*Edit: 4/6/15 3:25pm- Took a few suggestions for the post off of Reddit. Thanks guys!

Want to drop everything and explore the universe? Then Space Engineers (created by Marek Rosa and Keen Software House) is the game for you. The easiest way to describe this game is “Minecraft in Space.” But it’s just so much more. At it’s most basic level, Space Engineers is a block-building game. It’s another sandbox game, meaning the only goal is to not get bored and stop playing. I’ve found it very easy to sink *ahem* ‘several’ hours into this game at a time.

GAMEPLAY

When you first start playing, you spawn in an almost empty void. Your only companion is the rocks that dot the sky. These asteroids, as you’ll soon discover, are your lifeblood. Embedded in the rock is a slew of minerals necessary for everything that comes next. Luckily, you have just the tools to mine them up.

Depending in the spawn options, you may spawn on a small platform in the emptiness of space, or even in a derelict ship. These are also essential to survival. They carry machines that utilize the minerals you dig out of the rock. Different machines are a very essential part of the game. They refine raw materials, provide power and oxygen, as well as serve many other functions.

The mining and the machines aren’t the focus of the game, however. That belongs to spaceships. This is where the flow of creativity in the game really takes off. In shipbuilding, the biggest limiting factor (other than resources) is your creativity. You really can build almost anything you want in this game. Want to pilot a giant statue of a horse through space? If that’s what you’re into, go for it.

Another large aspect to the game is PVP. Since the game was first released, people have been building all sorts of warships. When the multiplayer feature was released several months later, players were ready for each other with all sorts of creative weapons.

There is also a destruction system that works well with PVP. if your ship gets shot at too much, or if you bump into too many asteroids, the ship will start to break apart. With the new oxygen system in ships in the game, this can be very bad (This destruction system is shown in the video after the next paragraph).

While resources hold you back from building all of your dreams, especially in early game, there is a work-around. There are 2 different game modes you can play in. Survival, where you have to mine and refine and all of that, and creative mode, where you have unlimited resources. I’ve found it easier to get the hang of the game in creative mode before making the jump to a survival world.

It’s entirely okay if you aren’t creative, however. If that happens to be the case, and you can’t make cool ships, just check out the steam community. There, you will find blueprints (that you copy and paste into your world) of all sorts of great ships and bases.

However, many of these blueprints require more than just the default game gives. This is where modding comes into play. Mods are blocks, and sometimes game mechanics, added to the game by players. There’s been official support for mods for a while now, making downloading all these great mods a breeze.

THE FUTURE (AND THE PAST)

Now, it’s worth noting that this game is technically in early access on Steam. But it really doesn’t play like it. And it gets quite a bit of attention from the game developers too. There are weekly updates (Thursdays if I remember correctly), that usually add small features, and refine the game.

Just because they usually add small features doesn’t mean that large ones don’t come in. Just a couple of weeks ago, a whole system of oxygen was added to the game, with complicated mechanics and machines to flesh it out.

There have also been strong hints at an overhaul to the space exploration aspect. There was an adventure update a few months back, which added randomly spawning asteroids, as well as abandoned ships to find. The next step in this journey is planets. Other than a blog post from last February, not much has officially been said about the planets system. I gotta say, even with this lack of news, I am still really excited for this feature. It is one of the things Space engineers is missing at the moment.

Space Engineers actually has a sister game, Medieval Engineers. This game was released a few months ago, and is a castle-building version of the original. Many features are being traded back and forth between the 2 games. Medieval Engineers has a large planet to survive on, and this is the groundwork that planets in Space Engineers will expand upon in the future. I was planning on reviewing Medieval Engineers, but for some reason the game is very laggy on my computer.

Have you played Space Engineers? Got a fancy ship to show off? Put a link to a picture in the comments below. I’d love to see it!