I think this might actually be my favourite game of the last two years or more, if not longer.

Space Haven gives me something I really really like, and that's the ability to feel like I'm taking part in my own Star Trek-style episodic television show. It's not just about the fact that I can build up the ship how I like and make it my own, but that almost everything I've encountered so far has felt more like an... experience than a game, I suppose. And yes, that comes off as pretentious, but let me try and explain what I mean.

While playing it recently, I almost ran out of energy for my generators while hopping between planets. I had to make a last-ditch rush to get more, and that meant switching off most of the ship to conserve power so that my chief Engineer (named Miles O'Brien, naturally) could use the last functioning mining pod and grab some more from a nearby asteroid. It was an incredibly close shave and could have cost me the entire "run", and having it play out successfully was an awesome experience.

In another case, one of my crew essentially sacrificed herself to take a ship hostage: she managed to make the last two people surrender, but suffered major wounds that we didn't have a medical bed to treat. I put her on permanent bed rest and free time, and she died in her sleep a day later. There was nothing I could do to save her if I wanted the same outcome, but that actions of that crewmate were essential to the rest of them surviving later on when we needed more than four people to overcome another attack.

Everything that happens feels permanent, but it's never forced or scripted, unlike permadeath games or games such as No Man's Sky. Ship-building is modular and most events (such as when ships arrive in the same system and shoot at each other) happen entirely by chance, so there's a sense of uncertainty every time I do something. I've had to repair hull breaches while trying to make an escape from pirates, ambushed enemies in nebulas that shut off their shields, and even vented the atmosphere to get rid of a fire at the cost of killing a prisoner I captured.

It's not just a ship with a crew telling a story, it's my ship and my crew telling their story, with the same character deaths, twists, and awesome moments that I imagine when I think of an old sci-fi novel or show.

I think this might actually be my favourite game of the last two years or more, if not longer. Space Haven gives me something I really really like, and that's the ability to feel like I'm taking part in my own Star Trek-style episodic television show. It's not just about the fact that I can build up the ship how I like and make it my own, but that almost everything I've encountered so far has felt more like an... experience than a game, I suppose. And yes, that comes off as pretentious, but let me try and explain what I mean. While playing it recently, I almost ran out of energy for my generators while hopping between planets. I had to make a last-ditch rush to get more, and that meant switching off most of the ship to conserve power so that my chief Engineer (named Miles O'Brien, naturally) could use the last functioning mining pod and grab some more from a nearby asteroid. It was an incredibly close shave and could have cost me the entire "run", and having it play out successfully was an awesome experience. In another case, one of my crew essentially sacrificed herself to take a ship hostage: she managed to make the last two people surrender, but suffered major wounds that we didn't have a medical bed to treat. I put her on permanent bed rest and free time, and she died in her sleep a day later. There was nothing I could do to save her if I wanted the same outcome, but that actions of that crewmate were essential to the rest of them surviving later on when we needed more than four people to overcome another attack. Everything that happens feels permanent, but it's never forced or scripted, unlike permadeath games or games such as No Man's Sky. Ship-building is modular and most events (such as when ships arrive in the same system and shoot at each other) happen entirely by chance, so there's a sense of uncertainty every time I do something. I've had to repair hull breaches while trying to make an escape from pirates, ambushed enemies in nebulas that shut off their shields, and even vented the atmosphere to get rid of a fire at the cost of killing a prisoner I captured. It's not just a ship with a crew telling a story, it's [b]my ship[/b] and [b]my crew[/b] telling [b]their story[/b], with the same character deaths, twists, and awesome moments that I imagine when I think of an old sci-fi novel or show.