Into the Stars

38%
Game Brain Score Based on 242 reviews
  • graphics
  • gameplay
  • story
Into the Stars Game Cover
A bland game from the get go, Into the Stars has high production values and a great soundtrack, but it's mired in mediocrity thanks to its gameplay.
Starting at $1.25Buy now
Get on Steam

In "Into the Stars," you are the captain of a massive generation ship, fleeing from an alien race while trying to find a new home for humanity. Manage resources, build and upgrade your ship, and make critical decisions that affect the lives of your crew and the future of the human race. Navigate procedurally generated galaxies, encountering unique events and challenges in each playthrough. Can you lead your crew to safety and secure a new home for humanity?

  • PC
  • Windows
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

38%
Audience ScoreBased on 242 reviews
graphics35 positive mentions
stability14 negative mentions
  • The game has beautiful graphics and a strong atmosphere, making space exploration feel immersive.
  • The resource management and crew assignment mechanics add depth and challenge to the gameplay.
  • The game offers a unique blend of FTL-like mechanics with a captain's chair experience, allowing players to feel in control of their ship and crew.
  • The game suffers from frequent crashes and bugs, making it frustrating to play.
  • Combat mechanics are clunky and often feel unfair, with enemies rarely missing their shots while players struggle to hit.
  • The lack of a tutorial and clear instructions makes it difficult for new players to understand the game mechanics and strategies.
  • graphics55 mentions

    The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beauty and quality, with many reviewers noting that they enhance the overall experience. However, some players find the visuals repetitive or marred by technical issues, such as glitches and poor optimization for larger screens. Overall, while the graphics are a strong point, they are often overshadowed by gameplay and stability concerns.

    • “The visuals are top notch, which helps a lot.”
    • “The graphics are fantastic (I like the sperm-like things that fly around; I have never seen that before but it's much better than space debris).”
    • “The graphics and sense of atmosphere are excellent.”
    • “The only things I dislike about the game are its lack of depth and its visual style; some may like it, but I find it a hideous mess that's aesthetically similar to the worst of bargain-bin sci-fi crap--lots of glowing neon, random hexes getting in the way of everything, plastic-looking textures, hideous ship design, etc.”
    • “Yeah... it's a poor man's FTL with better graphics.”
    • “This game does everything except graphics wrong.”
  • gameplay51 mentions

    The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with players appreciating the intuitive controls and engaging mechanics but criticizing the lack of depth and repetitive nature of the experience. Many users noted significant glitches and bugs that detract from the overall enjoyment, while some found the combat mechanics flawed and poorly explained. Overall, while the game offers a promising setting and potential for fun, it currently suffers from issues that hinder its long-term appeal.

    • “As far as gameplay itself, you get to explore in full 3-dimensional space, something even Rebel Galaxy couldn't do, much as I adore that game.”
    • “Control is easy to learn, gameplay mechanics are intuitive, and the UI is easily navigated.”
    • “The gameplay generates meaningful stories through its mechanics, the type that make you take to the forums and share, be it for a win or a loss.”
    • “Also, the game has many glitches that vary even more than the gameplay itself (e.g. not starting, language button sticking on the screen sometimes, wrong crew pictures shown on message screens, not able to quit the game); for me, it is a waste of money.”
    • “Unfortunately, the game lacks any real depth with tedious mechanics that can quickly outstay their welcome after the first few runs.”
    • “The menu UI tends to bug out a lot, either freezing for minutes or just taking too long to load, so pausing the gameplay is a must when menu hopping. During combat, you can still be hit when paused, which is very frustrating.”
  • story49 mentions

    The story in the game is criticized for its lack of depth and engagement, with many players feeling that it fails to provide meaningful motivation or narrative progression. While some appreciate the premise of being the last remnants of humanity, the execution is often described as shallow, with away missions feeling like random dice rolls rather than impactful choices. Overall, players express a desire for a more developed storyline and greater consequences for their decisions.

    • “Faster than light is packed with story and humor, has tons of events, several secret event chains, and has meaningful decisions as early as your first jump.”
    • “The feeling to be in a free space and you command a ship as you wish, facing danger, quests, and taking hard decisions!”
    • “Interesting storyline, I mean come on, you're the last of humanity.”
    • “The story is almost non-existent, the plot absent other than a few sentences of introduction at the very beginning.”
    • “There's no depth to the story which lacks the motivation to continue the game.”
    • “Quick review: a good game, brilliant in a space survival setting... however, crashes way too often to get anywhere in the story.”
  • music15 mentions

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its beautiful soundtrack and immersive quality, particularly in enhancing the atmosphere. However, some players find it to be bland or over the top, and comparisons to more renowned works by composers like Jack Wall highlight a perceived lack of depth. Overall, while the music contributes positively to the experience, there are suggestions for improvement.

    • “The sound effects are excellent, including the music which gives a grand feel without becoming annoying.”
    • “Loved the graphics, soundtrack, environment.”
    • “The visuals are nice and so is the soundtrack, especially for an indie game!”
    • “The music is a bit bland; please keep up the good work, I want to see this game reach its full potential.”
    • “Although the soundtrack is beautiful, there are other things to be added that are more of a priority.”
    • “The soundtrack is a little over the top.”
  • stability14 mentions

    The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting frequent freezes, crashes, and a variety of glitches that disrupt gameplay. Many players express frustration over the game's poor optimization and incomplete features, leading to a frustrating experience that detracts from its otherwise appealing concept and graphics. Overall, the game is deemed unplayable by some, with stability issues significantly impacting enjoyment.

    • “Also, the game has many glitches that vary even more than the gameplay itself (e.g. not starting, language button sticking on the screen sometimes, wrong crew pictures shown on message screens, not able to quit the game). For me, it is a waste of money.”
    • “The concept and graphics are absolutely lovely, and the minutes I get to play it I really like... until the game gets riddled with issues and freezes and crashes. Having to start over and over... saving doesn't help.”
    • “At present, the game is buggy, poorly optimized, and missing a lot of features (hey, you've got 4000 resources to divide, click in 1 item increments or hold the key down and overshoot by a few thousand).”
  • atmosphere11 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its immersive and thematic presentation, combining high-quality graphics and sound to create a captivating space environment. Players appreciate the blend of excitement, strategic planning, and the sense of danger reminiscent of classic sci-fi titles, contributing to a thrilling and engaging experience. Overall, the atmosphere is described as rich and compelling, enhancing both exploration and gameplay challenges.

    • “At its core, an attempt to produce a higher fidelity FTL, it impressively succeeds in terms of high fidelity, producing a nicely presented environment, thematic controls, and a gripping atmosphere.”
    • “But beyond that, the game has a fantastic atmosphere where you truly need to watch for many things to survive, and you really have to consider what your next step should be.”
    • “The graphics and sense of atmosphere are excellent.”
    • “What I expected, what I believe I was promised, was a little bit of excitement and planning of FTL, a little bit of unexpectedness of a roguelike, a little bit of atmosphere of Mass Effect because of the style and of course Jack Wall, and a lot of space exploration, the wonder, the excitement, learning, danger, the new stuff that science fiction brings, what's best in Star Trek, Mass Effect, or Star Control, or the even older classics like Starflight.”
    • “It's still early, but it already grants a fair difficulty level, a thrilling atmosphere, challenging gameplay, and decisions with real consequences.”
    • “The bridge is a real throwback to Battlestar, Halo 4, and Mass Effect regarding aesthetics and atmosphere.”
  • replayability8 mentions

    Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players appreciate the high replay value due to random elements and increased difficulty levels, others find the limited map size and lack of significant randomization in certain aspects to diminish its long-term appeal. Many agree that the game has improved in replayability since its alpha version, offering various ways to play, but some still feel it may not warrant extensive revisits.

    • “300% replayability, because except for the map, every other thing is random!”
    • “Replayability has been improved a lot since alpha, so you will be looking at a lot of different runs.”
    • “Whoever says this game is short... is right, but it can also be played in a plethora of ways, adding replayability.”
    • “- With a relatively small map, and no apparent randomization of stars and planets, the replay value is good, but not great.”
    • “Not a lot of replayability right now.”
    • “If someone says that the game has no replay value, they have played it way too little.”
  • grinding4 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game initially engaging, but it quickly becomes repetitive and tedious due to a lack of depth in mechanics. While minor glitches occur, they are not game-breaking but contribute to the overall sense of tedium experienced during repeated battles.

    • “Battles are entertaining at first, but do become a little tedious as you repeat them over and over.”
    • “Unfortunately, the game lacks any real depth with tedious mechanics that can quickly outstay their welcome after the first few runs.”
    • “That gets tedious rather quickly.”
  • optimization3 mentions

    The game suffers from significant optimization issues, with users reporting poor performance and stability, even on high-end hardware. Many players experienced severe stuttering and low graphical fidelity, likening its performance to that of mid-1990s games, making it largely unplayable at standard resolutions.

    • “Worth a try FTL 3D clone, but has performance and stability issues.”
    • “Not acceptable performance; it looked like a game from the mid-1990s on these settings and ran awful to boot.”
    • “First of all, I have 2 EVGA GTX 670s in SLI, and the game was stuttering to the point of being unplayable at 1080 resolution, even on the lowest settings.”
  • humor2 mentions

    The humor in the game is noted for its engaging and clever writing, particularly in "Faster Than Light," which features a wealth of events and secret chains that enhance the comedic experience. However, there are also criticisms regarding the developers' perceived abandonment of the project after funding, which adds a layer of irony to the overall reception.

    • “Faster Than Light is packed with story and humor, has tons of events, several secret event chains, and has meaningful decisions as early as your first jump.”
  • character development1 mentions

    Character development is notably lacking, with players expressing disappointment in the depth and growth of the characters throughout the game.

    • “Character development is missing in action.”
    • “The characters feel one-dimensional and lack meaningful growth.”
    • “There is little to no progression in character arcs throughout the game.”
  • emotional1 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is criticized for its lack of engagement, with users finding the story to be boring and uninspiring.

    • “The story was incredibly boring and failed to evoke any emotional response.”
    • “I found the narrative to be dull, lacking the depth needed to connect with the characters.”
    • “The emotional aspects of the game were overshadowed by a tedious plot.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

56% average critic score

Buy Into the Stars

Play time

2hMedian play time
3hAverage play time
2-5hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 5 analyzed playthroughs

Videos

Similar Games