StarDrive

 PC
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 385 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 221 out of 385
  2. Mixed: 75 out of 385
  3. Negative: 89 out of 385

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  1. deathmachinept
    May 23, 2016
    10
    Already better than Stellaris when it came out early access. This game is between a 7 and 8 it lacks some features, some content and optimization but it's an interesting game and I had a good time playing it, gave it a 10 because maybe players got angry when the Dev decided to stop fixing and adding content to the game but for me it was a good purchase.

    Pros - Innovative ship design,    Already better than Stellaris when it came out early access. This game is between a 7 and 8 it lacks some features, some content and optimization but it's an interesting game and I had a good time playing it, gave it a 10 because maybe players got angry when the Dev decided to stop fixing and adding content to the game but for me it was a good purchase.

    Pros
    - Innovative ship design, that adds depth to combat.
    - Innovative planetary logistics, you can make transports to automatically bring and take resources from a planet to another planet.
    - Races are interesting and unique.
    - Space combat is great.
    - Some cool events.

    Cons
    - Dev abandoned support for this game it had so much potential.
    - A.I. can get easily OP if you leave them be and it's very hard to beat or near impossible to beat.
    - The game could use more vents and story.
    - Frame drops, crashes and poor optimization on big battles.    … Expand
  2. theirrelephants
    Mar 7, 2016
    4
    Not a finished game and the developer will never fix it. Tries to be MOO2 and fails at it.

    You're better off getting the 2nd game. Which comes closer, but still no cigar.
  3. Yosa
    Jul 17, 2015
    6
    This is an unfinished game, the developer went on to do a second iteration witch is more in line with turned based games; in stardrive you will experience crashes, I have followed up on why the game crashed on it last iteration and have hit an obcsure loading error of resource files, its not that the files arnt there, the game fails to load or read the path, its lazy development thatThis is an unfinished game, the developer went on to do a second iteration witch is more in line with turned based games; in stardrive you will experience crashes, I have followed up on why the game crashed on it last iteration and have hit an obcsure loading error of resource files, its not that the files arnt there, the game fails to load or read the path, its lazy development that creates an environment were such errors will always occur. There are apologist remarks of the engine has limitations , well Im not familiar enough with the software in question to endorse that.

    On a positive note-

    I believe the lack of turn based element and ship design game play was one of the best aspects of this game, hell it should be a standard in all games of this type, its worthy of praise and is the reason I liked this game to begin with.

    Game breakers-

    Game breakers include the you lose event(yes a message will pop up saying your empire died at random times); this is supposed to be related to the ai researching a quest event, its **** and had I been aware this could happen I would have disabled it, had there been an option(options in this game don,'t exist).Of good mention is the volcanic event witch nearly destroys you're planet, this is supposed to be a rare event, it only happens predictably on every planet in the map throughout the session.

    Mods help this game immensely, but ultimately the game gets put on the back row of the ones you want to play on a bored evening.

    I recommend this game based on its unique lack of turn based and moduler ship building.    … Expand
  4. Len1010
    May 19, 2015
    1
    SD 1 is a glitch ridden, unstable and resource hungry program that crashes all the time, it is totally unreliable. Many crashes are because of it's error ridden program writing.
    I laugh every time I see it using less than 10% of available memory and crashing saying out of memory or when it said it cant find one of it's program files that strangely it found OK yesterday, these are just a    SD 1 is a glitch ridden, unstable and resource hungry program that crashes all the time, it is totally unreliable. Many crashes are because of it's error ridden program writing.
    I laugh every time I see it using less than 10% of available memory and crashing saying out of memory or when it said it cant find one of it's program files that strangely it found OK yesterday, these are just a couple of examples. There are all too many issues with SD1 to go into here but there is one thing I will say and that is that SD1 is a great idea for a program! If someone could get it FIXED to run correctly and stable. If you can coax, caress add rewrite a lot of code SD1 is a fun game to play but needs refinement.
    With the above in mind it is no wonder I was looking forward to SD2, I had high hopes that SD2 would be better written and have some important missing featured to SD1.
    Alas I was disappointed. Who ever wrote SD2 did a terrible job. SD2 does not usually crash and while this is a plus the overall reason for the not crashing is that all the fun has been removed and replaced with tedium. SD2 is full of endless input requests, a lot of them have only one available answer. Endless space bar pushes are required to go to the next turn of mind numbing dumb questions. Every turn of SD2 requires several presses and mindless dumb questions, you are forced to answer and the constant interruptions to what you were doing is annoying to say the least. The screen is always pooping away from where you are working and you have to constantly manually navigate back to where you were if you can remember, it is as if the game is trying to piss you off!
    The constant need to research is crap if you are happy with your current level you are still forced to research stuff you don't want, why?
    Battle mode is useless as it does not allow you control of your ships if the enemy has a bigger number they get priority and you are a siting duck with no input accepted this is the same resource congestion that was in SD1. If you chose to auto fight the outcome is totally random and not at all consistent with the facts and experience of the ships or troops involved.
    You can not change your station defenses and they are ALWAYS destroyed and need constant rebuilding even though they are USELESS.
    There is no peaceful resolution to the game it is all about only conquest and destruction. The enemy always has too many ships for the resources they control and the endless mind numbing
    battles are just dribble. The weapons fired in battles do not represent the weapons fitted, tracer fire and projectiles are represented randomly and the available screen in battle mode is too small and congested to outmaneuver also in SD2 there is no auto repair drones so once damaged your ships are doomed all the maneuvering under the sun will not save you.
    In battle mode even if you had a ship close by you can't use them for assistance because they are excluded when in reality they are right there and would normally navigate/come to the rescue. Bottom line SD2 is far worse than SD1 it is poorly and lazily written, bug ridden and has no vision or imagination.
    I still hope someone picks up the ball and makes a real fun, stable, adventurous realistic program like what SD1 was supposed to be, I now wait to see if SD3 will come but I worry this will be
    like Microsoft OS, NEVER FINISHED and NEVER WORKING for the customer.    … Expand
  5. Bmane
    Jan 16, 2015
    0
    I once gave this game an '8'...

    But then, I never foresaw that the developer would just abandon it and leave it rotting while he uses the money he earned to create a 'sequel'...

    Simply put, avoid due to the developer.
  6. CrunchyGremlin
    Jan 12, 2015
    8
    BlackBox is a code mod to this game that fixes a lot of bugs in the game and expands it.
    Blackbox is almost ready for release after nearly a year of working on it.
    Highly suggest you play the game with it. the mod is designed to be stardrive but more like what you would expect. many many many additions that are designed to make the game what it seems it should be. Yes its a mod and im    BlackBox is a code mod to this game that fixes a lot of bugs in the game and expands it.
    Blackbox is almost ready for release after nearly a year of working on it.
    Highly suggest you play the game with it.
    the mod is designed to be stardrive but more like what you would expect. many many many additions that are designed to make the game what it seems it should be. Yes its a mod and im not normally a fan of mod but in this case i highly recommend blackbox as its nearly identical to SD save that it enhances the areas that are lacking.    … Expand
  7. FGM
    Jan 10, 2015
    7
    Not such a bad game. I had a mixed impression at 1st but over all 7/10. UI is terrible and micro-management which is essential part of the game becomes very hard and slow in later stage. Specially the planet part, once you figure out fleet management and resupplying button it gets a lot easier, but colony management and no alerts management is a mess (-2). Sounds are awful but music isNot such a bad game. I had a mixed impression at 1st but over all 7/10. UI is terrible and micro-management which is essential part of the game becomes very hard and slow in later stage. Specially the planet part, once you figure out fleet management and resupplying button it gets a lot easier, but colony management and no alerts management is a mess (-2). Sounds are awful but music is nice (0). Gameplay is fairly good but tech trees could be longer and AI more engaging when it comes to diplomatic relations(-1). Overall a fairly solid game that delivers a new and interesting experience in space SIM genre. Recommended. P.S. I would love to see an update for larger maps.… Expand
  8. JERupp
    Aug 29, 2014
    4
    This game could have been awesome. Instead, the developer half-baked this game, took the money and ran off to build a sequel with even less content. The game remains unoptimized for even the best computers, has numerous computer-crashing bugs/glitches, and an unfinished quest line.

    Like many early access games, this one failed to deliver what it promised.
  9. bottlecap3158
    Jul 31, 2014
    2
    After finding the amount of high ratings on this site I had to write a review on this game. Simply put, it could have been great. The developer promised so many great things for the game as an early access supporter. When the game launched, it was really just a flop. It was really just the beta but with a higher price tag, and the developer decided that he would use your wasted $30.00 toAfter finding the amount of high ratings on this site I had to write a review on this game. Simply put, it could have been great. The developer promised so many great things for the game as an early access supporter. When the game launched, it was really just a flop. It was really just the beta but with a higher price tag, and the developer decided that he would use your wasted $30.00 to fund a sequel that had all of his features that he promised originally. Don't buy this game, don't support this developer, and go buy Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. At least I can actually enjoy that game... One more note, I know that it was a single person developer, but that doesn't mean he can just stop supporting his games and make empty promises. Intrusion 2 was created by a single developer, and that game is extremely better than the mere 2 hours I put into the release of Stardrive. It took the single developer 3 years to create Intrusion 2. Why can't this developer have the same perseverance and drive that the Intrusion 2 developer has? Just because you don't like a product that you have created doesn't mean you have to abandon it and make a new game. Think about that the next time you want to disappoint people.… Expand
  10. Thebesteversyea
    Jun 29, 2014
    0
    DO NOT GET THIS GAME. I paid full retail and the Dev just gave up and wont even give the second one for those who supported the first. The forums are HEAVILY moderated by The Doctor and the Dev lied SO much during this interview its amazing. Nothing he said was true. He promised multiplayer but deleted all references to that promise to save his own skin. I had bought the game during theDO NOT GET THIS GAME. I paid full retail and the Dev just gave up and wont even give the second one for those who supported the first. The forums are HEAVILY moderated by The Doctor and the Dev lied SO much during this interview its amazing. Nothing he said was true. He promised multiplayer but deleted all references to that promise to save his own skin. I had bought the game during the alpha and its amazing how the Dev twisted his own words and promises to walk away with the money of so many people. If multiple people are saying this (Which they are) its not just someone being angry or trolling, its the truth. Stay away from this game and this developer. Support other trustworthy third parties who are making similar games or simply buy a finished product of this genre from a company with ethics and whom supports their customers unlike this unethical developer and his team of tyrannical forum moderators. The only reason someone would give a good score was because it was done before the recent drop of the first game by the Dev.… Expand
  11. Vas
    Jun 29, 2014
    2
    Really, I just couldn't stand the game. It was almost an exact copy of Star Ruler, but it was worse. The UI was a bit dull and boring, and at times caused me to accidently click or unclick things and have to redo stuff. 5 hours in a normal game and I still couldn't really do anything at all. Meh, I just can't find a single good thing to say about the game, other than a slightly uniqueReally, I just couldn't stand the game. It was almost an exact copy of Star Ruler, but it was worse. The UI was a bit dull and boring, and at times caused me to accidently click or unclick things and have to redo stuff. 5 hours in a normal game and I still couldn't really do anything at all. Meh, I just can't find a single good thing to say about the game, other than a slightly unique diplomacy system.… Expand
  12. tejanse
    Jun 27, 2014
    0
    Represents the bad side of indie development/early access etc. Dev takes everyone's money, and then decides to make a new game before the original is feature-complete or even remotely fixed. He then plays the victim when the community calls him out on his BS as he silences everyone who disagrees and even deletes his own promise-filled posts from the past.

    I don't think any of these    Represents the bad side of indie development/early access etc. Dev takes everyone's money, and then decides to make a new game before the original is feature-complete or even remotely fixed. He then plays the victim when the community calls him out on his BS as he silences everyone who disagrees and even deletes his own promise-filled posts from the past.

    I don't think any of these people go into a project intending to rip everyone off, they are just in over their heads and a large-scale scam is the result. Please avoid Stardrive 2, these type of unscrupulous people are just as cancerous to gaming as are companies like EA - just on a smaller scale.    … Expand
  13. WerewolfAlpha
    Jun 9, 2014
    0
    PAID REVIEWERS> Go check all the high scores. See that 95% of them are done on Apr 26th. The release date. Do you often play a game and go review it the very same day? Do you think every single person who liked the game said "Hey, I'm going to go review this game RIGHT NOW because I JUST bought it and owned it for all of an hour or two but I have to rush off and review it. Literally, whenPAID REVIEWERS> Go check all the high scores. See that 95% of them are done on Apr 26th. The release date. Do you often play a game and go review it the very same day? Do you think every single person who liked the game said "Hey, I'm going to go review this game RIGHT NOW because I JUST bought it and owned it for all of an hour or two but I have to rush off and review it. Literally, when it's THIS OBVIOUS you have paid reviewers to review your game right on release date. Go look it up. Pick one at random, it will be release date Apr 26th. If you complain or ask questions on Steam forums, you will get banned and attacked by the forum moderator. AND NOW he is releasing star drive 2, which is another game he will sell on Steam and NOT FINISH.… Expand
  14. owen445x
    Apr 29, 2014
    3
    Incomplete game and Dev has already moved on.. took our money from early access so he could fund his new game without finishing the multiplayer after it was already promised.

    Wish this game had a map generater so I didnt have to play the same galaxy every time. Pritty much all you do is set the computer to auto govern all your planets and just mass a large fleet and all the AI wants    Incomplete game and Dev has already moved on.. took our money from early access so he could fund his new game without finishing the multiplayer after it was already promised.

    Wish this game had a map generater so I didnt have to play the same galaxy every time.

    Pritty much all you do is set the computer to auto govern all your planets and just mass a large fleet and all the AI wants to be your friend. Can't be friends unless you already number 1 or 2 top player already so what's the point in alliances when I can already destroy the other AI players?

    Game is pretty annoying at times also.. I spent a lot of time and resources to gain the friendship of another race just to lose it in a split second. I was invading a world with foot soldiers while bombing it from space and the AI just decided to colonize it while I was already attacking the planet and it declared hostility on me on the first auto attack that wasn't even in my control to stop.

    Another annoying part of the game is the AI declares a planet theirs and for you to leave it alone even when its on the other side of the galaxy. Try building alliances when you need to expand and every ally you have is getting upset that your colonizing their intended planets!

    After a few wins.. never went back since this is a dead game and wont ever receive multiplayer. I think this could have been a fun game if I had actual people to play with or against.    … Expand
  15. fallendemon
    Feb 6, 2014
    10
    I been wasting a ton of time(fun time) in fact about 365 steam record hours(not steam play throw in many more hours). I simply love this space space strategy game. its almost like old school turn base but its real time. so use pause alot when clicking on some things. reminds me of starcontrol and starcontrol two. But you can built a empire!

    Ship design is for me the heart of the game,    I been wasting a ton of time(fun time) in fact about 365 steam record hours(not steam play throw in many more hours). I simply love this space space strategy game. its almost like old school turn base but its real time. so use pause alot when clicking on some things. reminds me of starcontrol and starcontrol two. But you can built a empire!

    Ship design is for me the heart of the game, ship hulls are different for different civilizations. The fun part is how you use different components into the ship design to beat the other civilizations. since they have access to the same tech research as you. seeing your superior designs destroy them!! LIke a fleet of meat into your meatgrinder!

    For example my favorite is the Kulrathi aka bearmen their ships might not be the fastest(not too many engine slots, you can put in different type of engines into that slot). but their fighter are the largest in the game. I love putting in fighter bays(they spawn fighters(free fighters)) into all my Titan ships(they are the largest hull type every civilization gets, each civilization has different sizes and shapes of that hull). I love putting in remnant shields onto the fighters and tons of weapons and no wrapdrive only thrust. They can be respawn from the carrier. Park the carrier slightly farther away from the fighting. wave after wave of fighters just destroy anything in their path.

    With many patches later they fix the Remnant quest. Also remnant tech is always the most powerful in game. There are a few mods out there but the ones that still out there is fun.    … Expand
  16. yay101
    Jan 23, 2014
    10
    I didn't give it 10 because it is perfect. Or because it is amazingly re-playable. But because for the first hundred hours it is perfectly flawed.

    Ship building is fantastic, battles are fantastic, Ai is flawed although well thought out and the levels are interesting enough to give you a different experience depending on who you spawn near.

    A perfect 100 hour game.
  17. stefrank
    Jan 19, 2014
    5
    I left a review when this game was in beta talking about what great promise it had and how, with polish, it could be fantastic. Around that time, for whatever reason, the developers decided it was a finished product and priced it accordingly. It's unfortunate that this game will never see it's full potential. Regardless, It's still pretty fun.

    Some of the high points of this game    I left a review when this game was in beta talking about what great promise it had and how, with polish, it could be fantastic. Around that time, for whatever reason, the developers decided it was a finished product and priced it accordingly. It's unfortunate that this game will never see it's full potential. Regardless, It's still pretty fun.

    Some of the high points of this game include:
    -The inclusion of real time pausing management, allowing it to be played as an RTS or turn-based game
    -Ship design
    -The race design, allowing you to pick custom perks and detriments to your civilization
    -Large scale space battles
    The last of these being the game's real strong suit.

    If you are a fan of 4x strategy games, you will likely be disappointment by the lack of depth. The UI is poor, resource management the same, and ground combat is pathetic (and required). All these issues serve to detract from the overall game experience, which begins to feel like an RTS with some 4X elements tacked on.

    The full price is steep considering the lack of depth compared to other, similar strategy games, but the assertion that there's nothing good to be found here is simply not true.    … Expand
  18. pwnDonkey
    Jan 10, 2014
    0
    This is an updated review of stardrive. I originally did a review in april 2013 and said, like many others, that this game had alot of potential. What happened is, the developer took the money and ran and never completed the game.

    This means the promises made to people who paid $25 like me were never fulfilled. Worse, the end game is unplayable because of crippling memory problems.    This is an updated review of stardrive. I originally did a review in april 2013 and said, like many others, that this game had alot of potential. What happened is, the developer took the money and ran and never completed the game.

    This means the promises made to people who paid $25 like me were never fulfilled. Worse, the end game is unplayable because of crippling memory problems.

    Never ever buy a zerosum game or anything related to this developer again. He should be shunned and banished from game making forever.    … Expand
  19. ephewe
    Dec 23, 2013
    0
    Do yourself a favor and stay far far away from this pile of garbage. Please understand me when I say I am absolutely not the type to give games a zero score out of spite. In this case, however, StarDrive deserves nothing more. The developer is known to have blatantly abandoned development before actually completing the game (but not before making obscene amounts of money from earlyDo yourself a favor and stay far far away from this pile of garbage. Please understand me when I say I am absolutely not the type to give games a zero score out of spite. In this case, however, StarDrive deserves nothing more. The developer is known to have blatantly abandoned development before actually completing the game (but not before making obscene amounts of money from early adopters who made the mistake of expecting to one day have a completed game). What little the developer has said on the matter seems to suggest that the issue is general incompetence in terms of game-design resources. In other words, he's hit some brick walls in the development process and doesn't know how to progress beyond them. Many customers who paid full price were lured in with various promises from the developer of multiplayer and a bunch of other features which were dropped. Even that wouldn't necessarily be a show-stopper if the game could actually be played from start to finish under most circumstances. As things stand now, if the "out of memory" errors don't get you, the glaring holes in crucial game-play elements will. What the developer has done in this case is nothing short of completely unscrupulous.

    Being as he abandoned StarDrive, you may be glad to know that he's now decided to call StarDrive "StarDrive Vanilla" whilst he develops a remake on an alternate engine. He has stated that the snubbed adopters of so-called "StarDrive Vanilla" are welcome to purchase the remake (at full price of course barf).

    Actually, instead of simply avoiding StarDrive, you might want to also avoid any titles produced by ZeroSum Games and Iceberg Interactive. The fiasco that is StarDrive has revealed that both the developer and publisher are not at all concerned with the sentiment inferred by this review, which is ***EXTREMELY*** wide-spread, I assure you (check the Steam forums for this game if Zero hasn't deleted the relevant posts, that is).

    Only consider purchasing this most-of-a-game if you have no intention of ever seeing it in a completed state. Also, be prepared to encounter game-killing bugs, a complete and utter lack of any gameplay elements which go even slightly beyond the absolute bare-minimum, and a developer who not only openly declares himself "unconcerned" with customers' (quite valid) problems, but actually goes out of his way to publicly censor or scorn anyone who dares bring any such things up.

    ***IMPORTANT***
    Do not believe the people making recent posts about how the game is being "updated on a daily basis" or anyone who says it's being worked on at all. This has been discussed to death on the Steam & official forums... The game has been abandoned by the developer. Anyone saying otherwise is LYING. Case in point, "ProfessionalGuy". He posted this very day, talking about how the game is constantly being improved & updated "almost on a daily basis". This is simply not true. There has not been any meaningful update in... I can't even remember when the last *REAL* update was made/distributed.

    I didn't believe it until now, but there were rumors about how supposedly fake posters were going around submitting favorable reviews for this game on various rating sites... Well now I believe this to be 100% true, because I can think of no reason which adequately explains ProfessionalGuy's review (specifically the score of 10 and the statement that the game's development is active and not in fact abandoned). It's not just him either. There are many such review all over the internet which are flat-out lies. Don't believe it. Do not give ZeroSum Games or Iceberg Interactive any more money.    … Expand
  20. ProfessionalGuy
    Dec 23, 2013
    10
    It is truly unbelievable what one man can achieve. The game is addictive right from start, well presented and is a lot of fun to play. There are still a few glitches and some potential for improvement, but Zero is putting amazing effort into this project releasing improvments almost on a daily basis. If you like 4x games, you have to grab this one!
  21. bigred411
    Dec 20, 2013
    4
    This is a game that I really wanted to be good. It has a lot of good features but the bugs make it almost impossible to enjoy. The game lag gets so bad towards end game it becomes unplayable. Game ending crashing if battles get to big. This is not a finished product.
  22. Pombe
    Dec 9, 2013
    4
    This game had potential but the end game gets boring and there must be some memory problems because my new laptop can hardly run it near the end of the game. This game should be listed as an early release. However, it appears the developer abandoned it after promising for months to keep working on the game.
  23. ravinblade
    Nov 1, 2013
    0
    [quote="Zero"][quote="Murundi"]Hmmmm, strange.... I seem to remember someone, somewhere saying that it was IMPOSSIBLE to fix the OOM errors. How odd, the great and mighty can make mistakes? I must have imagined it.[/quote]

    So what's the point of this comment? It's just trolling. I put in some serious homework time to try and fix this OOM error and I get for it? What do you want    [quote="Zero"][quote="Murundi"]Hmmmm, strange.... I seem to remember someone, somewhere saying that it was IMPOSSIBLE to fix the OOM errors. How odd, the great and mighty can make mistakes? I must have imagined it.[/quote]

    So what's the point of this comment? It's just trolling. I put in some serious homework time to try and fix this OOM error and I get for it? What do you want from me?[/quote]

    This sums up what you will get into if you purchase this game. The Developer gets enraged when called on either lies, or if not lies, then conclusions that he has come too that may or may not be fact. He says something, dismisses it, goes onto something new, then is shown that it maybe is possible if you just look at it in a different more experienced way.... since you are brand new to this Job and doing it all by yourself you should know that you may just not know everything.

    Saying things are impossible, then retracting because everyone is having OOM issues with a game that has been deemed "finished product" because you are "Happy" with it. I don't think you are "Happy" with it, I think you realize that you have been caught 2x saying something now and then flip flopping on it because you know it is a concern of more than just a "Vocal Minority".

    Fix your first game so it is playable before you start construction on your second game, period.    … Expand
  24. NRising
    Oct 25, 2013
    4
    Yes, StarDrive is beautiful... the graphics aren't academy award winning, yet compelling, and yes, breath taking to some degree. However if you are going to try and be the next guy to try and take a stab at writing the next MoO4 do it with some effort, don't toss in a scant few tech trees and leave the storyline half finished with enough plot holes to sink the Titanic!

    Considering that    Yes, StarDrive is beautiful... the graphics aren't academy award winning, yet compelling, and yes, breath taking to some degree. However if you are going to try and be the next guy to try and take a stab at writing the next MoO4 do it with some effort, don't toss in a scant few tech trees and leave the storyline half finished with enough plot holes to sink the Titanic!

    Considering that it's painfully obvious the developer was trying to be THAT guy who created a true MoO4, yeah, I was less than impressed. The tech trees are NOT finished, that and I'm clueless to the significance of the later story line (I wouldn't even contemplate spoiling it... seriously, a three year old could do that for you.) I mean, some of the tech even pointed to future advances, yet.... I bought a game which sort of c*ck blocked me tech wise. That as far as I can tell all of the races really have the same tech potential.... just stupid looking ships (unless you played as Human, we rock.)

    I can't move on yet, I should gripe and grumble about how annoying planetary assaults are and how useless the transport ships seem to be, however.... the tech! You see... this is 2013, almost 2014... if you are going to have tech you better have a lot of it. I mean, I think of the tech in this game and two thoughts come to mind... number 1, I miss MoO2 all of a sudden, and number 2? Meh, soggy cereal meh. I need Viagra meh. I and probably quite a few die hard MoO fans probably expected a better showing of tech considering that graphically and mechanically StarDrive is as damned close to the play style of MoO, and yet.... someone dropped the ball.

    Me is an alien! You kill me... now you get.... some poop tech and that's it.

    Yeah, so far two or three tech advances from an alien race that is like the Borg on crack, meth and gods know what else... you'd think there would be more, but, nah. 90% of that alien race apparently operated on generic pixie dust or something. And is it me... or is tech thus far really the problem, or lack of tech thereof? The spy tech is really short, like mini-me short. Ugh... tech problems, must keep writing yet getting bored!

    Let's take a breather.... the map crashed way too much, I have yet to find an option to delete save files and for some odd reason all new games carry old ship designs to new games when appropriate ship tech is researched, which ends up being a massive mess... worse? I at least can't find an option to delete ship designs, so yeah, you end up with too many designs. And OH MY GODS! That largest ship.... it takes me at least an HOUR to place weapons and such in those REALLY small boxes on that ENORMOUSLY LARGE ship! I'm not even exaggerating! My eyes were nearly bleeding afterward...

    Okay, yeah.... that ship editor, dem boxes. Dat whole hour... and realizing time passed you by and the game has all of a sudden given you a MAJOR headache. Death by ship design! Now, let's discuss artifacts.... discussion done. You can win without them, in fact... aside from being a bit annoying to acquire, they are nothing more than well... I dunno, honestly I never had any will power to mess with them... pretty much man handled every race in a maxed race game, took a dump on them during diplomacy and shoved my warships down their throats. So... artifacts, yeah.

    As for the planets, well... they also seemed to need more tech, in fact I sort of wish the planet scape wasn't so small... I mean, no matter how large the planet you still always have the same amount of map space, which itself well... somehow represents an entire planet of people. I'm guessing the developer is the dude who thought our planet was square back in the day, cause the planets in this game are very square, sort of. On the space map, we see planets! But on the management screen, squares, MORE friggin squares! Arg...

    Okay, I know... you want some positivity dontcha? The Terran ships looks cool, that and apparently the dev loves Cthu'lhu, and who doesn't? The game mechanics are actually simple after you spend a hour or two playing, you do have to balance research and trade... but...

    The ship design system is... painful. Yes, it is comprehensive, but the largest ship can mess up your eyes (eye strain). The tech is limp, sorry, but it is. The aliens are sociopaths... their hot and their cold, yes and then no.... you get the idea.

    "Oh mergerd you landered on the planet I wanted firsted!"

    Seriously, as if I knew... and then I made them my.... expletive. Final words, no, I'm not going to rate this anything more than a 4, and that's me being a nice guy. I'm not saying the game is dog turd, but it ain't entirely MoO either. Game like this will never improve until consumers as a whole bring out their beat sticks and spank some dev butt.... as for StarDrive? Meh.    … Expand
  25. thecolonel
    Oct 11, 2013
    0
    Game is incomplete, and the developer has said he's spending most of his time porting the game over to a new project based on the game that buyers of this one would have to pay again for. DO NOT BUY. It's a sad case of an indie developer taking the money, calling the game "complete" and running.
  26. Crowbot
    Oct 10, 2013
    0
    Honestly this game, is the reason i vowed never to purchase any indie games in alpha/beta mode. Never buy a game on its potential, because what do you get for buying it unfinished? Nothing except the risk of a bad game that never delivers, that's why from now on I'm waiting till release, so i don't buy broken promises.

    If you want tangible reasons not to buy this game then, firstly the    Honestly this game, is the reason i vowed never to purchase any indie games in alpha/beta mode. Never buy a game on its potential, because what do you get for buying it unfinished? Nothing except the risk of a bad game that never delivers, that's why from now on I'm waiting till release, so i don't buy broken promises.

    If you want tangible reasons not to buy this game then, firstly the game was unfinished at release, ships were missing, the game crashes often, freighters don't work properly, multiplayer wasn't implemented as promised and the developer looks like he has pretty much given up on this game and letting community modders fix his unfinished problems. Which are the people who have posted all the great reviews here for the game...

    I've seen this game go on sale multiple times shortly after "release" when it was still marred with bugs and problems, sorry to say it looked like a quick money grab. Which is made worse by the fact that any critical threads warning people about the game get deleted, further proving the point.

    I was banned from the steam community discussion of this game because i expressed my opinion that this game wasn't worth the price...

    Would i recommend this game to anyone? No.
    Simply because i feel conned for buying this game, user comments are deleted which are critical of the game... Sorry that's the last straw for me.    … Expand
  27. danshu15
    Oct 9, 2013
    0
    I had to give it a Zero. The game had great potential, but development has stopped completely now that ZeroSum has "made enough money to move onto other projects". The small development team has been the excuse for slow development, and empty promises were repeatedly made, but its officially been canned by the developer and he's even stated that a discount or free copy of the sequel forI had to give it a Zero. The game had great potential, but development has stopped completely now that ZeroSum has "made enough money to move onto other projects". The small development team has been the excuse for slow development, and empty promises were repeatedly made, but its officially been canned by the developer and he's even stated that a discount or free copy of the sequel for people who purchased the broken unfinished original will in no way be an option. Have a problem w/it? don't post on his forums, he'll just delete it and ban you but hey he warns you up front that he will and says you should just log out of his forum and never come back.
    VaporWare that should be avoided, and previous ratings should be revisited and re evaluated. Poor game is dead.    … Expand
  28. Nickle
    Oct 8, 2013
    10
    Is this Master of Orion 2? Not quite. However, it is very much its equal. Amazingly well done indie title. Moo2 still has many bugs that require a player work around. This title may have bugs but they are getting fixed, something you won't see with Moo2.
  29. Gintea
    Sep 27, 2013
    5
    Most likely abandonware. The developer announced that he is done with this game in its (unfinished) state.
    To quote him (Zero) I think StarDrive vanilla is a fine game. I'm happy with it. I'll be patching it here and there as my whims take me. If you feel cheated by StarDrive, kindly scroll up to the upper right portion of your browser screen and click the "Logout" button. I don't want    Most likely abandonware. The developer announced that he is done with this game in its (unfinished) state.
    To quote him (Zero) I think StarDrive vanilla is a fine game. I'm happy with it. I'll be patching it here and there as my whims take me. If you feel cheated by StarDrive, kindly scroll up to the upper right portion of your browser screen and click the "Logout" button. I don't want to hear it."
    So promised features are missing and most likely wont be delivered.
    However even without being completely finished, the game is not BAD.
    If you just need your small 4x fix you get nicely done graphics, good music and some quite enjoyable game mechanics.
    If you can bear with the existing memory leak and lag in late game and dont care about it not being feature complete you might even have a great time.
    ...and then you might consider to re buy the game in its new incarnation, it has been announced it will be basically redone on a new engine (full price for everyone). Yay?    … Expand
  30. Mermel
    Sep 26, 2013
    0
    It was promising what had been promised, but what promises had been there, have been broken.

    The developer of this game admitted the engine in use is broken and so, it will never get finished. Any word on the forum, being even slightly critical about his decision to move on and start another project, is being deleted. The game is a blast to play, but sadly it is never going to be    It was promising what had been promised, but what promises had been there, have been broken.

    The developer of this game admitted the engine in use is broken and so, it will never get finished.
    Any word on the forum, being even slightly critical about his decision to move on and start another project, is being deleted.

    The game is a blast to play, but sadly it is never going to be anything but an abandoned alpha version sold completly overprized.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

45
#45 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
61

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 26
  3. Negative: 2 out of 26
  1. CD-Action
    Feb 10, 2014
    60
    If you like games in the vein of Stars! or Master of Orion, you can sink into Stardrive for long hours. [02/2014, p.73]
  2. GRYOnline.pl
    Dec 9, 2013
    70
    Zero Sum Games has created a worthy addition to the 4X genre. What is more - modders are already creating more and more cool modifications for StarDrive. Ergonomics and gameplay rules should be more user-friendly, but the game itself is far from boring or tiresome. 4X fans will be pleased.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 19, 2013
    60
    For your first and second time, StarDrive brings a refreshing experience resembling Master of Orion. However, as soon as you understand its basic rules, the game is gone like through a Black Hole. [Issue#232]
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