now I visit the augmentation merchant before the reward vendor. Imagine that.

On a side note, this is the one qualm I have with the game. Mods are so vital for the value of one's equpment, that I hope that they will stop being counted towards one's item limit. Why create a luscious variety of loot and then deny the space to enjoy it?

Next step, the ship. I have to admit, it took me a while to get comfortable with all things ship. This is to say, it took me far too long to get to another highlight, ship boarding. Of course, the fact alone that it exists makes me applaud like an Energizer bunny. But while it may look like just another map, boarding has a completely different flow with an added level of accomplishment. I would play ST, if that would be the only highlight on the list. And when one is done, the decision whether to repair or salvage is not an easy one.

More surprisingly, running a ship right is what brings us back full circle to character development. One of your crew members may be limping behind badly in level, which could easily be remedied by simpy hiring someone new. Then again, the value of one's crew members lies in their skill set. Skills make the group a well-oiled machine. Even more so on the ship. Who knows? One may end up with a ship crew and a separate ground crew after all. It is decisions like this, which give ST a depth other titles lack.

At the end, let's talk about beauty. Frankly, nobody expects anything but practicality from an isometric game. Nonetheless, ST's maps are actually beautiful. Just like props in a good film, features create an overall impression without sticking out. Regardless of genre, there aren't many games in which I decided to walk back just to look at something. And space is colorful enough to feel like sitting at a ship's helm and looking at the endless night through a whole barrage of sensory equipment.

Finally, I would like to add something I try to avoid. I say the words "This game has potential". Normally, this sentence is nothing but a nice way to say "I can come up with fifteen ways from the top of my head to make this game better, but I play it anyways, because I am bored to tears." ST is better. This game has potential, because the features are already there. They just have to be brought to life during Early Access. Simple example? At this moment there are (as far as I know) only two factions, which have a special faction reward item. Both are game changers. I cannot wait for all the other factions to get their own. Maybe, just maybe, ST will be the first game ever, in which I walk the long walk to get in bed with the habitual evildoers - for that (yet unimplemented, yet unknown) juicy reward item at the end of the road.

One thing is for sure. I will play the starch out of this game.

In summation, what makes ST brilliant is that bevond a personalized setup seemingly unrelated parts of the game work together. And they work together well. There are too many games out there with some good idea or some good features, but they never come together. ST is better. It gives you the great features, the good ideas, and everything works like a clockwork.

ST is, simply put, the whole enchilada.

Chuck Farvre
Chuck Farvre

I did as much as I wanted at 15 hours. It's fine for the price.

I would have two pieces of advice for the game designer. I hope he reads the comments.

1. make sure the coming story(?) doubles as a tutorial. Have the various initial story elements associate with some game mechanic the player needs to learn. The game mechanics are too mysterious and most players need a fun in game reason to learn them. So, simple space combat with a nerfed enemy would be nice to start with. A mining quest. An early team management quest. And not with tiny font and tons of text. Just get the player started.

an example , I avoided space combat and mining. I'll get to all that if the game gets bigger and more fleshed out. But right now it seems like a chore to learn with no payoff.

2. a more minor thing. Since you are one guy, I would outsource writing to someone who knows how to be brief and descriptive and can check your plot and plot elements for problems. You already code the game so ... You just need a decent story for this game to start to shine. It doesn't have to be fallout2 level. But if you make a mess of it the game wont have legs. Maybe I'm wrong but unless you are a pro writer I'd get a professional writer to work with.

johnnie__k
johnnie__k

Great sci-fi open world | sandbox | rpg from just one man, unbelievable.

Buy it!

tkershner
tkershner

Lots of fun. Getting better all the time. Need manual.

Cuuthulos
Cuuthulos

This game is boring. Get XCOM ANYTHING. I love tactic games, but the first hour bored me so much I was disappointed in my interest. No voice acting. Uninteresting sound effects. Tactical deployment is a joke. You have to at least hook us in in the first part of the story. The game took away my interest and I had to ask for a refund. Sorry it is still early access, but make it interesting for us before putting it in that state. I had Kenshi years before its release, but at least I found the content interesting enough to keep it. This game was so bland, I had to ask for refund.

Dix Dark
Dix Dark

I'm sorry, but no, there is just too many bugs. For now I can't recommend this game, I don't want to play it anymore, I didn't even got to fly a ship because I'm tired of bugs(almost literally - the last straw was the fight with spiders, I lost three times in a row to bugs because of game bugs).
The ground controls are pretty bad - glitchy and unresponsive, the fight controls are a buggy mess - when the fight starts, your companions can turn up in another corner of the map, when you're trying to attack - sometimes character just runs up to the target instead of firing their gun, trying to swap weapons can lead to looting nearby containers for some reason...

The game has a great potential from what I've seen, I will wait and hope, but for now... nah...

(If you open your game with loads of ground things, it would be good for them not to be so buggy and boring that they repel players )

stub
stub

I really think this game is in good shape for an Alpha. I haven't encountered many bugs, and it all works pretty much fine and I was able to work out some of the more complex stuff by just playing and using the Help function.

A word of note, I like this game because I loved old RPGs from the 70s like the original Traveller etc. If you are playing it only for the Tactical side, you can probably find better tactical games, however if you want more RPG element in your tactical games, this is a good choice. Having said that, it is in Alpha and much of the Role Playing content and main story line is still to be added. It is so far very promising.

Zmeck
Zmeck

Took me a bit to get into this game, but now I really like it. I have never had a game that has a ground rpg element and space combat to it. The space combat is quite a bit different than what I was used to, so it took a few battles to understand it. Now it is probably the game I play the most out of the hundreds that I have.

Very good for a game that isn't even in alpha release yet. The galaxy seems to be really huge. I've only explored a very minor bit in the time that I've played. Really looking forward to the story getting implemented. I have yet to run into any game breaking bugs. A few minor ones that went away upon a load of my last quicksave. Oh and the game has 3 autosave spots. So even if someone does forget to save, they don't have to go back too far if a bug is encountered.

Phalange
Phalange

WTf is this absolute turd of a game doing in my library?

layca_98
layca_98

Good story, decent combat tactics, weapons and skill trees.

merusalem
merusalem

I could not play longer than half an hour to one hour in each session. Bugs prevented me from continuing; I had to start a new game/character each time. The game's concept fascinates me, and I bought it to support the dev.

I do not suggest, though, to buy the game if you expect anything than a pre-alpha experience. For the next few years, if the speed of development in the past is any indicator.

If you expect XCOM ... you will be sorely disappointed.

docson
docson

If you feel monotony or redundancy with games like this (which you may depending on your attention span and number/quality of books you've read) consider your approach. I am an imaginative and creative person who is very intelligent. But when I first started this game I thought it was repetitive sandbox trash. Now I think I will try to give it another shot cause the product seems almost done now. Plus, according to the creator, there is now about 12 hours of actual storytelling. So there is that. Although the "thousands of hr.s" of sandbox is what drove me away when I first played this. .9 online but several hours offline, to the infinite dungeon teleport. The thing is, if this were a well known genre, like Record of Lodoss War, then a diablo-style or turn based game is cool. From scratch, the storyboard has to be rock solid. Or at least deep. 12 hours is meh. And who knows the author may add more "core" content. Whatever. Trusting this producer who "go solo"-excuse already happened for me. So I guess I'm hoping he isn't a thieving devil.

Thryson
Thryson

It is still rough around the edges but it is a great space game to play if you just want to chill out and have lots of options.

stevenbpeck
stevenbpeck

Buy it on sale, for the concepts. Warp engines for system speed beyond your normal transit speed. Faster than light engines to jump into a form of hyperspace at jump nodes for moving between quadrants. Lot of the same privateer type gaming options, less the simple boards for merchants and recruits, you have to run around stations hoping to find the right people without markers or any real way to change camera angles. I don't want to down vote what looks like someone's passion project, just don't buy it for a developed game.

This is not a finished game, it's buggy, has an unbalanced economy, is prone to crashes, there's no realistic way to level your characters in space combat, and the designer puts nebulae everywhere...and I mean everywhere you look in any map will be huge nebulae encapsulating the maps on every graphics setting.

You can not skip the intro, picking that second option jumps you into a different start without a preformed party. You will have to suffer through all kinds of lore exposition and turn based crew combat, same as the wake up intro in the normal start option. Neither start is fleshed out in any kind of cohesive way.

Minimap: does not exist, dots or $ for life signs.

Ship: insane bar to improve, few actual options, minor turret differences. RNG of ship combat only option to get the $.

Boarding ships: fight space combat 3x over, repetitive, fight three or four full crews, lots of hacks, lots of risk, earns next to nothing, can't keep ships.

Crew: need five crew just for ship stations, can only cycle four.

Stats: tied to leveling, leveling tied to ground combat. Combat stats make ship officers dead weight in ground combat.

Faction: gain +1 or -14 in a world of 50k. Above neutral unobtainable less single preset in storyline.

The main interface in space has overlaps and a single small information window, no saved positions.

Ship combat: same every time, crew can't target at distance, does not maintain follow after dropping from warp, repetitive annoyances.

Mining, not viable, can't fight. Ore goes to metals at reduced #'s, finished products worth thousands in full, costs in millions.

Schematics are pointless, high costs, require rare drops.

Interesting concept with next to zero chance of ever being a completed game. Feels a lot like someone imported pieces from other games and became enamored with nebulae backgrounds and turn based combat from a Star Trek game. Few minor fixes, expanded ships, killing some of the backgrounds, provide starter options beyond here's an interceptor, let people claim captured ships...this could be a great little game series.

goldratte
goldratte

Someone was asking what this turd of a game was doing in their library- I have to say I'm asking myself the same question...
To paint a picture here- at the end of the first mission you need to escape a dungeon. To do so you have to defeat the "Broodmother" and her offspring.
Now picture yourself this- of my party of three the only left standing is my melee fighter, opposing four enemies, who will unquestionably kill him the next move.
In an act of desperation I attack, a Hailmary if you will. He misses once, he misses twice, he's out of APs. Aaaand the game goes in the trash,

alicetries
alicetries

Its exactly what it promises to be, four man squad, turn based, space zombies. I feel like 15 year ago me would really like this game. Sadly, I am not her anymore.

Lightword
Lightword

In short Stellar Tactics is close to a D&D like space game as it comes. You travel the universe trying to right a wrong that plagues you from the very beginning of the game. The game is the very definition of open world, though I would like to see my efforts effect the sandbox more. Ground combat is turn based, while space combat is fluid with pause. Everything, the personal gear, weapons, and ships are fully customizable with slots and augments.

Pros: Open world as it gets. Never run out of content. Consistent updates. Responsive Developer. Solid game mechanics and systems.

Cons: Player choices have little effect on the universe. Ammo is to abundant.

I didn't know that this off the wall purchase would scratch an itch I've had for so long.

Kibbles
Kibbles

I've seen someone describe Stellar Tactics as "Baldur's Gate in space, but made by one guy", which captures the essence really well. It's impressively ambitious in scale with oodles to do in both ground and space exploration, and nails the classic turn-based RPG vibe in a manner similar to the also-made-by-a-tiny-team Underrail. The tutorial does a great job framing the world building and introducing the player to the game's mechanics, while the story includes a lot of unexpected twists and character developments.

There's still a few rough edges such as parts of inventory management and some of the writing in player responses during dialogue, but they don't get in the way of the gameplay or narrative (and the developer posted a forum roadmap including QOL updates on the horizon). Despite being in Early Access, it's already lots of fun for fans of old-school PCRPGs and offers a rich amount of depth and content owing to over five years of development progress and dedication. I'm excited to see where Stellar Tactics will go as it grows and expands even further, and it's absolutely worth the $20 to support what is a noticeable and immensely enjoyable labor of love.

Cs
Cs

One of the very best turn based tactical RPG which has so much more than just a very enjoyable ground combat. If you enjoyed Jagged Alliance or X-Com then you are going to love this! It is rich and detailed. Real time space combat, crafting of weapons, mining, trading, exploring and even a decent story line are all there. The dev is doing a fantastic job!

Anonymous
Anonymous

just buy it... try it.... so many good things to say....., but just get it :)

Water Pheonix
Water Pheonix

I do recommend this game, although it is still in development and has bugs and balance issues. However its a very ambitious game with a lot going for it and i have high hopes for the future as the developer seems to be very interactive and is taking on feedback from the player base.

Positives:
RPG style progression where your characters get better at what they do, allowing you some customisation over your team.
Vast open world to explore
Some great mechanics to the game, very ambitious for a small development team (I think one person)
Mixes tactical land combat/exploration with space exploration/combat which is a unique selling point as most games only give you one or the other.
Great blend of Skills possibilities (Stats, Ground Skills, Space Skills, Support skills)

Negatives:
Still in development and quite a few bugs or unbalanced content
Some rigid and clunky game play and mechanics
Very clumsy and confusing inventory management and item variations, with no search or sort mechanics. Quantity over quality at the moment.
Ground Combat/exploration is frustrating with line of sight being the biggest buggy element as well as the switch from free roam to turn based. Enemies seem to come out of nowhere and because isnt as polished as something like xcom, your team placement is clunky and frustrating.

Overall:
Not the full xcom style ground experience or X space experience but a fairly good balance of both. This is a fantastic although basic mix of both game styles, and one of the few games that i have found that mixes both styles, which i love. I would like to see some refinement where you can have multiple ships functioning at once, as the moment you can only have 1. Item types and variances are vary confusing. I would much prefer to just have set items rather than the random variances we seem to have at the moment, with variants maybe only coming from player crafting. IE Armours from one faction give a specific bonus to stats, and the quality gives a set increase in its ratings rather than a random number. Its creating so many needless variants making inventory management and choice a nightmare. At the moment items are quantity over quality. Ground Combat/exploration and inventory/items are the two worst features of this game but general concept is great and with some refinement i think this could be a stellar success. I would still recommend this game, as although very frustrated at times I have enjoyed the overall experience and i look forward to starting a new game, now that i have learned how stuff works in my first attempt.

RelentlessCynic
RelentlessCynic

Another early access abandoned by lazy devs. Don't buy, don't support this kind of nonsense.

Charlie Canyon
Charlie Canyon

Has a ton of potential. Developer is very talented and helpful. That said, I can't get past the grind. I've boarded ships, run faction missions, cleared outposts, run mining drones, and traded and after more than a week playing this game a lot, I'm still in the starter ship. It's a well-armed starter ship, but I'm just not into playing the near-minimum early game for this long.

I'm going to check back in on it after a few more updates. It does have a lot of potential, and I want to love it, but it's just too slow for me as is.

Vaako
Vaako

Still a work in progress, but this is a great game with a ton of potential.

Anev
Anev

It may not be the most impressive interface, but compared to some games in this genre, even the big names, it is surprisingly fun and quickly sucks you in. I've been playing off and on for a while and I always come back. It's also fun to have a game like this set in space, instead of another D&D clone.

Anonymous
Anonymous

As many have already said, the game has potential but...this game is EXACTLY why I don't buy EA games (I didn't follow my own advice). I've done just about all there is and the word 'grind' sums up this game perfectly. Sooooo much of it is redundant. Same weapons, same missions, same graphics, and it takes forever to make any progress. For now wait, save your money, and go with any of the other many examples of this genre (Wasteland comes to mind). It has A LOT (and I mean 'a lot' going on), but when I play, I don't feel invested. The game lacks soul for lack of a better term.

GiorgyTheSalty
GiorgyTheSalty

The "No" i m about to give is merely a "friendly push" for the developer to work some wonders.
This game has almost unlimited potential to be "your 1 and only game" for sci fi/exploration/team based/turn based combat etc ..but it's limited by lack of ANY meaningfull updates in a reasonable timeframe..
As the game is now..gets boring really fast..REALLY fast..and i don't mean the proggression of _any story.
I miss content,mechanics,things to do,things to invest to,creatures/enemy variations and others..
If serious changes reach the game..i 'll be around to re-assess

Chronotrigger
Chronotrigger

this needs a lot of work but i love what it can be. first off great works guys and i really hope his takes off and your massively successful! i have a ton of things to say but il just name a few things that almost killed thew game for me and will if not improved.

1. when in a system the ability to not see in front of you is a huge bother as it stops you by running in to things and is very frustrating to the flow of the game. make it so if you cant get the pov i speak of at least have the ship avoid gravity wells when trying to go to a specific place.

2. lack of diversity in all things. mods on weapons/perks are all the same/no mods on ships/enemys. this ofc is only time will tell issue so i really hope thiswill be more to come!

3. when your far in a game you cant learn new weapons since you cant find lvl one items after a while and your guys are stuck with what ever they started with. also having a high dex stat lets some enemys move more than once which i think it defeats the purpose of turn based combat.

4. the EXP system needs work. i found the guys that dont use low ap weapons get massively more exp than those that use big guns. i had to hire new guys after lvl 20 since 2 of my guys where 5 lvls behind everyone.

i love you guys and hope yo play this a lot more! i really wish it gets as deep in story as escape velocity nova ship wise and as deep as fallout 1 and 2 in ground combat! i have a lot ot say but this will do for now. keep up the great work guys!

ll Fade ll
ll Fade ll

I wishlisted this back in 2016 I think. I randomly went through and gave this bad boy a shot. First and foremost this game is unfinished. It has a lot of content albeit unpolished. So with that preface out of the way let's jump in.

Some plague wiped out humanity and you're on an ark ship trying to save humanity by moving worlds. Turns out the plague is hitchhiking and some mad scientist is doing unethical experiments to cure it. He ends up making it worse and essentially turning the plague into the flood. The colony ship jettisons all the cryochambers of the human race. You escape in an escape pod and wake up 700(iirc) years later.

Welcome to Stellar Tactics...from here you basically meet some ancient race who made humanity to fight some bigger baddie. You're chosen by them for some reason and you have to go find ruins.

From here on out the gameplay is very sandbox. Closest thing I can think that relays this would be Kenshi in space. I'll separate the rest of gameplay loop for readability.

Space exploration feels good. You can hit full throttle with afterburners like normal but there is a warp mode which makes you zip through sectors at a decent speed. I'm only familiar with starting ship so hopefully some ships are quicker.

Space Combat: You essentially plot a course for a ship. Lock turrets on your target and try to position yourself where there directional shields are weak. There are 4 directions and you can focus shield power in one direction. This combat reminded me a lot of star trek conquest on ps2. After disabling shields you can either keep blasting away at the ship or disable the systems to allow for boarding.

Boarding / Ground Combat: This all takes place with no grid similar to Baldurs gate or DOS2. Left click is your action key so it moves characters, selects skills, and attacks. This can lead to you accidentally moving next to an enemy when you meant to shoot since you have to click the body part you want to aim at. Thankfully you can right click to bring up a menu of targetable locations which helps deal with this mishap.

It feels very smooth even if unpolished. Your starting characters WILL be ass. Leveling is the only way to reliably make them hit and do damage. Thankfully once they start levelling it does feel satisfying watching them crit. Everything takes AP from moving to attacking. Currently and im not sure if its a bug but abilities strangely dont cost AP. So you can fire off your attacks and if you need to seal the deal finish with an ability.

UI: So the UI was recently worked on I think so kudos there. However there is a lot of information in this game and if you want to know something it is all info dumped into a little guide box. Thankfully you can reference this guide at any time by pressing H. But it only covers specific features and gameplay. The missions in the story are hard to follow due to lack of a good minimap and any solid indicators of where things are or should be. I constantly had to reference the log to figure out where to go next or what a password might have been. Sometimes it's not information thats readily available to you despite being told recently. So if you're one to skip dialogue this could be dangerous for you.

Gear: So most of the gear in the game seems to be very similar as far as numbers go (from what ive seen) although this could change in the future. I appreciate the fact that weapons have a designated role and that effects how useful they are based on AP usage or ideal ranges.

That's all I've experienced so far but based on what I've seen it has a nice gameplay loop that I can hop in my ship. Shoot down a cruiser and board it then sell off the bits and the ship itself to the black market. The developers updates since 2016 show that one day this will be THE goto Indie space game. I highly recommend picking this up and playing it every now and again when he makes progress. Or if you want you can pick it up on sale.

morganhurst
morganhurst

Great old school game , getting better with every update

Caiden
Caiden

So much love has gone into this game.
It's a passion project with a myriad of different systems.
Crafting, perks, weapon skills, hacking, etc. It's bananas.
I've played well-funded, team-made games that are less interesting than this one.
It has some jank, but playing on Parsec with my girlfriend has been a blast. Excited to continue and explore more.

spidabaer
spidabaer

Ok, You have to take the development stage into consideration. Stellar Tactics is a solid game. She slows at some points but easily overlooked. The space and ground combat and exploration is exemplary.....One of the better investments I have made...Thank you and give this turn based ground combat and real time space combat a try...you shouldn't be disappointed.....Game on Whipper Snappers!!!!!!

identityphobe
identityphobe

A fun game hampered by many QoL issues especially the UI.

I will give the game a thumbs-up once those issues are dealt with (which I really hope will happen because it's an otherwise good game). Or until I realise my ignorance is the actual problem.

The issues I have right now:

1. I have to click "disassemble" on an item before I can see the potential salvage results. And once I click disassemble, the disassemble section is locked and I can't go back and choose other items to disassemble until I completed the disassembly. Clicking "ESC" closes the salvage screen instead of allowing me to choose another item to disassemble.

2. No hotkey to reload the group's ammo. No option to auto-reload after every fight.

3. After scanning a planet, the "approach" button disappears.

4. No sorting option in the inventory, only in the stash. And sorting is too simple considering the variety of items available; no option to sort by quality, price, etc.

5. (personal taste) Radar is confusing. I prefer the typical minimap with moving cameras rather than a fixed point of reference.

6. I have no idea the radius of enemy detection that triggers a fight. Most of the time I just move slowly hoping to not trigger an invisible line of sight radius.

7. No tooltip for debuffs when hovered over. Abbreviations used in extended target info should be expanded upon somewhere - manual, hover tooltip, etc.

8. Weapons have specific skills yet hovering over weapon info displays no skill info.

9. Can't right-click to equip weapon. I have to drag and drop which is tedious.

10. (optional) Make damage mechanics and formula clearer. Maybe put it in the manual so people can understand how they work and why we get the damage that we get. The damage formula is indeed shown in the combat log but it's difficult to figure out how it works just from that. Is there a roll? Is it static? My armor is 15 but why does it show -5 instead of -15 in the log? Those are some stuff I wish were clearer.

11. (personal taste) The 2-Handed Weapons need to be a bit bigger and meaner.

12. A way to show weapon's range during combat would be nice. Maybe an outline of sorts. I'm constantly surprised at how far my melee weapon can reach.

13, When clicking a merchant, you have to read a one liner conversation and click "end conversation" before you can see the shop screen.

Forsaken
Forsaken

This is likely the best turn-based, isometric, sci-fi rpg on the Steam store. I'm blown away that one guy managed to do all of this. I can't wait till the developer finishes gaming mechanic work and fleshes out the story. Definitely worth the money.

kad3t
kad3t

An interesting mixture of Fallout (1 and 2 rather than the newer 3D ones) with some Mass Effect like crew building and space drama story behind it all. It seems very vast and full of things to discover. So far, 12 hours in, it's a blast!