Unending Galaxy Review

Unending Galaxy, if you hadn’t figured out from the title, is a game about being in space. Like many other games set in space, you control a ship and must explore the universe as you trade, hunt and survive. The developers have stuck true to the 4x definition of "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate” This is exactly what players are in for with Unending Galaxy.

From the off the level of options available in Unending Galaxy is overwhelming. It feels similar to the start of Sid Meier’s Civilization in which players can customise their entire campaign. Much like Civ, the options include choosing map size, density, race, pre-set maps or procedural generation and even what your chosen career is. This level of customization is likely welcomed by fans of the genre but may put newcomers off a little bit.

The combat and movement is pretty simple, right click fires your weapons and WASD moves your little ship around. Because the game is 2D, movement and exploration feels a bit boring at times; it doesn’t involve the intricacy of Elite: Dangerous or the fun learning curve of the Truck Simulator Games. Movement in these games is fun because of the challenge involved, thereby making exploration more engaging. Exploration and travelling is very dull in Unending Galaxy as there is no substance to it, although this isn’t my only issue with the game. Alongside the WASD controls, the ship can be controlled in a more RTS style manner, giving players the option to point and click their destination or any enemies they wish to destroy.

The galaxy itself isn’t very intriguing, I’ve flown about in it for quite a few hours so far and it hasn’t gripped me at all. I understand the game is primarily about building an empire and dominating your adversaries, but a game set in space should be interesting to travel about in. Most sectors you fly through will have a 2D sprite of a planet in the background with a few different stations you can trade at. You will occasionally bump into enemies and other ships, with a few text options available.

Unending Galaxy does give you the option to pave your own way in the universe, you can play as; a trader, warlord, mercenary, miner, business owner or just an intrepid explorer. This open-endedness is one of the biggest strengths the game has, it opens the game up to so many different playstyles. The game’s economy is pretty comprehensive, allowing players to profit massively off the transportation of goods. With that money players can build their own stations and begin building their own empire. Although there is no story behind this, so it becomes about the common loop of building something to get X amount of money to build something else. This lack of narrative direction makes progression feel a little pointless at times.

The game is already well set up for modding, this isn’t a surprise as the company behind the game, Anarkis Gaming Studio, are well known as a studio that has produced mods for other games. Opening the game up to the community could lead to some great content depending on how engaged they are. I’m hoping that the community can create something a bit more narrative driven within the game, that will help drive exploration and expansion.

Unending Galaxy has little to no direction when starting, there is a tutorial but it doesn’t really do a great job of explaining things. Even the tutorial itself is surprisingly hard to navigate leaving me a little lost when it came to starting the game. The developers need to make more of an effort to guide low level players and people that are generally new to the 4x strategy genre. People like me.

Its overall presentation is a little lacklustre, it’s not ugly by any means but could have done with some better visual design. The menu is very cluttered and it isn’t always clear what things do. The assets can look a little blurry at times as well, adding to the game’s overall poor looks; it’s a shame as some of the planets look great. These graphical shortcomings are bad enough, but there is the occasional glitch where menu’s don’t work. It will occasionally completely crash as well, which can be a little annoying if you haven’t saved in a while.

For an independently developed title, Unending Galaxy is a technical masterpiece. The game has some serious scope and allows players to dive as deeply into the game as they wish. The lack of narrative depth really does spoil a great set of sandbox tools, it made me wonder why I was progressing and what the end goal actually is. The lack of tutorial also create a pretty high barrier for entry, meaning people who aren’t into this kind of game are going to struggle. For those who enjoy space-sims, Unending Galaxy is an extensive sandbox experience that is bound to give you hours of enjoyment.