DarkOrbit Reloaded

About

DarkOrbit Reloaded is a single player and multiplayer role playing game. It was developed by Bigpoint GmbH and was released on December 3, 2025. It received negative reviews from players.

Humanity’s reckless use of Jump Gates triggered a brutal alien retaliation that almost annihilated Earth. In the aftermath, three rival conglomerates emerged: Earth Industries Corporation (EIC), Mars Mining Operations (MMO), and Venus Resources Unlimited (VRU). For generations, their strife has cloaked the stars in a never-ending fog of war! Dark Orbit is a long-running free-to-play space MMO…

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19%

Audience ScoreBased on 93 reviews

music2 positive mentions

grinding16 negative mentions

The core gameplay, especially the PvP mechanics and faction system, remains well-designed and engaging for fans of classic grind MMOs.
The game has a strong nostalgic value and a loyal community from its earlier years.
The new Unity client supports high frame rates which benefits players with high refresh rate monitors.

The game is heavily pay-to-win with extremely expensive in-game items giving paying players overwhelming advantages.
Bots, cheating, and 'train' exploits are rampant, with insufficient developer action against them, severely impacting fair gameplay.
The client and servers are unstable with frequent crashes, bugs, lag, and poor UI scaling, making the game frustrating to play especially on modern systems.

grinding
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is excessively time-consuming and punishing, with legitimate players struggling to keep up due to pervasive bots and pay-to-win mechanics that heavily favor automated farming and expensive purchases. The heavy grind, combined with unstable gameplay and poor moderation, significantly diminishes player enjoyment and makes progression frustrating or nearly impossible through normal play.
- “Bots and trains dominate the game, with very grindy RNG modules and pay-to-win mechanics making progress nearly impossible without paying. It takes hundreds of hours of repetitive tasks like killing NPCs or collecting resources, making the current state unplayable for those trying to advance.”
- “As new gear became stronger and more essential, the amount of grinding required to stay competitive grew to the point where getting fully equipped became nearly unachievable through normal play.”
- “Automated bots farm resources 24/7, destroying any sense of fair competition or economy balance and leaving legitimate players frustrated and discouraged.”
gameplay
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
62%
19%
Gameplay suffers from frequent bugs, outdated and paywalled content, and pervasive pay-to-win mechanics that hinder fair progression. Despite a promising PvP system, the experience is marred by bot abuse, grind-heavy tasks, unstable servers, and exploitative gambling elements, making the game frustrating and unbalanced overall.
- “+ the gameplay (PvP) is just perfect (not the actual meta, just the idea of emps, smartbombs, freezing rockets formations etc. well made system).”
- “77 hours of pure gameplay, only daily quests, pet on the go and 1, max 3 tasks.”
- “About 1 - 1.5 hours of gameplay per day.”
- “Horrible game management, game barely works. Every week some part of the gameplay is bugged. 80% of the content is outdated and the 20% that is new is behind a very expensive paywall with greedy prices for rewards that are not worth it. You cannot partake in farming important NPCs because of the bot/train users.”
- “Overall, the game has shifted away from being a skill-based MMO and has become a grindy, pay-to-win, poorly moderated game filled with bots, gambling mechanics, and unstable servers.”
- “Bots and zombies are not the issue, the trains are. There are really pay-to-win mechanics and they are not cheap at all. The PvP mechanics could be solid if they had stopped after releasing some content, but they added really grindy RNG modules for ships which can be broken. If you don't pay, you won't get anywhere. It takes hundreds of hours of repetitive tasks for non-paying or bot users. The game's current state is unplayable once you try to progress.”
story
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The game lacks a meaningful or engaging story, with missions feeling repetitive and grind-heavy. Server issues and constant ads further detract from the overall experience, making progression frustrating and uninspiring.
- “I was finally getting full elite and starting to do some more advanced missions, missions on map 4-5 where you have to kill uber enemies, only to realize that the map on map 4-5 is completely lagged on the global servers.”
- “Right now, it's literally unplayable, and I can't progress any further in the game because the missions you have to do on these maps are the most important.”
- “Quests are way too long, for example, requiring 17,000 aliens or 10,000 player kills, making progression feel very grind-heavy.”
- “There is essentially no story in this game, not even in new content or time-limited events.”
- “No story.”
- “Boring missions.”
monetization
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
64%
Monetization in the game is heavily criticized for being aggressive and predatory, with frequent, intrusive microtransaction pop-ups and exorbitant in-game purchase prices that create a pay-to-win environment. Players also highlight rampant cheating and botting that undermines fairness, poor developer response, and a lack of meaningful content updates, making the monetization feel like a frustrating cash grab rather than a balanced system.
- “Once you open the game you are greeted with 20 popups, 10 of which are related to microtransactions, with some packs costing as much as 300€—what a way to start the game!”
- “One of the worst monetizations I have ever seen lately; the game became a pain after the Odysseus laser update.”
- “Rework the monetization system: we understand you need to make money and we do pay for lots of stuff, but as of now, we have no chance against players who can spend 2000 euros on some lasers.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
60%
The game, being nearly 20 years old, shows limited optimization efforts, with ongoing additions sometimes detracting from performance. While some users report smooth gameplay and minimal lag, others highlight performance issues and excessive resource demands, especially for high-level achievements. Overall, optimization remains a mixed and evolving aspect of the game.
- “Played 110+ hours since the Steam release, game has been working perfectly so far with no issues with performance or lag. The few crashes I experienced were when tabbing out too much.”
- “Around 2015, I stopped playing not only because of performance issues, but because of something even worse: bots.”
- “The game is almost 20 years old, so it will likely never be optimized.”
- “The game is almost 20 years old, so it is clear it will never be optimized.”
- “A lot of useless content instead of focusing on game optimization, and they are adding even more!”
- “Around 2015, I stopped playing, not only because of performance issues, but also due to bots.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent freezing when multiple ships appear and server crashes with many players on the map. Long-standing bugs and glitches remain unresolved, indicating poor ongoing support and maintenance.
- “Doesn't matter what PC you have, after 4 ships appear on your screen, it freezes, and if there are more than 20 people on the same map as you, it's going to crash the map server.”
- “The Steam version uses the same buggy Unity client that's been around for a while and still contains the same bugs it has had for years.”
- “Money-hungry publishers have for years ignored the players and the game itself, which is riddled with bugs and glitches that are exploited without punishment or fixes.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music in the game is enjoyable and adds to the overall vibe, enhancing the immersive experience, especially during relaxed PvE gameplay and grinding.
- “My honest recommendation is to start and play slowly on a PvE server, enjoy the game, enjoy the grind, and the smaller ships with some music in the background. It's a vibe and it's fun.”
- “Music is nice, too.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is widely praised for being strong and unique, contributing to an engaging and enjoyable early experience that resonates well with a loyal community.
- “The core idea is brilliant, the atmosphere is strong, and the early experience is still genuinely fun.”
- “It had a loyal community and a unique atmosphere.”
graphics
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Despite its age, the game's graphics are surprisingly well-designed and visually appealing.
- “As an old game, the graphics are quite nice to my surprise.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in these reviews is largely unintentional and sarcastic, highlighting the game's frustrating grind and poor handling of hackers and bots. Players find it ironically amusing that the developer’s bot for premium users is so ineffective, and that banning bots seems laughably ineffective. Overall, the humor stems from frustration and disbelief at the developers' perceived greed and negligence.