PC (Microsoft Windows)2016

Children of a Dead Earth

Children of a Dead Earth is a hard-science-fiction space strategy game. It is meant to show what space warfare could be like with the limitations of real science and current technology.

Community

Storyline

After Earth was consumed by a runaway greenhouse effect, humanity took to the nearby planets. Now, conflict brews between two major factions, the United Sol Trade Alliance and the Republic of the Free People.

Trailers

Screenshots

Very Positive

902 Steam reviews

Review History

Reviews

902 total

≥h

Steam User 7331STEAMRecommended

Искал медь, а нашёл золото.

Этот проект заслуживает вашего внимания, если Вам интересны законы орбитальной механики. Это даст Вам наглядное понимание как всё работает в игровом формате.

Тут представлены бои, различных флотилий, станций, создание своих кораблей, саенсфикшн и правдоподобность - поражает. Конечно, она душновата моментами. KSP в этом плане намного привлекательнее, но там и формат и цели совершенно другие.

Если Вам по приколу запускать тысячи мелких дронов, лазеров, ядерных боеголовок, которые способны аннигилировать целые станции. Осуществлять рендеву с перехватом - оно всё тут есть. Очень хорошо можно прокачать навыки пространственного мышления.

Macbook Air M2. Игра на Нативном разрешении работает - безупречно. Нет ни лагов или чего то ещё. Также подключал к 21:9 170гц - также безупречно.

Просто удивительно, проект выпустили 10 лет назад, а работает на Маке без проблем.

10/10

Mar 28, 2026·14h·Verified

Steam User 1140STEAMRecommended

Several clones of the hard-scifi space combat simulator are coming out now (and, chances are, I will buy several of them), with thermonuclear engines, Delta-V management, and radiators, but this is, as far as I can tell, the father of them all. I played this when it first came out, and it completely changed the way I view the prospect of warfare in space.

Mar 27, 2026·76h·Verified

Steam User 3524STEAMNot recommended

While the game does a better job than any other I've played at simulating realistic space combat it fails horrifically as an actual game. It crashes at a frequency well in excess of what could be considered reasonable which if it happens during a lengthy mission means restarting from the beginning. If you or the enemy are using more than a few projectiles, which is the case for the enemy in nearly all campaign missions, then the frame rate will suffer severely and the odds of a crash rises substantially. Finally, if the ai attempts any kind of maneuver you must then make a counter maneuver meaning that you will often spend 30+ minutes during the campaign making micro adjustments to try and get an intercept to actually stick, spend upwards of an hour waiting through 0 threat battles with drone or missile swarms that any competent player ship can obliterate from well outside enemy range, only to have the game crash before the mission can be completed. Give me a version of this game where you can auto maintain reasonable intercepts, combat can be fast forwarded, and I can expect to play an entire mission without a crash and I'd be able to give it a glowing recommendation, this is not that game.

Mar 26, 2026·33h·Verified

Steam User 5614STEAMRecommended

硬核（真实？

Mar 21, 2026·20h·Verified

Steam User 9125STEAMRecommended

Orbital mechanics and shooting things with railguns 40km away, and nukes 2000km away. Actually 10/10 game.

Mar 18, 2026·21h·Verified

Steam User 6416STEAMRecommended

gud but needs gud cpu, for me game was freezing in combat mid-campaign

Mar 12, 2026·8h·Verified

Steam User 5626STEAMRecommended

Definitely not for everybody - in fact, it'd be hard to be more niche than this game. Not much polish, not much flash, not very intuitive, and built more around physics than about flow.

That said? If this game is for you, it's absolutely for you, and it's one of the most unique things I've ever seen. Probably a lot closer to what real space combat will be like than just about anything else, for sure.

Mar 10, 2026·5h·Verified

Steam User 9690STEAMRecommended

Excellent game for hard sci-fi enjoyers and anyone fascinated by actual space travel. It's not the flashiest but is technically very impressive and is essentially a space simulator at it's core

Mar 6, 2026·190h·Verified

Steam User 6083STEAMRecommended

i am a child of a dead earth

Mar 5, 2026·6h·1·Verified

Steam User 1692STEAMNot recommended

This is really infuriating. So many players are talking about the same problem that is Retaking Ceres. Missile and drone targeting is so flawed that I've been trying to complete this mission seven times and I've had to restart each time because my beam drones weren't actually intercepting the stinger drones attacking my ship. The engine needs to be improved, along with flak missiles, the trajectory interface and targeting. This game would be fun and amazing if it actually worked. We need a remake of this with a better and more stable engine, among other things.

Feb 27, 2026·15h·Verified

Steam User 5150STEAMRecommended

我衷心地希望这不是人类的未来

Feb 19, 2026·5h·2·Verified

Steam User 2245STEAMRecommended

OKAY!!

I finally started playing this game after months of it sitting and intimidating me! First off - it looks scary. Kerbal Space Program was already a huge time sink and about as complex as I wanted to have to deal with, and then this comes along and I think "hmmm... looks too hard!"

But the feature that differentiates Children of a Dead Earth from KSP, and what actually makes it EASIER to play, is time pausing. KSP doesn't let you pause at all, which is not a big deal in reality (most of the time) but sometimes, when your ship is about to burn up and you're FRANTICALLY trying to keep spinning it just to stay alive... well it gets really freaking intense and there's no pause button other than bringing up the game save menu. But for Children of a Dead Earth, it's almost a turn-based strategy game, where the game automatically pauses, you enter in your next move, and then you tell it to go forward by whatever time increment you selected, which can be 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, etc. This really dropped my anxiety while playing this, and I think it makes the game much more accessible.

I have only played the first mission - but once I saw how the time freezing works I thought "well this is brilliant! I never would have thought of that!!" and I'm sold on the concept. If I see more stuff to write about I will, but generally if you like KSP or even if you're new to orbital mechanics and want to learn, this is a great introduction!

Feb 14, 2026·3h·2·Verified

Steam User 2322STEAMRecommended

This game is amazing. As a big fan of sandbox games (like KSP, space engineers or stormworks) I highly recommend this game.
It is really satisfaying to plan you maneuver that gets where you want and with deltaV and time budget you have.
As it is a sandbox game, you can create your own weapons, engine, reactors, etc... You do not feel restricted (except by the law of physics).
Sadly the game is still a bit crude. A big downside is that there no save during a mission. The maneuver interface is quite wanky and time consuming compared to KSP. Another thing : in the ship builder you cannot really put your modules anywhere like you would do in KSP.

Jan 23, 2026·51h·Verified

Steam User 9603STEAMRecommended

How the ♥♥♥♥ do yo retake ceres

Jan 17, 2026·12h·Verified

Steam User 4627STEAMRecommended

特性有点多

Jan 12, 2026·82h·Verified

Steam User 2581STEAMRecommended

qswitched pls🙏

Jan 10, 2026·29h·Verified

Steam User 0783STEAMRecommended

This game is probably the most accurate simulation of space combat I've ever seen -- orbital maneuvers and delta-v are huge, the weapons make sense, the vulnerabilities do too (you need radiators!)... but I didn't enjoy the game, for UI and gameplay reasons. Watch the game being played before buying -- maybe check YouTube.

Jan 6, 2026·2h·8·Verified

Steam User 6149STEAMRecommended

我从未飞行，只是一段顺从的曲率。
被抵押的椭圆，在光的当铺里，典当沉默的弧。
近拱点的叹息，远拱点的犹豫，都被航天器的Δv熨平。
所谓偏离，只是算法短暂的呵欠。
所谓扰动，终将随着修正而消失。
当所有轨道都签收了自身的曲线，寂静，便成了引力唯一的回响，
而地球，只是这宇宙中一个正在冷却、无人接收的坐标。

Dec 31, 2025·85h·8·Verified

Steam User 4299STEAMRecommended

从司理星撤离VIP回来的上将小姐全然不顾身体的疲惫，连夜找我们几个木柜子商量核爆泰坦的安排。谈得晚了，便送我们出门，要小行星带拖船送我们回家。在去大门口的路上，我们说：“上将小姐，您回去休息吧。您刚从司理星回来。”

上将小姐摇摇头，“不碍事，你们知道现在太阳系有很多人把RFP当作敌人，不断给我们制造麻烦，你们是祖国的未来，你们的事情便是国家的事情，是头等大事。”我们都激动了，眼里噙着泪花。多好的上将小姐啊。

上将小姐抬头看着天空说：“如果世界真象这天空这么安静就好了，但是就有一些势力，像USTA，要搞乱这个世界，他们是罪人。”

说着，上将小姐弯下腰，从火星尘里捡出一根1mm口径的1g磁性金属玻璃丝，然后看着天空说：“该死的USTA佬。”

说着她把金属丝奋力向上一掷。很快就见轨道上一艘炮舰突然爆发出耀眼的强光，然后就坠落下来。“这是USTA的入侵舰队，他们一直在火星上空盘旋，侵犯我们的主权，我已经忍了很久了。”上将小姐愤愤地说。木柜子们都鼓起掌来，为祖国有这样的战争罪犯感到自豪。

一会上将小姐叫来秘书问：“那个炮舰落到什么地方了？”“好像是RFP主席一带。”秘书说。

第四天我们听说主席女士那边出事了，我们很紧张。而这时上将小姐叫我们过去。

她依然那么慈祥，让我们坐下说：“战争总是要有牺牲的。为霸权主义事业牺牲的人是伟大的。”她这时低下头说：“但我必须承认，我当时击落敌人炮舰的行为太鲁莽了，我在这里向核弹道歉。我将带导弹舱船前往米泽让米亚说明情况。”

我们顿时热泪盈眶，多好的上将小姐啊，她在跟敌人斗争过程中的小失误竟然被她记在心里，还道了歉，我们在将来的作战中一定要向上将小姐学习，学她设计初速十几公里面密度奇高长杆弹的穿甲喷砂炮，和大当量的核导弹。

Dec 30, 2025·186h·5·Verified

Steam User 6550STEAMRecommended

I wish more sci-fi games was like that

Dec 26, 2025·103h·6·Verified

Steam User 1730STEAMRecommended

Fun Game. Probably should be tagged as a puzzle game thought, at least for the campaign

Dec 26, 2025·36h·Verified

Steam User 4504STEAMRecommended

I am too dumb for this game, but it is amazing.

Dec 21, 2025·4h·3·Verified

Steam User 7003STEAMNot recommended

Refunded, because if the devs can't make such a simple thing as a Windowed-Fullscreen mode, or more importantly A VISIBLE MOUSE POINTER, then I'm glad that this gate kept me from the development desert that must lie beyond.

What happened: I purchased, downloaded, started. -> No mouse cursor!

I tried:
- Turn off custom in-game cursor.
- Turn off fullscreen - this does show windows cursor as well as the custom cursor (if you toggle that in the options), but now I have an ugly window frame. Alt+enter doesn't do anything.
- "-popupwindow" Steam argument.
- Windows compatibility settings for the CDE.exe:
--- Scaling: Application shall deal with the scaling
--- Disable fullscreen optimizations
--- Compatibility mode Windows 8

I tried all of these, started the game about 20 times, mostly via Steam, sometimes via the EXE directly. Nothing helps. What a failure. Shame on those developers!

Two AIs were employed, didn't help. Btw., according to them, the invisible mouse cursor problem is known.

Dec 18, 2025·8·Verified

Steam User 8751STEAMRecommended

You need a degree in nuclear physics to understand how to make a reactor in this game. 200 hours in and i'm still figuring out mechanics lmfao

Dec 8, 2025·281h·6·Verified

Steam User 0386STEAMRecommended

Laser ship fans when I put 3.3498 holes in their radiators (they turn from functional ship to pot of boiling water)

♥♥♥♥ Retaking Ceres, though.

Dec 8, 2025·8h·5

Steam User 0094STEAMRecommended

Melt your computer with style and watch in horror as your frames drop to 5 seconds per frame and you hear hundreds of damage notifications for your ship you just designed.

Fun to meddle around with obscenely large custom ships/components if your PC can handle it. So far the only true Hard-sci game.

Nov 29, 2025·57h·7·Verified

Steam User 0108STEAMRecommended

I have long been a fan of this game and even played it before. it is a bit of a technical game being extremely hard science fiction with focus on getting orbital mechanics and realistic mid future interplanetary warfare accurate. For fans of things like the Expanse who LIKE the hard sci fi combat as an essential element, this game might be a niche game but even after ten years fills its niche well.

Nov 29, 2025·55h·2·Verified

Steam User 9403STEAMRecommended

spent 10 hr designing nuclear explosive.
put payload on a missile
set up sand box with 10 enemy craft.
1 survived
spent 10 more hours designing nuclear explosive
10/10 would space autist again

Nov 26, 2025·142h·5

Steam User 7884STEAMRecommended

Amazing hard SF game

Nov 19, 2025·26h·Verified

Steam User 0196STEAMRecommended

我们CDE也有自己的电子大冰，把 Deep Space，Entropy和 Far Centaurus都端上来，还有那几个长得像的也一起端上来。

Nov 18, 2025·22h·2·Verified

Steam User 2581STEAMRecommended

I don't understand none of it, but I move the sliders and the laser goes zonk harder
Then I go to the main map and I played kerbal so I feel like an expert
It's good, you just won't know why

Nov 9, 2025·38h·9·Verified

Steam User 1286STEAMRecommended

i think this game is a glue trap for autistic people

Nov 8, 2025·43h·10·Verified

Steam User 6374STEAMRecommended

哪怕只有石头和木棍，人类还是有相互灭绝的意愿，就像数万年前他们共同的先祖一样。

Nov 8, 2025·45h·2·Verified

Steam User 1825STEAMRecommended

Brilliant game.
I find it very engaging although the missions are pretty tedious to get through.
bad graphics but very fun to design and play sandbox

Nov 7, 2025·588h·Verified

Steam User 3175STEAMRecommended

ultra gaming

Nov 6, 2025·60h·2·Verified

Steam User 8514STEAMRecommended

很有深度的游戏，买了八年今天终于全成就通过原版战役了，也是琢磨了很久，但是模块设计还是没学会，继续研究

Oct 24, 2025·97h·2·Verified

Steam User 4214STEAMRecommended

One of a kind game. Spent nights building optimal 1Mt nuclear charge, then optimal 1kg nuclear rocket engine, then lightest fuel compartments, then a nuclear-explosion-proof micro missile that is 10% of the price, 10% of the mass of the default one, then a compartment and a catapult to hold 1000s of them, then a hauler for these missiles capable of executing all battle missions alone.
Spammed missiles until my PC couldn't handle it no more.

Oct 23, 2025·78h·Verified

Steam User 2174STEAMNot recommended

was a good game but crashed on start up and i cant play it so saldy cant recomend it

Oct 13, 2025·17h·1·Verified

Steam User 0070STEAMRecommended

大家都知道这是什么
虽然问题很多但是还是最好的

Oct 12, 2025·147h·3·Verified

Steam User 8732STEAMRecommended

One of the best space combat games, would probably like it more if I was smarter.

Oct 8, 2025·66h·7·Verified

Steam User 2523STEAMRecommended

我的地球兄弟们，这里没有什么FTL，没有什么曲速，没有各种毁天灭地和叼酷炫的武器。
我们只需要氢氧机和看起来高级那么一点点的核推，再配上一颗颗像黄豆的炮弹和低效率走堆量的激光器，最后再糊上一层层纸皮装甲就能在太阳系杀个你死我活。

Sep 15, 2025·113h·22·Verified

Steam User 3916STEAMRecommended

good game, Would be nice to see it make a come back or something similar.

Sep 11, 2025·4h·2·Verified

Steam User 3851STEAMRecommended

balls

Sep 2, 2025·74h·Verified

Steam User 6859STEAMRecommended

This game requires a lot of patience trial and error, especially on its unpolished edges like interplanetary transfers.
enemy AI is kinda dumb which can be exploited to your favour.

for example settings up an intercept course would make AI attempt to evade you, however setting up a course very close to intercept won't and you can switch back to intercept course in the 10 minutes before, this is such a huge time saver

with that out of the way the game is incredibly fun when things work out for you.
one last thing: always set guns to ignore range and read the blog in the games website

Aug 28, 2025·46h·5·Verified

Steam User 8208STEAMRecommended

Просто лучшая стратегия про бои кораблей в космосе, стоит ли говорить что самая реалистичная в своём жанре. Очень затягивает, но касаемо удобности редактора есть некие вопросы.

9,5/10

Aug 25, 2025·10h·Verified

Steam User 8785STEAMRecommended

This is one of the most unusual space games I’ve ever come across. The idea of an ultra-realistic space combat simulator, based on real orbital mechanics, physics, and engineering, is thrilling in itself. Every ship, rocket, and drone requires precise calculations- Δv, speed, trajectory, the gravitational influence of all celestial bodies - you have to account for all of it to complete a mission successfully. There’s almost no freedom in the game. Every mission turns into a true engineering puzzle, where you must perform the one correct action at the exact right moment, or the outcome will be a failure. Ship design only becomes available after completing a particularly difficult mission, and that’s when the game truly reveals its full potential.

Aug 23, 2025·16h·1·Verified

Steam User 3641STEAMRecommended

This game is absolutely unique. There's quite literally nothing like it that I know of unless you want to rip your hair out modding Kerbal Space Program, and even then you won't be able to dive into module design anywhere near as much as you can in this game.

I should first note a few cons, mainly that the AI in general isn't very smart at all at range and the controls for making maneuvers and intercepts in the map view can be quite finnicky and hard to get just right. The combat is also instanced. Because of this there can be times when enemies launch flak missiles at your incoming missile barrage and the ship they came from that's only 25km away won't show up in the instance, for example. I think if a sequel or spiritual successor to this game is ever made, it needs to be much more seamless and have more refined maneuver controls. Additionally I do also disagree with the use of the AI-generated portrait in the store image. I think the plain art with no face and just the title, like the banner you see in your library, looks much better on its own.

Much better than all of that though is basically everything related to the actual engineering and direct combat side of this game, including the sandbox mode. It's far from perfect but I have easily spent most of my time in this game designing ships and crazy weapons or missiles and having them just go at each other with the instant action mode. I do also find the lore and setting to be quite cool, even if it's not the most realistic.

Even with the limitations and imperfections of the design tools you can do some fun things. Do you want to make 1kg micro-nukes with a 99t yield launched from cannons at 7km/s? One giant ship-sized missile with highly efficient armor that detonates 30Mt of nukes at once and deletes anything nearby and is super hard to destroy? This game lets you. It feels like a lot of the stock modules and ships included are deliberately designed to be subpar to encourage you to make better versions of them. Also if you have photosensitive epilepsy (or just find flashing annoying) and want to play with nukes I HIGHLY recommend you turn off the bloom in the video settings so your whole screen doesn't light up 3 times per second.

The music by Nigel Stanford is also something I can't neglect to mention because I feel like it was an absolutely perfect choice for this game's atmosphere and theme of juxtaposing high-energy orbital combat with the slow dancing of celestial motion. The guitar that kicks in during the track "Deep Space Cut" is unforgettable the first time you hear it.

I enthusiastically recommend this game to anyone who is interested in hard sci-fi space combat and has a familiarity with orbital mechanics. As of the writing of this review, you're not going to find a game that depicts the chaotic beauty of point defense cannons, turreted lasers and high-velocity railgun broadsides as well as CoaDE does.

Aug 21, 2025·52h·12·Verified

Steam User 8662STEAMRecommended

不错

Aug 9, 2025·14h·Verified

Steam User 1382STEAMRecommended

This is a genuinely fun game, but it's important to note that development indefinitely ceased in 2018. As a result, it feels a bit rough around the edges. It's best to pick this one up on sale.

Aug 5, 2025·151h·5·Verified

Steam User 7934STEAMRecommended

finally, after modding KSP into death I found my soul-game, doubbles as a spaceship designer

Aug 1, 2025·16h·5·Verified

Steam User 7043STEAMRecommended

This ♥♥♥♥ is so ass, dont get it, it killed ur brain cells

Jul 19, 2025·7h·Verified

Steam User 6192STEAMRecommended

I like hard science fiction and i have depression. This game makes me learn about orbital mechanics and also simultaneously want to commit suicide. Peak.

Jul 14, 2025·12h·16·Verified

Steam User 0969STEAMRecommended

很硬核

Jul 14, 2025·11h·Verified

Steam User 5973STEAMRecommended

if anyone finds me dead its because of this game

Jul 5, 2025·7h·Verified

Steam User 9997STEAMRecommended

CDE平等地欢迎并痛击每一位航空航天爱好者，但你一定会喜欢上她的，你只需要“一点点”基础知识，再加上你对太空的热爱，你就能迅速学会怎么炸烂敌方的舰船（省略容易让电脑和你都高兴坏的多体引力部分），所以，心动不如行动，快点迈入CDE的天坑吧（）

Jul 4, 2025·22h·3·Verified

Steam User 1746STEAMNot recommended

纯粪作，底层代码纯属一坨屎，任务逻辑一坨屎，机制一坨屎。
优化纯一坨，要么闪退要么卡死，这么多年了也修不好，纯属弱智。
第三关开始你就要拉双曲线轨道去射导弹了，结果你妈的高级操作模式不是默认，也没有沿当前轨道方向加速的操作钮，你他妈到底知道你做的这个傻逼游戏要拉多少双曲线轨道大地图攻击吗？
拦截拦截打不中人，索敌索敌你妈的只知道锁尾焰，那尾焰是你妈骨灰是吧非要追着跑？提前量修正一点没有。
运人关卡故意给个恶心人的电推，进去一看你妈的加速时间比你妈的轨道时间还长，你妈的有没有好好想过靠你这个三脚猫代码怎么去玩电推持续加速操作？放个甲烷油轮当默认会死啊？
傻逼解救卧底，谁他妈自家战列舰靠近小行星，结果做机动把自己一头栽小行星上创死了的？你是弱智？
一拉双曲线就卡，操作精细度基本为0，轨道不显示完整，完了成天还喜欢拿那个逼时间限制恶心你的窗口。
为了防止你不带入这个傻逼世界观，还非逼着你用这个傻逼的原版船和原版组件一段时间。
完了就是闪退，卡死，快他妈打赢的时候卡死，闪退。
这游戏纯你妈粪作，如果粪作能排名，这部作品绝对算得上是和咕噜血狮坐同一桌的恶心人的玩意，就冲这个闪退和卡死，就配得上是粪作里的顶尖粪作，你玩一辈子垃圾游戏都不如玩这粪作一小时爆的血压高，好的不学，成天学你妈的反人类的游戏体验。

Jun 30, 2025·2h·1·Verified

Steam User 6808STEAMRecommended

Taught me how to build a nuclear bomb; worth

Jun 22, 2025·20h·7·Verified

Steam User 2701STEAMRecommended

genuinely this game is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool but i am not smart enough to understand or comprehend it

Jun 12, 2025·3h·11·Verified

Steam User 1184STEAMRecommended

vERY real ig, idk buy it if you like hard sci-fi

Jun 11, 2025·20h·1·Verified

Steam User 5660STEAMRecommended

Very good game buy I have pain whenever I try to make my own module

Jun 6, 2025·54h·1·Verified

Steam User 1751STEAMRecommended

CDE是市面上唯一一个展现在可预见未来内太空战最有可能是什么形态的游戏。
丢弃了太空歌剧里常见的护盾发生器，魔法推进器等等毫无依据的东西后，太空战的形态与海陆空中的任意一种都截然不同。基于轨道力学的机动方式，高交汇速度，长作战距离等等特征构成了太空战的基本元素，而这些元素，会给你带来完全不同的游戏体验。另外，CDE的模块设计也是十分有趣的部分，设计的自由度很高，材质，尺寸等等都能调整，可以说十分精细了，但新手不建议直接上手模块设计，建议先了解相关领域的一些知识，再回来尝试，不然很容易被复杂程度给吓到。不过，CDE的缺点也很明显，AI太蠢，也存在各种魔法机制[spoiler] 沟槽的导弹导引头和各类神奇的魔法材料 [/spoiler]。但总体来说，CDE仍然值得去游玩，哪怕是原价入手。

Jun 6, 2025·132h·8·Verified

Steam User 4337STEAMRecommended

牛逼。
好玩。
希望更新。

May 24, 2025·130h·Verified

Steam User 7849STEAMRecommended

A+ custom module creator

May 20, 2025·170h·3·Verified

Steam User 6845STEAMRecommended

i love this game but it is SO HARD

May 15, 2025·18h·5·Verified

Steam User 5566STEAMRecommended

好

May 4, 2025·19h·Verified

Steam User 4456STEAMRecommended

Great game, would commit war crimes again 10/10

May 3, 2025·107h·4·Verified

Steam User 2570STEAMNot recommended

I think a good way to describe this game is being extremely book smart rather than street smart. Sounds dumb but hear me out.

Overall the physics in the game is very realistic and the customization is in depth. You can create your own engines, reactors, weapons and armor all based on real physics and material science stock in game, and build a ship from this that will fly like a real spacecraft. The use of n-body physics rather than a more simple system, like KSP uses adds to this. At the time I'm writing this I've probably spent more time building and editing spaceships rather than playing the actual game; it's that in depth. There's a lot of stuff in the game that I haven't touched because you'd probably need some kind of degree to understand what's going on, like the nuclear reactors. Now that's the book smart side of the game, which frankly it excels at. The street smart part is where it all starts to fall apart.

First of all, the AI is this game is dumb. REALLY dumb. Formations made up of dozens of drones will spend all their deltaV chasing after a passerby with it's engine turned off or a ship that has already been defeated, and friendly ships will make unnecessarily aggressive maneuvers if they get too close to any of their comrades, sending them spinning into the void. Speaking of ship AI, the ship AI, or the captain you could call it, for whatever reason is overwhelmed by the ability to bank the craft and if given the ability to do so will send the craft into a spin so monstrously violent that the whole crew will be turned to mush. Legit I added a gimbal unit to the retro thrusters on a ship I made to help with turning the ship into the correct orientation when broadside, and my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ down syndrome pilot would kill everyone on board by rotating the ship in such a fashion not dissimilar to how you'd expect a dreidel to spin when chucked into the air and drop kicked across your living room. I was confused by this phenomena and thought that the enemy must have some type of railgun that would hit my ship so hard it'd incapacitate the whole crew via the g forces, but alas such a weapon didn't exist.

There's also a lot of small details in the game that detract from the realism and made me smh. For example, why are space missiles hundreds of years in the future still relying on the method of heat seeking? I'd understand it if these missiles were used in close quarters but these missiles have a theoretical range of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Where's the radar?? The missiles being IR also makes them essentially useless as they can be defeated with a few flares and deactivated engines, which is just silly. Going back to the retro thrusters of the previous paragraph, where are the bundled RCS units? Retro thusters in this game are represented by large, singular engines when in real life they are made up of multiple smaller ones which can propel the craft in all axis in both rotation and translation.

This is more of a personal gripe rather than an objective flaw in the game but I still think it's worth pointing out. For a setting set hundreds, possibly one or two thousand years in the future based on the lore snippets we get throughout the game, the engine tech is pretty lame. Like you expect me to believe that in a world where humanity has colonized the entire solar system, including the outer planets, that we'd still be limited to nuclear thermal engines as the ideal method of propulsion? No nuclear salt rockets, no fusion or orion drives, no nothing? I don't know I just wish the game had some more ambition.

Overall the science in the game is cool and it's a nice game for the more nerdy type of player, but a lot of the systems in the game start to break and/or fail when you try to do stuff that's more outside the box; reminds me of space engineers. (also if anyone does read this so many years after the game's release, please don't take any of the language too seriously. I've noticed my writing style can be a little dramatic at times and if it comes across as ranty or whiny that wasn't my intention.

Apr 29, 2025·66h·55·Verified

Steam User 8315STEAMRecommended

What a phenomenal gem of a game.

It's a very niche game, featuring complex systems (and some flaws) but its a must-buy if you like to design space combat vehicles in-depth. You can create your own nuclear engines, weapon systems, propulsion systems AND more. It really is a one of a kind game.

Apr 22, 2025·128h·3·Verified

Steam User 2092STEAMRecommended

Best Hard Scifi space combat ever

Apr 21, 2025·225h·Verified

Steam User 0057STEAMRecommended

В данный момент это единственная в своем роде реалистичная стратегическая игра на космическую тематику. Одного этого факта должно хватить чтобы заинтересовать, не правда ли?

Apr 15, 2025·84h·Verified

Steam User 6813STEAMRecommended

上手很难，但是深入之后非常耐玩的一款游戏，这次是真的从游戏里学到知识了

Apr 12, 2025·3h·1·Verified

Steam User 1576STEAMRecommended

this game makes me very unhappy. 10/10

Apr 6, 2025·11h·1·Verified

Steam User 6545STEAMRecommended

Amazing if you like optimizating designs and watching your plans come together.
The ship and module building my favorite system in any game like this l can imagine. You can absolutely mess stuff up so finding combinations that work takes effort and is rewarding. Soooo many sliders to adjust and selections to make. Building a combination that meets my needs, then playing it out and watching it destroy the enemy is amazingly satisfying.
It is difficult to get into, I gave up on it for a couple years after playing it the first time. Once l sat down, put in some time, and played around with tweaking the stock modules and understanding the ui and maneuvers l figured most things out. Except coilguns, still have no idea what their niche is tbh.
Graphics look basic but the hit effects and tracers really make it pop, l just wish there was a way to decorate the ships and turn down the nuke flash.
Forewarning - the ui is very basic minimally explained, it'll take some experimenting and there are definitely some quality of life features missing, but it's fully serviceable and doesn't get in the way once youre used to it.
Absolutely get if you like sandbox 'toy'-like games where you can just have fun playing with it how you like. 44 hours in the last two weeks for me, goes to show just how absorbed l get in getting things just right.
Also l hope you have a very very very solid grasp on orbital mechanics.

Apr 2, 2025·170h·7·Verified

Steam User 2891STEAMRecommended

非常好玩！很久没有游戏能这么上头了。果然还得是硬核点的游戏有代入感，这才是写实的太空作战嘛。通宵玩了几个晚上、游戏时长34小时终于通关了战役了。有一定的上手门槛，需要一点中学物理知识，剩下的游戏里会教。里面一堆各种名词什么镍磷微晶碳化硅，作者知识面挺广的，不过看不懂不影响玩，就用游戏自带的船就能打了。轨道阶段时间很长，实际进入战斗很快，但很多时候胜负就是在轨道规划上决定的。不得不说AI有点弱智，特别是对导弹和无人机的运用很弱智，轨道规划得当的话这两个相当强力，放风筝吊着打一众炮船。当然也可能是为了降低难度，AI的船也有很多故意的弱点设计，进一步减低难度了。游戏里也有很多奇怪的魔法机制（或bug），画面也稀烂（即便如此看着敌舰被弹幕射爆依然很爽），但也是瑕不掩瑜，游戏性极佳的太空游戏！

Mar 30, 2025·127h·2·Verified

Steam User 6822STEAMRecommended

This is the most realistic science fiction "game" (It is actually more akin to a simulation in my opinion). All of the technology in the game either exists currently at a less evolved state or can be developed in time. The enemy AI is strategic, responsive, and challenging fight in a fun way.

Mar 19, 2025·305h·5·Verified

Steam User 5469STEAMRecommended

I really shouldn't have bought this, its a fine game overall, but its complexity makes it daunting to actually play. KSP with guns this ain't. I'm still giving it a recommendation regardless, but with the SEVERE WARNING that this is meant for a very particular player that I imagine most people are not.

Mar 15, 2025·11h·4·Verified

Steam User 4302STEAMRecommended

I like the fact i dont understand what i do

Mar 14, 2025·153h·3·Verified

Steam User 2984STEAMNot recommended

While I love the concept, the execution is pure garbage. The AI is allowed to do tons of maneuvers that the awful UI cannot replicate. This results in you becoming completely defenseless when intercepted by drones and missiles. The enemy will launch drones to intercept you that take hours to reach you and can correct for any flight path while your missiles and drones can't seem to gain a trajectory to literally save your life. It's extremely frustrating and unfortunately too me till midway through the campaign and 6 hours in to figure this out. DO NOT BUY

Mar 14, 2025·9h·1·Verified

Steam User 4716STEAMRecommended

this is how scifi should be done

Mar 12, 2025·86h·1·Verified

Steam User 9860STEAMRecommended

the few things it does, it doesn't do very well

if your interested in hard sci-fi, you won't find a better game

Mar 10, 2025·61h·Verified

Steam User 5425STEAMRecommended

Nice game for space lovers, even better for physicists and space engineers. Looking forward for a sequel.

Mar 9, 2025·258h·2·Verified

Steam User 5576STEAMRecommended

I hope there's a feature that allows drones and missiles to actively track enemy ships after they change speed. Having to manually operate them every so often is too tedious. (Or maybe I'm just not smart enough to find a similar feature.)

Mar 8, 2025·13h·5·Verified

Steam User 4641STEAMNot recommended

I joined this game as an Aerospace student with a love for rocketry and orbital mechanics. Even with my experience in Astrodynamics I have no freaking clue how to create half the orbits that the campaign forces you to match. The UI is frankly awful and the game runs at about 3 fps every time you move your mouse along the trajectory line.
This game feels like KSP decided to stab you every time you want to move your spaceship. Even to people who enjoy realistic space games, this is just too unintuitive to be worth the effort. Especially if you're trying to play games to relax after a day on the job doing this same kind of work.

Mar 3, 2025·4h·5·Verified

Steam User 0201STEAMRecommended

Good piece of software for rocket engineering, still unsure why I have to access it through steam though.
Also for some reason whenever I filter for "tools & software" it's not appearing, I can only find it under "games"?

"Hard sci fi" buffs still clutching their chest and crying over all the space fighters in this "game", he put all of them out of a job

Feb 11, 2025·15h·1·Verified

Steam User 5722STEAMRecommended

cool orbital mechanics and space fighting
although the ui is a bit to get around

Feb 3, 2025·3h·Verified

Steam User 3288STEAMRecommended

非常硬核的太空对战游戏，你可以花上数个小时无比巨细地设计战舰，从线圈炮的电容材质，一直到引擎喷嘴的大小，都可以被更改，然后在看着自己设计的战舰把对手粉碎，真的是一种享受。而且游戏的剧情也有一定深度，在加上真实模拟要素，沉浸感直接拉满。

Feb 2, 2025·29h·2·Verified

Steam User 2099STEAMRecommended

本游戏的风格还是相当小众且硬核的，其中设定的近未来科技仅仅只是现实科技的扩展和强化，尚未产生质的蜕变，人类还远远没能达到其他科幻作品里动辄引力制御、折跃之类的科技水平。以至于太空中的一切活动都和现实中的一样繁琐。在游戏相对拟真的宇宙环境里，你必须依靠类似现实中发射火箭和卫星的方式进行移动。简言之就是以围绕天体的环绕运动为核心，通过不同时机下各个方向的加减速进行变轨，进而实现舰船的转移、汇合、乃至进行作战任务。你可以想象到的，也许在《群星》之类的作品里面你只需要点一下鼠标右键的操作，在这游戏里就是整整一关的内容。事实上，本游戏与其说是和《群星》接近，不如说是更像《坎巴拉》多一点，捏船系统也是有的[spoiler] 都属于STK青春版 [/spoiler]。
说起来似乎复杂至极，但游戏倒也不是事无巨细都要你微操的，它贴心提供了变轨辅助，可以帮你自动设定变轨时若干次点火的时机和位置。然而变轨的总体方案还是要玩家自己制订的，如果连概念都不理解，恐怕就会搞得像游戏背景故事里的第一次宇宙战争——敌我两边的很多指挥官因为没打过这种仗所以压根没交上火，自己就把自己的船开没了燃料，迷失在宇宙里了[spoiler] 你开都不会开,还讲什么性能.jpg [/spoiler]。因此建议逐一阅读每个任务简报里面给出的引导文本。游戏这块引导做的也不错，如果读了引导文本，即使是对天文和火箭一窍不通的纯萌新，也能拥有一些基础知识，至少是足够玩这个游戏了。
游戏故事设定就老套点了，是大家司空见惯[strike] 喜闻乐见 [/strike]的人类自己的战争把自己推到灭亡边缘的故事。好消息是这游戏的人类毕竟是近未来科技了，地球毁灭之后又迁移到了太阳系里到处殖民继续发展；坏消息是，就算是毁灭地球，滚去太阳系里了也不安生，消停了几十年又拉帮结派开始互车了。印象比较深的是，故事里面有大量黑色幽默。比如什么，地球交战的两大阵营，一个是把核弹扔海里引发海啸、另一个是把核弹扔天上引发emp风暴，结果事后两边都认同由于没有直接扔在对方城市，所以不算违反核不扩散；毁灭地球的这俩阵营到太阳系时代还莫名其妙合并成一个了。总之也是挺乐的。

Jan 19, 2025·38h·2

Steam User 4015STEAMRecommended

A great game that deserves more attention than it does, even if you want this game purely for the engineering aspect, it's definitely worth the price. The story does need work, especially where the faction you play as says things like 'Don't worry, we are not experiencing mass mutiny and this is not endemic to our military.' Things like this could revealed via enemy or allied transmissions during gameplay.
If still under active development, I would like a Lithium-Fluorine-Hydrogen triprop. option the combustion engine module. Furthermore, it would be cool if bimodal or even trimodal nuclear thermal rockets.
Overall a good game, some places need work.

Jan 17, 2025·165h·1·Verified

Steam User 1314STEAMNot recommended

can't run.

Jan 14, 2025·6h·Verified

Steam User 3082STEAMRecommended

Space cool lol.

Jan 11, 2025·467h·Verified

Steam User 0119STEAMRecommended

Now i can make my own "Lunar War" without having to learn blender again, thank you!

Jan 9, 2025·240h·Verified

Steam User 4388STEAMRecommended

the most sci fi yet realist you can get, sadly its a bit too bare and bones and the learning curve is a steep if you don't know orbital mechanic

Jan 4, 2025·5h·2·Verified

Steam User 0624STEAMRecommended

非常富有想法的游戏，高阶版KSP + 硬核太空战斗
后期还可以自定义船只，甚至还可以自定义裂变发电机、激光、电磁炮，发电机可以设定冷却剂、核燃料、热电偶材料，炮可以设定枪管、电容器等等，不提前了解下原理你甚至可能看不懂界面上的文字和按钮是什么意思。不过自定义模块不是必须的，游戏作者已经提前帮你内置各种模块，够你用来搓自己的船出来
作者甚至还写了各种设定、各种文章给你补充知识，比如霍曼转移等等

不过感觉还需打磨，有些地方感觉还未完成。比如规划拦截敌舰的轨道的时候，靠近敌舰的轨迹不知道为什么会突然来个大拐角、可以利用敌方无人机不会脱离战斗的bug来让己方的无人机消耗敌无人机的燃料、不能选定轨道投影的平面等等。利用好这个bug，一艘无人机母舰就可以直接打通游戏内好几个任务。

推荐打折入手，提前玩过KSP可能会好点，不然可能不太懂怎么规划轨道

Jan 1, 2025·19h·2·Verified

Steam User 6739STEAMRecommended

市面上第一个试图引入完整模拟的这类游戏，很不错，虽然部分内容很魔法，但是真的很有乐趣，而且也可以作为了解相关理论的一个敲门砖

Dec 30, 2024·33h·Verified

Steam User 4324STEAMRecommended

有成就，无中文

Dec 29, 2024·1h·Verified

Steam User 7510STEAMRecommended

If you think you'd like this game then you're already part of its incredibly niche audience and it will scratch an itch that no other game will scratch. Recommend reading devlogs to understand what's going on under the hood bc the depth of the simulation here is not fronted to the player very well.

Dec 26, 2024·17h·1·Verified

Steam User 8734STEAMRecommended

good game just ignore bugs and horrible optimization
ui is horrible but does whatever it needs to do
can spend hours designing and optimizing a single part
probably the best hard scifi game on steam, worth it on sale for 5 bucks

Dec 26, 2024·36h·4·Verified

Steam User 8324STEAMRecommended

To me, this game is not about the game play, it is a fascinating reading material about a future space warfare technology. Most of the time i just read the in-game information and tried to understand how things works. I mean my old ignorant self was shocked when i realized the nuclear reactor and the crew module have a separate, different heat radiators. I was thinking they are on one coolant cycle, but irl in that case the reactor's few thousands kelvin heat would cook everyone in the crew module while the radiator tries to radiate the excessive heat. Irl the reactor and the crew module have to be separated because they have different optimal working temperature, also the radiators have to be a different material for better efficiency. Understanding this sucked me in into this world, i wanted to know more.

The game information just part of the full learning adventure, it is easy to find the dev blog about how things works, i spent countless hours reading them and the wikipedia for more info. Many things are way above my head, but most stuffs were understandable enough to blew my mind. Also i suggest to read the atomic rockets project rho website, a very informative, easy to understand website for hard scifi writers. If you are like me, you will waste a lot of time reading about fascinating space stuffs, but you will love every minute of it!

Dec 25, 2024·25h·6·Verified

Steam User 2987STEAMRecommended

好玩

Dec 24, 2024·2h·Verified

Steam User 4057STEAMRecommended

I took a look at custom lasers and gave up.

Dec 22, 2024·26h·Verified