Since nobody has mentioned it, I’ll throw in “X4: Foundations”. The X series is janky in places but oh so satisfying if you can get past the jank. Build a military empire to take over the galaxy, or maybe a trading empire. Or maybe you want to become an industrialist and build huge stations to print money. You can be a pirate or a salvager or any combination of the above. And there are tons of interesting mods if you get sick of the vanilla game.
The whole X series kept going even when the space sim genre went mostly dormant for like a decade. I’ve loved every one I’ve played. You do have to get through some serious jank sometimes and the learning curve can be steep, but it is totally worth it.
Since nobody has mentioned it, I’ll throw in “X4: Foundations”. The X series is janky in places but oh so satisfying if you can get past the jank. Build a military empire to take over the galaxy, or maybe a trading empire. Or maybe you want to become an industrialist and build huge stations to print money. You can be a pirate or a salvager or any combination of the above. And there are tons of interesting mods if you get sick of the vanilla game.
Love this game!
The whole X series kept going even when the space sim genre went mostly dormant for like a decade. I’ve loved every one I’ve played. You do have to get through some serious jank sometimes and the learning curve can be steep, but it is totally worth it.