Sol Trader

About

Sol Trader is a single player role playing game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Chris Parsons and was released on June 5, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

In Sol Trader, players engage in a procedurally generated space trade simulation, forging relationships and building reputations across multiple generations. Version 1.4 offers UI improvements, with notifications replacing pop-ups for a smoother experience, and introducing the swift Puma ship for tactical gameplay. The revamped tutorial and character-focused events enrich the immersive universe, making it a must-play for space trading enthusiasts.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

64%

Audience ScoreBased on 47 reviews

music1 positive mentions

stability3 negative mentions

The game offers a unique focus on character relationships and social interactions, making it feel like a dynamic living universe.
The procedural generation of characters and their backstories is impressive, providing a rich narrative experience.
The developer is very responsive to feedback and actively works on updates, showing commitment to improving the game.

Gameplay can become tedious due to long waiting times for NPCs and lack of engaging content, leading to repetitive experiences.
The interface and mechanics can be confusing, making it difficult for players to navigate quests and interactions effectively.
Numerous bugs and glitches can disrupt gameplay, including issues with cargo management and mission progression.

story
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
74%
13%
The game's story is largely driven by player interactions and mission-based gameplay, with a focus on building relationships and completing various tasks, often leading to repetitive and mundane experiences. While some players appreciate the potential for unique narratives and character development, many express frustration with the mission system's flaws and the lack of engaging overarching storylines. Overall, the narrative experience feels inconsistent, with a mix of exploration and trading overshadowed by tedious fetch quests and communication challenges.
- “While the UI can be confusing at times and definitely needs some work, the core conversation minigame and the impressive detailed story the game generates for each and every character weaves something that's capable of generating all sorts of space epics with you at the center.”
- “It's almost like an open-generated create-your-own-story novel, with aspects of RPG, space sim, and economics thrown in.”
- “I keep coming back to the game and my story in it because the game, for me, scratches the itch of actually being a person within a sci-fi world.”
- “There's no interesting story.”
- “To my disappointment, the game ended up being all about talking to people, getting them to trust and like you, so they ask you to do all sorts of missions for them, usually going back and forth between places or getting information about people they know.”
- “No matter where you are, the main gameplay mechanic is choosing an AI to talk to, so you can impress it in order to complete one of many boring types of missions.”
gameplay
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
62%
19%
The gameplay is characterized by a complex but poorly communicated system that combines procedural generation with social interactions, leading to a mix of intriguing concepts and frustrating execution. Players often find the mechanics shallow and repetitive, with a heavy reliance on tedious conversations and waiting, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite its flaws, some players express a curiosity about future developments and a strange allure to the gameplay, indicating potential for improvement.
- “But really the main gameplay loop here is flying around and talking to people - there are 1000 people in the universe and they're all somewhat simulated, they live and move around the universe and make their own friends and enemies - and as a space detective you will probably want to talk to most of them.”
- “I am excited to see what else Chris will add in over time and how the gameplay will develop.”
- “Gameplay is kinda confusing, but fun once you get it down and figure out what to do.”
- “The game is challenging to understand, as it is hard to communicate the mechanics of the game properly.”
- “The results, however, are awkward and flawed gameplay that causes difficulty in completing missions or achieving goals.”
- “The gameplay is fairly shallow and repetitive, and there's a lot of waiting around either in space travel or waiting for time to pass in areas where you can't sleep.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is criticized for being plagued by glitches that create a clunky and frustrating experience, leading some users to feel that it is not worth purchasing, especially with the developer seemingly focused on new projects rather than fixing these issues.
- “The glitches make the game very clunky and awkward to play. I hope they will be fixed, but it seems the developer is off to make a new game, so I guess we are stuck with this flawed game that is not really worth buying, unless you enjoy frustration.”
- “The frequent crashes and bugs ruin the overall experience. It's frustrating to invest time in a game that feels so unstable.”
- “I encountered numerous issues with stability, including random freezes and lag spikes that made gameplay nearly impossible.”
graphics
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers limited graphics options, allowing only fullscreen or windowed modes, and features a default adaptive v-sync setting.
- “There are no graphics options except for fullscreen/windowed, and there seems to be some type of adaptive v-sync on by default.”
- “The graphics look outdated and lack detail, making the game feel less immersive.”
- “Textures are low resolution, and the overall visual quality is disappointing compared to modern standards.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The music in the game is described as unobtrusive yet very pretty, complementing the overall aesthetic. While the sound effects are simple, they effectively enhance the experience.
- “The sound effects are simple but work well, and the music is very, very, very pretty.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be frustrating and tedious, as it often requires significant resources to progress, creating a catch-22 situation. Missions tend to involve repetitive tasks, such as endlessly searching for characters that exhibit little variation, leading to a monotonous gameplay experience.
- “Mining is tedious as you need a lot of money for good weapons to afford to mine effectively in the first place; it's a perfect catch-22.”
- “Missions are absurd; they often involve finding people, which could be a fun mechanic, but usually just leads to tedious repetitions of the same conversations 1,000 times until you realize the person you're looking for is just endlessly circling in space, doing nothing.”