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Interstellar Rift is a sandbox-style RPG set in the vastness of space. Players can explore, trade, and build their own spaceships as they navigate an open world filled with procedurally generated galaxies and alien races. Collaborative gameplay is encouraged, with the option for players to form factions, engage in piracy, or work together on massive capital ships. The ship-building aspect is highly detailed, allowing for customization of every aspect from engine to weaponry.

Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
Interstellar Rift screenshot
+21

69%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,045 reviews
gameplay44 positive mentions
story18 negative mentions

  • The ship building mechanics are highly customizable and enjoyable, allowing players to create unique designs.
  • The game offers a vast universe to explore, with various factions and missions to engage with.
  • The developers are responsive to community feedback and regularly update the game, showing commitment to improvement.
  • The game suffers from performance issues, including lag and crashes, especially in multiplayer.
  • The tutorial is lacking and does not adequately prepare new players for the complexities of the game.
  • There is a low player population, making it difficult to find crews for larger ships and diminishing the multiplayer experience.
  • gameplay
    183 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of the game is characterized by its innovative ship-building mechanics, allowing players to design and customize their vessels extensively, which many find enjoyable and rewarding. However, the overall experience is marred by a lack of depth in gameplay activities, repetitive tasks, and numerous bugs that can disrupt progress, leading to frustration. While the game shines in multiplayer settings and offers a solid foundation for cooperative play, it suffers from a lack of updates and a dwindling player base, which diminishes its long-term appeal.

    • “The mechanics of the game make it fun and interesting to play as you can build your own ship, even the components and upgrades.”
    • “There's a lot of depth to the game mechanics.”
    • “The gameplay is smooth and enjoyable, and mining especially makes for good podcast fodder.”
    • “The shipbuilding is broken and the gameplay is entirely lackluster.”
    • “Game crashes 4 times in 7 minutes of gameplay.”
    • “The core gameplay is too dull and needs a lot of work before I could recommend this title.”
  • story
    175 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its lack of depth and engaging narrative, with many players noting that it primarily revolves around generic missions such as mining, trading, and combat without a cohesive storyline or character development. While there are some missions available, they often feel repetitive and uninspired, leading to a sense of boredom and a lack of purpose in gameplay. Players express a desire for more varied and meaningful quests, as well as the inclusion of NPC interactions and a structured narrative to enhance the overall experience.

    • “The quest and faction system is pretty nice, so there's always something to do while you fly around exploring.”
    • “Overall: I had a lot of fun playing the game. It's a very fun experience hauling butt through space at warp, exploring the galaxy, making profitable trades, and taking missions.”
    • “You can conduct missions for your faction and make massive amounts of profit by running cargo, scouting systems, or eradicating aliens.”
    • “The missions are lacking as well; play for a few hours and, not unlike my experience in pulsar, they become repetitive, boring and a waste of time.”
    • “In addition, there's no campaign mode, no story, no sophisticated quests or even NPCs - this is a purely sandbox game, where you 'make your own fun with what you have'.”
    • “There are missions, sure, where you can either engage in fights with pirates/aliens or do menial jobs like mining and freighting, and they both give you something to work with, be it money or raw materials, but, ultimately, this is a rather dull game in that regard.”
  • graphics
    96 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of Interstellar Rift are generally described as outdated, reminiscent of Xbox 360-era visuals, yet they possess a unique aesthetic that some players find appealing. While the spaceship interiors are praised for their detail and immersive design, the exterior graphics are often criticized for being lackluster. Overall, the game offers decent visuals that can be enjoyable, especially when gameplay mechanics and multiplayer experiences are prioritized over high-end graphics.

    • “The graphics are awesome and the game runs smoothly on my GTX 970; it just needs a tutorial and some instructions instead of pushing you right in the deep end.”
    • “Beautiful graphics and art design.”
    • “The art style is fantastic, very unique, and fitting.”
    • “Interstellar Rift can be best described as Space Engineers meets Star Citizen with Xbox 360 graphics.”
    • “After 4 years of development, this game introduces synthetic limitations, outdated visuals, lags in the middle of empty space, and a couple of pieces of playable content.”
    • “The graphics are clearly low-end, and I should be able to run it smoothly.”
  • grinding
    61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and repetitive, with many players expressing frustration over the extensive time required to gather resources and build ships. While some find enjoyment in the grind, particularly in multiplayer settings, others feel it detracts from the overall experience, making gameplay feel unfulfilling and overly focused on resource acquisition. Despite its potential for fun, the grind often overshadows the game's strengths, leading to a mixed reception regarding its engagement and enjoyment levels.

    • “I hope flying your ship feels like Guardians of the Galaxy, not just grinding away at asteroids. I love how the ship's rooms are functional, and you can 'do stuff' on your ship.”
    • “Horrible after so much grinding to get your tier up and buy a new ship to get to another system just for it to not work.”
    • “The game continues to be unstable, filled with devastating bugs and tedious, unrewarding gameplay.”
    • “Without the ability in solo to turn off life support, I find this feature tedious.”
  • optimization
    48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues, particularly in populated areas and during multiplayer sessions. While some users note that the game runs smoothly after initial setup, others highlight persistent bugs, crashes, and poor server performance that hinder the overall experience. Despite its potential and promising features, the game remains in early access and requires substantial optimization improvements to enhance stability and performance.

    • “The game is well optimized and until you want to fly a behemoth it should be running smooth.”
    • “Isr has managed to avoid one of the main pitfalls of space building games: decorations don't create a huge performance compromise.”
    • “If the game can be optimized and cleaned up a little bit it will definitely be worthy of your time and money.”
    • “The optimization is horrible; framerate issues are more present than ever, even with a high-end rig.”
    • “To make it short, the game is and has been a pile of junk littered with bugs and bad optimization for the past three years.”
    • “Poorly optimized servers allow only a handful of people to play at the same time without creating desyncs and lag; thanks to a few 'content updates', this has gotten worse since I started playing.”
  • stability
    43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is widely criticized, with numerous users reporting severe bugs and glitches that hinder gameplay, including freezing during combat and issues with tutorials. While some players acknowledge the game's potential and enjoy it despite its flaws, many express frustration over the frequent crashes and incomplete experiences, particularly in multiplayer modes. Overall, the game is considered too unstable for a fully enjoyable experience, especially in its current early access state.

    • “Also, it runs great in 4K.”
    • “Looks beautiful and runs great even on lower-grade computers.”
    • “Not very buggy at all; I would rate it 9/10 for stability.”
    • “Buggy garbage, cannot even get through the entire tutorial.”
    • “As soon as I enter combat, the game freezes periodically and it's such a frustrating mess that I end up just quitting in the middle of it.”
    • “I can load up the game just fine, but when I try to join a server or do the tutorial, the game just freezes and crashes.”
  • music
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is widely praised for its superb quality and immersive experience, enhancing the overall gameplay with an excellent soundtrack and sound effects. Players appreciate the diverse music selection and the ability to customize their listening experience while exploring the game world. However, some users feel there could be more music options, particularly classic tracks, to further enrich the atmosphere.

    • “The music is just superb! The soundtrack is quite excellent!”
    • “It is extremely immersive, and the non-pausing menu systems make me feel like I'm actually flying through the void of space, mining asteroids while my jukebox plays classical music in the cockpit upstairs.”
    • “Cool and diverse music selection to play.”
    • “Only negative is there isn't enough music, especially classic.”
    • “Christmas is nice and all that, but I feel like committing unspeakable acts whenever I hear Christmas music outside of December.”
    • “I wish all games would just sell the music for 3 bucks or make it free and call it advertising!”
  • humor
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is a standout feature, with players enjoying the absurdity of glitches, quirky mechanics, and amusing interactions, such as the unexpected antics of small drones and the comical miscommunication about weapon usage. The developers' lighthearted approach and responsiveness to the community further enhance the experience, making it a source of laughter among friends. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with gameplay, creating a fun and engaging atmosphere.

    • “Space was an afterthought, hilariously enough.”
    • “Just bought this game with a few friends and we are having a hilariously great time.”
    • “They are some of the nicest people, they answer every question that's thrown at them and take them in stride with a fair sense of humor.”
  • monetization
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization aspect of the game has drawn mixed reviews, with some players feeling it resembles a cash grab due to insufficient advertising and a lack of player engagement. Many users suggest that the game could benefit from more effective marketing strategies and a more straightforward pricing model, such as selling music or offering it for free as a promotional tool. Overall, there is a consensus that better monetization practices could enhance the game's potential and player base.

    • “Cash grab”
    • “I would really wait for a year to see if this game is not just another EA cash grab; that is what it feels like right now.”
    • “But this game is severely underrated, and the lack of advertisement has let it down in regards to active players.”
  • replayability
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game's replayability is considered limited due to a lack of mission variety, despite its stable gameplay and emphasis on teamwork. While some players find it more enjoyable than similar titles, many recommend waiting for further development before diving in, as the current state offers little incentive for repeated play.

    • “Awesome game, different and much more playable in combat than that other space building game.”
    • “Literally more playable and stable than Star Citizen, so that's a plus.”
    • “Although they incentivize teamwork between crew and fleet members, they don't really vary the amount of missions to run, which lowers the overall replay value of faction mission running.”
    • “A game that has little to no replayability, regardless of 'early access'?”
  • atmosphere
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is visually impressive and engaging, contributing positively to the overall experience; however, the discord community's vibe can be off-putting for newcomers. Additionally, technical issues in the ship construction mode detract from the enjoyment, creating frustration that undermines the immersive experience.

    • “The game looks really good and has a great atmosphere.”
    • “I have personally seen several new players come for help and get chased off by the general atmosphere in the Discord channels.”
    • “'Atmosphere-alike' space with very limited maximum combat speed.”
    • “Ship construction mode isn't even windowed properly, and you end up fighting with your Windows taskbar to desperately click the menu items, which strips all the fun away quicker than a black hole strips an atmosphere from a planet.”
  • emotional
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find "Interstellar Rift" emotionally engaging due to its exhilarating sense of exploration and camaraderie, as they build their own ships and participate in cooperative battles with friends, evoking a strong connection to the cosmos and shared experiences.

Buy Interstellar Rift

26h Median play time
85h Average play time
6-62h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 16 analyzed playthroughs

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