Stationeers

85%
Game Brain Score Based on 3,724 reviews
  • gameplay
  • atmosphere
  • graphics
Stationeers Game Cover
Starting at $34.99Buy now
Get on Steam Get on itch.io Store

Stationeers puts you in control of the construction and management of a space station either by yourself in single-player, or online with your friends. Complex systems around atmospherics, power generation, medical, agriculture, food, and gravity require your thought and management at all times.

  • PC
  • Windows
  • Linux
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

85%
Audience ScoreBased on 3,724 reviews
gameplay137 positive mentions
grinding147 negative mentions
  • Stationeers offers a unique and complex survival experience that challenges players to manage resources, atmospherics, and automation.
  • The game has a steep learning curve, but mastering its mechanics provides a rewarding sense of accomplishment.
  • The developers are actively engaged with the community, providing regular updates and improvements to the game.
  • The user interface and inventory management system are cumbersome and unintuitive, making basic tasks tedious.
  • Many players have reported bugs, particularly in multiplayer mode, which can disrupt gameplay and lead to frustration.
  • The tutorials are often broken or outdated, leaving new players without adequate guidance on how to play the game.
  • gameplay629 mentions

    The gameplay of Stationeers is characterized by its intricate mechanics and steep learning curve, appealing primarily to players who enjoy complex simulation and engineering challenges. While the game offers a rich environment for base-building and resource management, many players find the controls clunky and the tutorials lacking, leading to frustration, especially for newcomers. Despite these issues, the depth of gameplay and continuous updates from developers provide a rewarding experience for those willing to invest time in mastering its systems.

    • “I have poured an ungodly amount of time into this game and the overwhelming conclusion is that if you enjoy obsessively detailed base-builder style gameplay and are moderately comfortable with thermodynamics, this is the perfect game.”
    • “The core gameplay loop is a lot of fun to boot.”
    • “Stationeers excels in multiplayer gameplay, allowing players to collaborate in the construction and management of elaborate space stations.”
    • “The core gameplay is just mindless tasks created to take up your time, instead of incentivizing research or some other means of gameplay progression.”
    • “The tutorial itself is just a list of instructions that do not actually explain any mechanics.”
    • “Even the simplest mechanics presented in the first tutorial are clunky, unintuitive, overly complicated, and poorly thought out.”
  • atmosphere358 mentions

    The atmosphere in "Stationeers" is intricately designed, featuring a complex simulation of gases, pressure, and temperature that significantly impacts gameplay. Players must manage life support systems, create breathable environments, and navigate the challenges of atmospheric control, all while dealing with the consequences of their engineering decisions. The game's depth in atmospheric mechanics, combined with its immersive sound design and visual effects, creates a rewarding experience for those who enjoy detailed survival and engineering simulations.

    • “The graphics and atmospheric effects in Stationeers contribute to the immersive space environment.”
    • “The meticulous accuracy with which the various systems – from electricity to atmospheric control – are designed is nothing short of impressive.”
    • “The atmosphere and temperature feature adds to the immersion of surviving on a different planet (or in space).”
    • “Do you want to continuously ask yourself if what you're doing will combust the atmosphere inside of your base?”
    • “'We should allow you to build on planets with atmospheres!' only for the planet's atmosphere to be able to decide seemingly at random that your fully sealed and atmospherically controlled room is now magically open to the lethally high/low toxic atmosphere of the outside.”
    • “Every 15 to 30 seconds the game just makes the breathable atmosphere in a room disappear for a second and then returns it.”
  • graphics153 mentions

    The graphics of the game are generally described as simple yet effective, with a cartoonish art style that enhances immersion without being overly demanding on hardware. While some players appreciate the aesthetic and find it charming, others feel the visuals lack depth and sophistication compared to more graphically intensive titles. Overall, the graphics serve the game's complex mechanics well, contributing to an engaging atmosphere despite some technical limitations and occasional bugs.

    • “The graphics and atmospheric effects in Stationeers contribute to the immersive space environment.”
    • “Graphically, Stationeers delivers a stunning and immersive experience.”
    • “The graphics are surprisingly pleasing in their simplicity, especially when combined with the satisfaction of watching your freshly made system work.”
    • “Graphically it's not state of the art.”
    • “Graphics are poor, and there is no music during (tutorial) missions.”
    • “The visuals are subpar and nothing special.”
  • grinding152 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and repetitive, often detracting from the overall enjoyment and immersion. Players find the inventory management and tool-switching mechanics cumbersome, leading to frustration during resource gathering and base building. While some appreciate the depth and complexity of the systems involved, many agree that the excessive micromanagement and lack of quality-of-life improvements make the gameplay feel unnecessarily grindy.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “This feels tedious and repetitive and holds me back from really getting into a 1000-hour endgame experience.”
    • “The only way this could get more tedious is to have separate keys for each finger on each hand.”
    • “The problem is that at the time of this review, the game is wall-to-wall anti-fun that gets you bogged down in tedious, repetitious activities.”
  • optimization126 mentions

    The game's optimization has received mixed feedback from users, with some praising recent improvements and performance updates, while others report significant issues, particularly when building large bases or during complex scenes. Many players note that despite the game's enjoyable mechanics, performance can be inconsistent, often struggling even on high-end hardware. Overall, while there have been strides in optimization, particularly in recent updates, the game still requires further work to achieve stable performance across various setups.

    • “Progress over the last year has been great with a lot of depth added and a slew of performance improvements.”
    • “The developers have also continued to add new and interesting content throughout the early access phase and have also increased the performance and fixed many bugs in the game; I plan to play this for a long while and I'm happy to own a copy of it.”
    • “The devs have gone through a major internal rewrite to improve performance.”
    • “Performance of the game has been declining as well, to the point that running the game on an RTX 4090, with a Core i9 CPU and 64 GB of RAM gives us only 30-40 FPS in basic scenes with just a few dozen pipes present; the game will stutter as you pan your camera while the sun sets and casts shadows at certain angles on the pipes, dropping down to less than 15 FPS until it just goes back to its usual 30-40 FPS.”
    • “It's a fun little space game, but at the moment the optimization needs serious work.”
    • “Unfortunately, it has some pretty severe performance issues later in the game.”
  • stability108 mentions

    The game's stability is a significant concern among users, with many reporting numerous bugs and glitches that hinder gameplay, particularly in tutorials and multiplayer modes. While some players acknowledge the game's potential and enjoy the mechanics, they emphasize that it requires substantial improvements and bug fixes before it can be fully recommended. Overall, the consensus is that while the game is playable, it remains a buggy experience typical of early access titles, necessitating patience from players willing to troubleshoot issues.

    • “The game is well made and runs great!”
    • “Now multiplayer isn't as buggy as before and the entire game runs better.”
    • “Almost all of the core gameplay is already there, and it's largely bug free in my experience.”
    • “The game is buggy; I was stuck in the tutorial twice, and to even play multiplayer, you have to go to your router and turn on UPnP. The game itself has a pretty bad UI, with multiple inventories to manage, and it can be overly complicated.”
    • “It's a buggy mess and only gets buggier with every bug fix, and the desync is horrendous.”
    • “I found the tutorial extremely bug-ridden and often left me wondering what I was doing wrong, but it ended up just being bugs.”
  • story76 mentions

    The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its absence, with many users noting a lack of mission objectives, quests, or a driving narrative. While players appreciate the sandbox elements and potential for creativity, they express a strong desire for more structured gameplay, including missions and challenges akin to those found in other survival games. Overall, the consensus is that the game feels incomplete without a defined story or purpose, though there are hopes for future updates to address these shortcomings.

    • “This early access feels like a never-ending story, but it's a good story.”
    • “Great game, tons of potential; all it needs is multiplayer improvements, some kind of story mode, and a few more planets.”
    • “The things you can do already in alpha are almost limitless, and when the survival, mission, and ship-building elements are introduced, this will be an absolute gem.”
    • “Has no story, no purpose.”
    • “There is no story, there are no quests.”
    • “Most of the content is more about 'I want to' rather than 'I have to' because you can build a tiny self-sustaining base in a few hours and be done with the game; there isn't any story, quests, or missions driving you forward yet.”
  • humor35 mentions

    The humor in the game is a standout feature, with players frequently highlighting the comedic chaos that ensues from gameplay mechanics, such as explosive decompression and absurd inventory mishaps. Many reviews mention the hilarity of multiplayer interactions, where friends find themselves in ridiculous situations, often leading to laughter over shared failures and unexpected outcomes. Overall, the game's blend of dark humor and slapstick moments, especially in the context of space survival, contributes to a fun and engaging experience, despite some frustrating elements.

    • “Funny spacemen game where you either explode or suffocate to death, cool space station building simulator with electricity, wired networking, programming and atmosphere simulation. Also, you could draw funny shapes with wires. Cool game, please buy; the dev said they're running out of money and I want to keep seeing this game getting updates.”
    • “The greatest enemy of the game is your own incompetence, which can lead to some hilarious moments.”
    • “It's a fun, immersive semi-sim with a cool voxel world, based physics, and it can be incredibly funny when you're playing with friends and you have no idea why the inside of your base is burning and a hole has randomly burst open in one of your frames...”
    • “- Two toolbelts instead of a hotbar has to just be an unfunny joke, right?”
    • “Is the harder planets cranked to the max? I've died so many times in the game it's not funny.”
  • replayability22 mentions

    The game boasts high replayability, largely due to player-created mods, diverse planetary environments, and a supportive community that encourages ongoing engagement. Players appreciate the intricate systems and customization options, which offer nearly infinite content and challenges, making each playthrough feel unique. However, some users note that the time investment required for setting up new bases can detract from the overall replay value.

    • “The availability of player-created mods enhances the game's replayability, introducing new challenges and opportunities for customization.”
    • “Hundreds of hours of content, nearly infinite replayability, deep and intricate game systems, heaps of skills to master, and more features yet to come.”
    • “There is quite a bit of replayability—different planets have different atmospheres, temperatures, solar light levels, weather, and mineral compositions, which mean that every planet has different problems you have to solve in different ways.”
    • “There is quite a bit of replayability - different planets have different atmospheres, temperatures, solar light levels, weather, and mineral compositions, which means that every planet has different problems you have to solve in different ways.”
    • “The variety of environments on different planets really increases the replayability of the game.”
    • “This means that the game has almost no replay value, because if you start a new base, you have to set up all those systems again, which takes hours.”
  • music15 mentions

    The music aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players noting a lack of background music and soundscapes, leading to an empty atmosphere. While some appreciate the subtlety of the existing soundtrack and sound effects, others criticize the absence of music during gameplay, particularly in tutorial missions. Overall, players suggest enhancing the experience by playing their own music, as the in-game audio does not meet expectations.

    • “The soundtrack and sound effects are subtle yet effective, creating an atmosphere of unease and triumph as one makes progress.”
    • “Music and sound (6/10) [gets the job done; nice touch how sound changes based on the atmospheric pressure.]”
    • “Im sure they are working on that, so just play music in the background for now.”
    • “Graphics are poor, and there is no music during tutorial missions.”
    • “The worlds feel kind of empty; there's no real music playing in the background. I guess I could put on some myself, but that just ruins the fun.”
    • “There's no music in the game.”
  • monetization14 mentions

    The monetization strategy of the game has been widely criticized as a cash grab, particularly due to the presence of DLC in an early access title priced at $30. Many users express frustration over the game's reliance on advertising and microtransactions, questioning the developers' commitment to delivering a polished product. Overall, the sentiment suggests a lack of trust in the game's long-term viability and a perception of low production value.

    • “I'm normally against microtransactions, but to be honest, I'd happily pay like a fiver to have, say, TotalBiscuit as my suit voice.”
    • “As long as the devs listen to the community, are active, and don't incorporate lots of microtransactions, this game is a sure gem in the making.”
    • “What I thought was going to be a genuine attempt at a love letter to SS13 has turned into an obvious cash grab. DLC should not exist for an early access game, cosmetic or not, especially a $30 early access game.”
    • “A game with DLC (not against proper DLC when the game launches) and is still in early access makes you wonder if we can trust it or if the game is just a cash grab.”
    • “An early access cash grab with low production value, vague promises, and the worst user interface ever invented for a video game.”
  • emotional3 mentions

    Players report that the game evokes strong emotions, with some expressing that it brought them to tears, highlighting its impactful storytelling or experiences. The emotional resonance is so profound that it even affected players during mundane activities, like eating granola bars.

    • “The game made me cry.”
    • “And it made me cry again as I ate my granola bars!”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Buy Stationeers

Play time

58hMedian play time
212hAverage play time
17-238hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 67 analyzed playthroughs

Videos

Similar Games

Game News