Starbase

Starbase is a space sandbox for people who like engineering more than combat, and that is its real draw. By our assessment, its strongest side is the scale of its systems: building ships, wiring components, mining, hauling, and trying to keep a machine-made economy from falling apart. The cost is time, patience, and a willingness to learn interfaces that do not explain themselves quickly. In practice it feels like a lot of arranging, measuring, and fixing before anything looks dramatic. Compared with other space games, it leans harder toward construction and player-run industry than toward a guided adventure. Starbase rewards people who enjoy making a ship work and do not mind a steep start. The name fits the idea well, because the game is mostly about living inside the structure you build.