Sol Trader

Sol trader has some issues that’s for sure, yet under is rough visage contains a game of surprising freedom and depth. It’s a strategy simulation that has enough in it to appeal to many different playstyles and thus players. The focus on information and relationships has set this apart from the pack and created something that is well worth playing.

67%Game Brain Score

gameplay, music

story, grinding

66% User Score Based on 65 reviews

Critic Score 70%Based on 1 reviews

Platforms

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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 both critics and players.

Lean on your network of in-game friends and family to trade, mine and explore in this genre-busting space simulation.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

66%

Audience ScoreBased on 65 reviews

gameplay6 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

Innovative and complex social relationship and reputation systems create a deep and dynamic world with thousands of NPCs having their own stories, making the game unique among space sims.
The game offers a fresh take on space simulation focusing on detective work, diplomacy, and information brokering rather than typical space combat and trading.
Developed by a dedicated solo developer who actively supports the game with frequent updates, bug fixes, and engagement with the community; the game is moddable and shows promise for future improvements.

The gameplay can become tedious and repetitive due to slow pacing, frequent waiting times, and shallow conversations with limited variation leading to boredom.
The interface, tutorial, and overall user experience have usability issues and are often confusing, making it difficult for new players to understand game mechanics and goals.
The game suffers from numerous bugs, technical problems, and incomplete features, such as missing functionality in missions, broken cargo or passenger systems, and occasional crashes, detracting from the overall enjoyment.

story
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
76%
12%
The story aspect offers a mixed experience, with some players finding it engaging due to its detailed character interactions and open-ended, RPG-style narrative that allows for personal space epics. However, many criticize the mission system as repetitive, frustrating, and sometimes broken, leading to tedious "fetch quests" and difficulties progressing, which detracts from the overall storytelling. Despite flaws, the game provides a sense of immersion in a sci-fi world, letting players craft their own stories through missions, trading, and social interactions.
- “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
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
59%
14%
The gameplay is centered around space exploration and extensive AI-driven social interactions, offering a unique and ambitious experience. However, it is often criticized for being confusing, repetitive, and slow-paced, with flawed mechanics and presentation that can lead to frustration and boredom. Despite these issues, some players find the gameplay intriguing and appreciate its originality and potential for future development.
- “The conversation systems, reputation and alliance systems, and the way characters, social networks, and backstories are procedurally generated is thoughtful and fascinating.”
- “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, living and moving around the universe making their own friends and enemies - and as a space detective you will probably want to talk to most of them.”
- “The gameplay is very unique and unlike anything I've seen in a space sim before.”
- “The conversation systems, reputation and alliance systems, and the way characters, social networks, and backstories are procedurally generated, are thoughtful and fascinating; but the presentation is so bland and sterile, and the other play mechanics so rudimentary, that I couldn't stick with the game.”
- “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.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is often described as tedious and repetitive, with missions and resource gathering feeling monotonous and sometimes frustrating due to circular or pointless tasks. This can contribute to a sense of boredom and slow progression.
- “Mining is tedious as you need lots of money for good weapons to afford to mine well in the first place, creating a perfect catch-22.”
- “Missions are absurd; they often involve finding people, which could be a fun mechanic, but usually just involve tedious repetitions of the same conversations repeatedly until you realize the person you're looking for is just endlessly circling in space, doing nothing.”
- “It can be tedious at times, which can make the game feel even more boring.”
music
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The music is generally described as pleasant and beautiful, creating a nice ambiance without being intrusive. While sound effects are simple, they complement the music effectively.
- “The music also has a nice ambiance to it.”
- “The sound effects are simple but work well, and the music is very, very, very pretty.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game currently struggles with glitches and bugs that affect playability, leading to a clunky and sometimes frustrating experience. However, some users note that initial bugs may improve over time, potentially making the game more enjoyable.
- “These glitches make the game very clunky and awkward to play. They could be fixed, but it seems the developer is working on a new game, so we might be stuck with this flawed game that is not really worth buying unless you like frustration.”
- “A little bit buggy at the start but it will develop into being extremely fun.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The optimization aspect is highlighted through detailed system info and performance reports, indicating the game runs efficiently across various setups and provides users with transparent data on its performance.
graphics
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers very limited graphics options, only allowing fullscreen or windowed mode, with an automatic adaptive v-sync enabled by default.
- “There are no graphics options except for fullscreen/windowed and there seems to be some type of adaptive v-sync on by default.”