StarBound (PC - 2013)

First, there was Minecraft which revolutionized the sandbox / openworld / survivor gaming style, added elements like crafting, block based graphics and a complete „geo-mode” so you can build or destroy anything you want. This gave the game a great advantage and gamers a whole new perspective to look at a game and to play.

Countless clones arrived, the designers started to add rpg or strategy elements and some really nice games got developed, but the next big step in my opinion was Terraria, a really beautiful and deep experience. Visually it was a step back some might think, but for the type of genre it think 2D is more than enough and since I'm sucker for retro games it made it even more interesting for me.

I'm sure some of the designers of Terraria must have gotten involved with the development of StarBound because structually and visually it's a very similar game, still it manages to be very different and a million times bigger than Terraria was.

You can handle the universe of StarBound like your own, you can explore planets, mine for precious metals or minerals, craft, create mini civilizations, hunt animals, grow vegetables, reach asteroids or moons, different galaxies, kill bosses and most important of all, survive.  

You have to be careful with food and the temperature. Cold is a real enemy, during the night you have to find a fire to keep you warm and certain planets or moons are not even explorable until you don't get some really warm clothes because you freeze almost instantly.

It's really an amazing game, worth trying it out, but you have to be careful, it can make you sit in front of your monitor for days!

Star Command (Android, IOS - 2013)

Here is another space themed game called Star Command. It was funded through Kickstarter, developed by indie game designers Jordan and Justin Coombs. The game is a space exploration and combat simulation game, with players acting as captain of a starship who is tasked with exploring the galaxy and defending his crew from hostile aliens.

You can upgrade your ship, build and upgrade weapons, engines, shields and many other systems. You can hire crew members who can individually gain experience, level up. You can assign your crew to different rooms / systems, they can act as scientists, engineers, security etc.

You have a huge universe to explore but for the first few hours of gameplay you pretty much have to follow a linear story. As you progress and make more and more choices which effect your game you will be able to explore more freely and roam around the galaxies. Your basic goal is to save humanity from evil aliens, but it's a lot more complicated than that. During your adventures you meet many different species, you fight with some of them and help or trade with the others.

The most time consuming parts of the game are the battles, some of them can take ages and with the tricky aiming systems you have to be on the top of your game all the time not to spend 20-30 minutes with each encounter. You can install and upgrade weapon systems, assign crew members to control them. Sometimes the enemy teleports a few guys on your ship and those are the most frustrating battles, when you have to concentrate on the fight on two frontlines.

Really fun game even if the battles tend to be too long sometimes, if you are into space exploration games this one is for you for sure!

http://www.starcommandgame.com/home.html

FTL - Faster Than Light (PC, Mac, Linux - 2013)

I love independent games, visually they are not always appealing, but for me who's first video game console was an Atari 2600 clone that's not an issue. Games can be fun and entertaining even without cutting edge 3D graphics and Hollywood style cutscenes.

Faster Than Light was developed by the two-man team of Subset Games. The idea for the game came from playing a lot of board games, specifically Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. The basic goal of the game is to get from one side of a randomly generated galaxy to the other side while being chased by rebels, and fight the rebel boss ship at the end . It's a kind of a suicide mission especially if you play on normal mode, your chance of success is around 10% and you loose everything once you've been killed - you can start the game again.

While this game mechanic could seem cruel you're are not really loosing everything because with every battle you learn a little more, and even without completing the whole mission you can unlock new ships.

You are a commander of a single spacecraft, you have crew members who can control certain systems on the ship (engine, shield, piloting and weapons), so basically you need a four member team to succeed, but you can hire more members which is useful because in the case of your ship being overrun by aliens you can use them to defend important systems on board.

Every system is upgradeable, there are various weapons and subsystems you can install on your spacecraft and there is a total of nine different ships you can choose from - but only one at the beginning, you have to unlock the other ones by achieving certain tasks throughout the game.

There are six different races throughout the galaxy, some of them are friendly, others are not. You can hire crew members from all races, they all have different skills - can be used for different tasks.

One more thing is really great about this game is the music, it really transfers you into outer space, you really feel like a space explorer, drifting in infinity, reaching destinations where no man has gone before.

http://www.ftlgame.com/