StarDrive 2

55%
Game Brain Score Based on 1,395 reviews
  • gameplay
  • graphics
  • stability
StarDrive 2 Game Cover
Both land and space combat lack punch, but there's a fun if predictable 4X game waiting underneath.
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"StarDrive 2" is a real-time strategy game that lets you build and customize your spaceships with various paint jobs and designs. The Digital Deluxe Edition also includes a developer's journal, digital artbook, and a soundtrack featuring classical music and original scores. As a space empire builder, you will explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate across different galaxies in this 4X strategy game.

  • Mac OS
  • PC
  • Windows
  • Linux
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

55%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,395 reviews
gameplay71 positive mentions
stability139 negative mentions
  • Great ship customization and design mechanics that enhance gameplay.
  • Fun and engaging space battles with a variety of tactical options.
  • Captures the essence of classic 4X games like Master of Orion 2.
  • Numerous bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay.
  • AI is often unbalanced, making it difficult to compete fairly.
  • Lacks depth in diplomacy and victory conditions, leading to repetitive gameplay.
  • gameplay265 mentions

    The gameplay of Stardrive 2 is a mixed bag, drawing heavily from the classic Master of Orion 2 while introducing some fresh mechanics, particularly in shipbuilding and real-time fleet combat. However, many players report significant bugs, balance issues, and a lack of depth in certain mechanics, which can detract from the overall experience. While the game offers engaging strategic elements and customization options, it often feels incomplete and frustrating due to its technical shortcomings and AI behavior.

    • “The gameplay is fun, the races varied, and the artwork is neat.”
    • “Gameplay is quite addictive, and fun, and I recommend it highly to fans of the 4x genre.”
    • “The gameplay is fresh yet familiar.”
    • “These and many other features the original game had are missing... none of them are game-breaking but they all save time and without them the gameplay slows to a crawl... things that should be easy just take so much time.”
    • “Buggy as hell, prone to crashing on bigger maps and in-game mechanics seem to suspend themselves from time to time.”
    • “Gameplay is horrible, a bunch of bugs and not enjoyable.”
  • graphics155 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the art style, ship designs, and overall visual appeal, particularly in space battles and planetary views. However, some players report issues with graphical glitches and performance problems, especially during larger battles. Overall, while the visuals are generally considered good for a 4X game, there are calls for further improvements and bug fixes.

    • “The art style is wonderful, the ship builder is exceptional, and the AI is more than competent (in fact, it's brutal).”
    • “The graphics are beautiful, especially the way space combat looks; the planets are all awesome looking as well.”
    • “Graphics: 8/10 - pretty darn good!”
    • “The graphics are not going to win any awards and the gameplay at the end gets a bit repetitive.”
    • “The game was slow and had several graphics glitches as well as issues with the sound effects.”
    • “The artwork is mostly reused from Stardrive 1 with a few new additions.”
  • stability143 mentions

    The stability of the game has been widely criticized, with numerous users reporting major bugs that lead to crashes, freezes, and various gameplay glitches. Many players describe the experience as "buggy" and "unfinished," with issues affecting everything from AI behavior to user interface functionality. While some users note improvements over time, the overall consensus is that the game remains unstable and often unplayable, particularly during larger battles or complex scenarios.

    • “If he continues in this for the next couple of months, and really gets things as close to bug free as possible before moving on to new content, then he will have achieved true greatness with this game.”
    • “You can tell that the dev cares about the overall state of the game being bug free and he is very active in the forums.”
    • “Runs well, no glitches I could see.”
    • “But we're talking some major bugs that cause crashes/screen flashes/freezes... and many minor ones like the AI simply ignoring your borders to attack any minor race planets in your territory, ships randomly duplicating at end turn, etc.”
    • “The game is actually so buggy that even if you don't own the latest DLC, you ended up getting it anyways, which caused a lot of additional bugs as well!”
    • “It's an unoriginal easy sequel that is buggy with a bad developer.”
  • story100 mentions

    The game's story is a mixed bag, featuring a blend of light-hearted humor, interesting side quests, and a few engaging narrative elements, but it suffers from unfinished plotlines and a lack of depth in the main campaign. While some players appreciate the random events and character-driven missions, others find the overall narrative thin and the ground combat tedious, detracting from the replayability and immersion. Overall, the storytelling is seen as a step up from its predecessor, but many feel it falls short of delivering a cohesive and satisfying experience.

    • “The background story is weird in a very good fun way.”
    • “Excellent plot/event scripting.”
    • “What they did with the random quests and story elements really reminds me of playing Masters of Orion II with an updated UI and real-time space battles.”
    • “The developer abandoned that project stating it was in a playable state, which to some extent it was, but it was not what was promised. Unfinished tech trees and an interesting storyline with the mysterious remnant race, which just ended halfway with no explanation, despite it being clear there was more to the story.”
    • “So... besides a few side quests, whose rewards are incredibly unbalanced to difficulty/reward, that they give you a massive advantage in the game... there really is no more depth or story added to this game past the startup screen.”
    • “I think this game gets some negative reviews or is called 'incomplete' by some people because they expect the game to have some kind of splashy story and an easy 'story mode' setting... and that is not really what this is.”
  • humor49 mentions

    The humor in the game is widely praised for its creativity and clever references to various sci-fi media, providing a light-hearted and enjoyable experience amidst the strategic gameplay. Players appreciate the balance of quirky humor with serious themes, although some feel that the humor can occasionally seem forced or inconsistent. Overall, the game successfully incorporates a fun and charming sense of humor that enhances its appeal, despite some technical issues.

    • “It made me laugh a lot when viewing the various characters and their sayings.”
    • “A lot of the interactions with other races and events are funny, and there are a lot of references to other media, like Stargate, Masters of Orion, Futurama, and even Ghostbusters.”
    • “Stardrive also has a very refreshingly light attitude and a healthy sense of irreverent and sometimes self-deprecating humor, which helps a lot during a long slog through a highly technical strategy game on high difficulty.”
    • “Even on easy, the game is unfunny hard, and more than anything, just frustrating.”
    • “The jokes fall flat and often feel forced, making it hard to enjoy the experience.”
    • “I expected a lot of laughs, but instead, I found myself cringing at the attempts at humor.”
  • music46 mentions

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players praising its thematic and enjoyable qualities that evoke a classic sci-fi atmosphere, while others criticize it for being lackluster or repetitive. Many appreciate the soundtrack's ability to enhance the gameplay experience, although some find it overbearing or poorly balanced with sound effects. Overall, while the music has its fans, it also faces significant criticism, particularly regarding its integration and variety.

    • “The music is my favorite, like 50s space films.”
    • “The music, omg the music, it's amazing! I just can't believe how nice it is; it's like Frank Klepacki did the music for this game, like Star Wars: Empire at War, it's just great!”
    • “Music and sound effects have an excellent science fiction vibe, creating moments of peaceful stellar harmony as you view the vastness of the space map or watch the humorous galactic news feeds.”
    • “The music and sound effects are pretty bad though.”
    • “The music is awful and may as well not exist.”
    • “From random 'sci-fi beeps' on the tactical map and cheesy 'pew-pew' noises in battles, the sound design could have been so much better; honestly can't remember what the music is like other than I turned it off pretty quickly.”
  • grinding45 mentions

    The reviews overwhelmingly describe the grinding aspect of the game as tedious and frustrating, particularly highlighting the micromanagement of colonies and ground combat as major pain points. Players express dissatisfaction with the repetitive nature of tasks, poor interface design, and the lack of automation options, which contribute to a feeling of monotony and hinder enjoyment. Overall, the gameplay is characterized by excessive clicking and management that detracts from the overall experience.

    • “No farming, no research, just production.”
    • “All the clicking involved here is very tedious; it would be nice to set a master template automatically used for all new troops.”
    • “The ground combat is crap and tedious; they should get rid of it or replace it with a different system.”
    • “Overall seems like a lot of tedious work with poor documentation and in-game info, and I am not enjoying myself enough to even put the time in to figure it out.”
    • “Doing ground battles manually is incredibly tedious, having to click for each shot of a weapon, and it just takes an age to finish a ground battle sometimes, especially if both sides have high hit points.”
  • replayability40 mentions

    The game's replayability is a mixed bag, with some players praising its depth, variety of races, and engaging tech tree, leading to high replay value. However, others note limitations due to repetitive gameplay, a lack of diverse strategies, and early-game challenges that can detract from the experience. Overall, while many find it enjoyable and worth revisiting, some players feel it lacks the longevity seen in its predecessor.

    • “I am extremely pleased with its depth (the tech tree is huge!), the various races and flavor text are engaging and often a bit humorous, and I have no doubt it will have a ton of replayability as a result.”
    • “These random events, combined with the fact that each race's AI behaves differently depending on their racial traits, make for a very replayable and divergent game.”
    • “Good atmosphere, and a nice mix of aliens and plenty of customization to make your own distinct faction out of them, and a solid tech tree that manages to create replayability without forcing random chance.”
    • “At the beginning, you will have to learn a lot before you can competently play the game (at least I did), and the replay value isn't terrific, so I imagine many people will get bored and frustrated with this game before they can have any fun with it.”
    • “You'll love the game initially, until you realize that only three races are playable without severe disadvantage on any real difficulty without abusing mechanics, purely from a combat perspective.”
    • “The replayability also suffers when every game ends up in a war with only slightly varied opponents.”
  • optimization39 mentions

    Overall, the optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues, particularly during large battles where frame rates drop dramatically. While some users noted improvements and a lack of crashes, others criticized the game for being poorly optimized and unfinished, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences. The presence of numerous bugs and unbalanced AI further exacerbates the optimization problems, leaving many players disappointed.

    • “Game reliability has increased significantly since Stardrive 1 (I haven't even crashed once yet) and the semi-turn-based system does wonders for both late-game performance and an easier overview of your empire.”
    • “The game runs smoothly, I played without any crashing, so I give that a thumbs up.”
    • “There are a few performance issues with large scale battles, but I hope to see them ironed out in the future.”
    • “There's a ton of bugs and optimization issues that should be fixed but aren't.”
    • “This is simply bad and unoptimized coding, plain and simple.”
    • “The part I have problems with is the optimization because so far the late game battles the frame rate goes through the floor to the point I managed to crash the game.”
  • atmosphere9 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its engaging and well-developed lore, complemented by a visually appealing universe scale map and unique random events that add personality. Players appreciate the depth and flavor it brings, drawing comparisons to classic titles like Master of Orion, while expressing a desire for further expansion of its atmospheric elements. Overall, the atmosphere is considered a standout feature that enhances the gameplay experience.

    • “The atmosphere is engaging and quite complete with a solid and well thought out lore.”
    • “Lots of atmosphere and flavor to the game; the random events (such as one of your arctic planets founding a ski resort) are nice little touches that help give the game its own personality.”
    • “+excellent atmosphere and storytelling which is missing in most games, notably Endless Space, etc.”
    • “I need atmosphere, so I expect that your star empire evolves from Earth, as it is in the real universe.”
    • “But it's hard not to play, because this game has near the atmosphere of Master of Orion or other classics with some added fun, and it's really good to see your civilization colonizing the planets.”
    • “Similar, you should be able to mine asteroids and worlds without an atmosphere before you can colonize them.”
  • monetization5 mentions

    The monetization aspect of the game has received significant criticism, with users labeling it as a cash grab that prioritizes profit over quality. Many players express frustration over aggressive advertising and the push for paid DLC, feeling that the game has been abandoned in favor of quick financial gain. Overall, the sentiment is overwhelmingly negative regarding the game's monetization practices.

    • “After reading several Reddit posts, I realized this isn't his first game to abandon after getting a quick cash grab.”
    • “I gave it one last chance today, but found that it is a cash grab and/or abandoned game.”
    • “Look, I really want to give this a thumbs up, but I can't. It's become a cash grab now. For God's sake, the title screen has an ad that says 'buy, buy, buy, give money.' Why? This game was good, but the DLC... *sigh* just don't buy this game.”
  • emotional4 mentions

    Players express a strong emotional connection to the game, reminiscing about past experiences and the nostalgia it evokes, likening it to beloved titles like Master of Orion 2 and Skyrim. The combination of soothing visuals and an intuitive user interface enhances the emotional engagement, making them eager to revisit the game despite previous frustrations.

    • “This combined with the soothing visuals made me feel I was back playing Master of Orion 2, but with modern enhancements, making for a smooth user interface experience with excellent tooltips popping up revealing information on every single big and little thing happening on the screen.”
    • “Sd2 is a game that I'm actually eager to find an opportunity to play, and I can't remember a game that made me feel that way since Skyrim.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

69% average critic score

Buy StarDrive 2

Play time

21hMedian play time
451hAverage play time
5-212hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 20 analyzed playthroughs

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