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About Approximately Up

Approximately Up is a single player and multiplayer open world simulation game. It was developed by Approximately Games and was released on August 6, 2026. It received very positive reviews from players.

Approximately Up is your best chance to experience spaceflight in whatever you and your crew (singleplayer or co-op multiplayer with up to 4 players) can bolt together! Build epic spaceships or barely flying trashcans — it’s entirely up to you. Control your creation from a first-person view right from the deck of your ship. Complete challenging objectives, hunt achievements, face the dangers of sp…

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Looking for games like Approximately Up? Here are top open world simulation recommendations, selected from player-similarity data — start with Main Assembly, Mars First Logistics or Nimbatus: The Space Drone Constructor.

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Reviews

95%Audience ScoreBased on 515 reviews
story17 positive mentions
grinding9 negative mentions

  • Deep and rewarding spaceship building and engineering system with complex wiring and logic components allowing for both simple and highly automated designs.
  • Engaging mission-based progression that provides diverse challenges, requiring thoughtful ship design to succeed, enhancing long-term gameplay appeal.
  • Excellent cooperative multiplayer experience enabling teamwork in building and flying ships, adding humor and camaraderie to gameplay.
  • Building controls can be clunky and unintuitive, especially with first-person editing, lack of mirroring, undo, and no inversion of parts, making complex constructions tedious.
  • Long and sometimes boring space travel between planets with no time acceleration or meaningful activities on board, which reduces pacing and engagement during journeys.
  • Steep learning curve with limited tutorials and documentation; game does not hold player's hand, which may be frustrating for newcomers or casual players.
  • story

    102 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    17% positive mentions, 80% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions

    The game's story revolves around a mission-based progression system where players design and build ships to complete increasingly challenging tasks across multiple planets, unlocking new components and complexity as they advance. While there is no traditional narrative or dialogue-driven story, the missions provide structured objectives that encourage creativity, problem-solving, and exploration. Some find the mission pacing and lack of in-mission modifications tedious, but overall the story mode offers a satisfying, rewarding loop of engineering and mission accomplishment.

    • “Currently a few missions into the story mode and I'm really enjoying the mission-based progression system.”
    • “Missions provide reasons to build, construction provides solutions to those missions, rewards expand engineering possibilities, and planetary exploration continually introduces new challenges for those creations.”
    • “The gameplay loop is: build ship with available parts, fly it to complete missions to unlock new, more, and better parts to build new ships to do more difficult missions.”
    • “If there are only 15 planets, that doesn't sound like a lot of missions.”
    • “Every mission takes quite a while, even in the beginning. Lots of preparation is needed, or you may need to restart a mission after hours of flying because of one small mistake.”
    • “Mission needs a bit of polishing, like that one I spent hours on flying a medium thruster to Unda Prime only for the mission to not complete.”
  • gameplay

    45 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    27% positive mentions, 66% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions

    The gameplay offers a deep, engaging loop centered on shipbuilding, flying, and completing varied missions, with rewarding mechanics that emphasize creativity and engineering. While complex systems and logic may have a learning curve, the intuitive yet detailed building mechanics make the experience approachable and fun, especially for fans of vehicle construction games. Multiplayer and cooperative play further enhance its longevity, appealing to players who enjoy exploration and intricate design challenges.

    • “Together with achievements, Steam Cloud functionality, online cooperative play, and the extensive construction mechanics, it gives the project room to remain interesting beyond simply reaching every destination.”
    • “I love the variety of missions (blowing up rocks, picking up cargo, and much more) as well as the unique building mechanics. I could spend hours engrossed in building ships and logic systems.”
    • “The ship building mechanics are immensely complex, so it's not just a simple game, it's an engineering simulation. I spent around 3 hours just understanding how my own ship is built and what parts are for, and that's just the simple ones—there are way more possibilities.”
    • “You will soon realise that a majority of gameplay involves making your ship better, but you are limited by the not so complex systems, meaning you will get bored by the engineering systems in 2 hours.”
    • “Game was fun but I don't have the want or time to try and learn all 12,000,000 mechanics.”
    • “Far from a goofy shipbuilding game with your friends, this is the missions/world style of Kerbal (without orbital mechanics, and with what feels like wonky physics within the atmosphere) with the wiring and difficulty level of Stationeers.”
  • atmosphere

    17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    29% positive mentions, 53% neutral mentions, 18% negative mentions

    The game's atmosphere is visually diverse and incorporates realistic elements like gravity, atmospheric density, and aerodynamics, adding depth to exploration and flight mechanics. However, some users find the atmospheric physics basic or inconsistent, with occasional abrupt changes affecting flight dynamics. The overall ambiance is mixed, with criticism of repetitive music not fitting the mood, though environmental variety and atmospheric challenges are generally appreciated.

    • “These locations feature variations in gravity, atmosphere, temperature, scale, appearance, and environmental conditions.”
    • “Some worlds contain extensive oceans, while others are obscured beneath enormous atmospheric formations.”
    • “It has enough realism for ships to operate the way you'd expect: mass, center of mass, gravity, temperature, wind/aerodynamics, atmospheric density, velocity, acceleration, distance, yaw, pitch, roll, fuel/battery levels, power limits in cables, zero-visibility environments, buoyancy, package storage, and much more... there's way more depth than you'd expect.”
    • “The flight dynamics, atmosphere, and planets are pretty much as basic as it gets.”
    • “Far from a goofy shipbuilding game with your friends, this is the missions/world style of Kerbal (without orbital mechanics, and with what feels like wonky physics within the atmosphere) with the wiring and difficulty level of Stationeers.”
    • “Especially when you hit the atmosphere too fast and send your unseated crewmember flying through a crack in the windshield.”
  • humor

    13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor in the game is largely emergent and situational, arising organically from chaotic gameplay moments, crashes, and cooperative mishaps rather than scripted comedy. It is especially effective and hilarious when playing with friends, creating unintentional funny scenarios that add charm to the experience. While not outright hilarious for everyone, the blend of technical experimentation and unpredictable outcomes provides a distinct, often amusing tone.

    • “This gives cooperative play an organic source of humor rather than relying entirely on scripted comedy.”
    • “The combination of technical experimentation and deliberately chaotic humor gives it a distinct identity.”
    • “Extremely good game, and if you play with friends, it's unexpectedly very funny when you're all messing with the pilot and crashing, spinning the ship until half of it disintegrates, and opening the door from the safety of a chair and sucking everyone out into space.”
  • graphics

    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    36% positive mentions, 37% neutral mentions, 27% negative mentions

    The game features charming, low-poly graphics that are visually unique and aesthetically pleasing without demanding high performance, drawing favorable comparisons to titles like Space Engineers and Human Fall Flat. While the visuals are simple and not overly attention-grabbing, they effectively complement the gameplay and contribute to a stable, enjoyable experience. Overall, the graphics are praised for their distinct style and efficiency, especially impressive given the game's single-developer origin.

    • “Overall, great game with charming low-poly graphics that don't feel cheap.”
    • “Imagine Space Engineers, but way more fun, more simple while still getting more freedom, and nice low-poly graphics.”
    • “The graphics are really unique and aside from a few multiplayer connectivity issues (that just require host to reset game) the game is perfectly stable.”
    • “It lacks on the graphics side, but is pulling off fully destructible ships like Space Engineers and 12 planets while keeping performance decent without the experience or engine that Space Engineers has.”
    • “Graphics remind me of Human Fall Flat.”
    • “From mass, to aerodynamics and why not aesthetic.”
  • grinding

    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 18% neutral mentions, 82% negative mentions

    Grinding in this game is often considered tedious, especially when managing repetitive tasks like wiring and deleting cables, as well as during interplanetary travel. However, some users appreciate the visual wiring and programming mechanics that reduce grind compared to similar games, rewarding clever building and upgrades. Overall, grinding can be a significant time sink and source of frustration for many players.

    • “If you need 10 data lines, you have to run 10 data lines, and it's tedious as hell.”
    • “Deleting wires is about 3 times as tedious, because you can't drag to delete a long stretch.”
    • “The game is fun, but it is way too tedious to go back after a mission and change stuff around.”
  • optimization

    9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    22% positive mentions, 45% neutral mentions, 33% negative mentions

    The game demonstrates impressive optimization by maintaining good performance and stability even with fully destructible ships and multiple planets, running smoothly on older hardware. Advanced systems like power, propulsion, and circuitry allow for efficient operation and complex automation without compromising performance. Users generally haven't encountered performance issues, highlighting effective optimization improvements over earlier versions.

    • “Unlock more parts to build better ships to do harder pickups, travel to unknown bodies in space, etc. This game is also really optimized and runs on my 4 year old laptop really well.”
    • “It lacks on the graphics side, but is pulling off fully destructible ships like Space Engineers and 12 planets while keeping the performance decent without the experience or engine that Space Engineers has.”
    • “Congrats to the dev on the game's optimization at this scale.”
    • “Unlock more parts to build better ships to do harder pickups, travel to unknown bodies in space, etc. This game is also really optimized and runs on my 4-year-old laptop really well.”
    • “Performance is also a lot better compared to the demo.”
  • music

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    60% positive mentions, 20% neutral mentions, 20% negative mentions

    The music receives mixed feedback, with some praising its dynamic and memorable soundtrack likened to Hans Zimmer's work, while others find it repetitive and mismatched with the game's atmosphere, preferring more ambient sounds. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong and standout aspect by many players.

    • “The soundtrack is a banger and could give Hans Zimmer a run for his money.”
    • “The soundtrack is phenomenal as well!”
    • “It's Mars logistics without the fun, color, interesting challenges, and bangin' soundtrack?”
    • “The music is super repetitive and, in my opinion, does not match the game feel. I would have preferred some atmospheric or ambient sounds instead of the melodramatic, interstellar-sounding piano melody.”
  • stability

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    25% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 75% negative mentions

    The game demonstrates strong stability with very few bugs or glitches, reflecting the developer's careful attention to quality. While the detailed ship construction and system troubleshooting add complexity, the game runs smoothly and reliably throughout these processes.

    • “Seriously, routing individual cables, troubleshooting, figuring out how things work, or don't!”
    • “Players primarily interested in immediate spaceflight may find the detailed construction process demanding, especially when troubleshooting electrical systems, propulsion, controls, and other interconnected equipment.”
  • emotional

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game evokes a positive and uplifting emotional experience, making players feel inspired and connected to a wholesome, supportive community.

    • “Community seems quite wholesome and nice.”
    • “I didn't grow up to become an astronaut, however this made me feel like one.”
  • monetization

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game’s monetization is praised for offering extensive free content and a low-priced full release without aggressive advertising or paywalls, reflecting the developers' thoughtful approach.

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Play Times

35h Median play time
125h Average play time
8-200h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 9 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Approximately Up is a open world simulation game. Common tags for Approximately Up include first-person, futuristic, 3D, indie, exploration and others.

Approximately Up is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 125 hours playing Approximately Up.

Approximately Up was released on August 6, 2026.

Approximately Up was developed by Approximately Games.

Approximately Up has received very positive reviews from players. Most players liked Approximately Up for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Approximately Up is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Main Assembly, Mars First Logistics, Nimbatus: The Space Drone Constructor, Archean, Eden Crafters and others.