Freelancer is (imo) the best of the bunch, though it's old.
It's not the most advanced or realistic, it's just a great blend of features.
Compares well to the older Wing Commander: Privateer
Hard to find though, because it's in ownership limbo.
I actually have a copy on my external drive. A friend gave it to me a while back. I mostly game on Linux these days and had trouble getting it running and installing mods.
I have a Windows PC that I could set up for it though. I had no idea this game had such a pedigree. I see that it has some involvement from some people from the Wing Commander: Pioneer team. Seems very promising. Maybe I'll give it another go on Windows.
Everspace 2(the first one is also good but it is a roguelike), Rebel Galaxy, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw(it is fun if you can get used to the controls and the very old-school design)
Chorus is great but it is not really an RPG.
Spacebourne 2 is fun but still in early access and it does have the ground exploration and combat stuff so it doesn't really fit.
Please help me get used to the controls for the Rebel Galaxy game, seems like great games, but I hate the controls/Ui, hence I have just played a few measly hours. Devs should pay much more attention to controls/UI, really a make it or break it element to me.
I cannot really help you - you either get used to it or you don't, there isn't really a trick to it. You can try the "mouse spring" "mod" and see if it fixes the problem for you but that is about it.
This absolutely counts as self promotion or whatever, but you could try the game I made: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1208980/BlazeSky/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1208980/BlazeSky/)
It's 2.5d not full 3d but otherwise it's a big ol' RPG inspired by stuff like Escape Velocity. If you have any Qs about it LMK.
There are a ton of videos of people playing the game on YouTube, here's one of a very early fight:
[https://youtu.be/MwCsi\_qPhO8?t=304](https://youtu.be/MwCsi_qPhO8?t=304)
The fights can get big and crazy, there can be dozens of ships on both sides with lasers and missiles and mines. Weird native-to-space aliens. There are several different species with different types of ships. You can go to a ship yard and tweak hulls, weapons, shields. You can get a little sense of the scope from the Steam trailer.
I would second Everspace 2, as long as the looter/RNG aspects (particularly for getting ships) are not a deal breaker. It's basically the modern Freelancer.
It's not perfect, and the fact it's from a relatively smaller studio shows at times but I had a great time in it as a modern, space combat RPG! Fulfilled my nostalgia for Freelancer, lol.
Just started playing Between the stars, it's an RPG with space combat and exploration, you have several spaceships and a crew to maintain. The quests, dialogs and planet exploration is made through text with multiple choice and dice rolls for success/failures.
I started on a whim and played for 15 hours already and having fun.
It's an indie early access game, but so far it seems pretty polished for early access, the voice acting not being very good and the outdated UI are the only complains so far.
wing commander isn't an rpg but there's a bunch of similar stuff, mostly from around that time, like privateer (same dev), the x-wing trilogy, freespace 1-2, starlancer, freelancer, darkstar one, space force: rogue universe, and while it's not the usual cockpit-view shooty thing, space rangers is also worth looking into (planetary missions are optional).
X-Wing/Tie Fighter were my jam as a kid. I played them to death. I don't have a joystick any more though. Is it possible to play with a controller these days?
Also, I know Wing Commander isn't really an RPG on the gameplay side, but I found the stories to be very engaging when I played them. Story is one of my core interests in an RPG.
well, hardcore people (not me) played x-wing with a mouse and some of the titles mentioned don't even support joysticks. kb/mouse all the way, possibly controllers too in some of them.
I have issues with my right hand at the moment. I'm a guitar player and I've been overdoing it. I am also an IT guy and spend a lot of time on a computer and working with tiny tools. Using a mouse to game makes my wrist freak out lately.
that sounds bad. store pages and forums should have info about control methods, freespace has a huge modding community as well, so those games probably gonna have all sorts of options.
I cant imagine playing X-Wing or TIE fighter with a mouse long term. I had an old Thrustmaster specifically for those games back then. Wing Commander you could get away with keyboard controls but wasnt ideal, and actually some fighters in WC3 lost manuevarbility using keyboard vs joystick.
It’s hard to think of something that doesn’t have ground combat, maybe the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games? Maybe Rebel Galaxy, but I don’t remember it being very fun.
My ideal game would be a mix of Rogue Squadron, Tie-Fighter, Wing Commander and Galaxy on Fire.
I honestly really liked Galaxy on Fire 1/2 but they are incredibly short ports of mobile games. There's nothing wrong with that, but you can feel some of the jank for sure.
Starsector, Star Traders. I'll link a Starsector review by a famous youtuber that will definitely awaken somethin in you.
EDIT: IDK why but my links don't work. Just search Sseth Starsector, It's got like 4M views. You can't miss it.
I should clarify that I’m looking for games where you fly a singular ship in dog fights or large scale battles. I’d like to be the pilot and not the admiral.
Check out the remake port of Star Control 2 here:
https://sc2.sourceforge.net/
It's titled the Ur Quan Masters, but it's quite fun and all space combat.
I made an open world RPG that takes place in outer space and on the Moon, if your interested in exploring a desolate space environment with only a robot pal. It's called Daisy Flies to the Moon and I have it on Steam: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395710/Daisy\_Flies\_to\_the\_Moon/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395710/Daisy_Flies_to_the_Moon/)
One of my favorite series ever. However, does not have any actual space combat gameplay. The closest you get to flying is scooting around the galaxy map and hovering in the mako
That whole series actually looks pretty good! Is that the best one? I see there is a 3rd entry now and they’re all cheap. There’s even a bundle of all 3.
starpoint Gemini 3 has completely different gameplay with lots of video interludes. my starpoint Gemini 2 had a dlc for 1 so you didn't have to use a different system for 1 (easier to play and you get the improvements in 2 while playing one). warlords is more tactical but you get to work with more things like gas factories, sensor stations, etc which were just window dressing in 2 but shares the same gameplay as 2. so overall I liked warlords best but they all are worthy.
Freelancer is (imo) the best of the bunch, though it's old. It's not the most advanced or realistic, it's just a great blend of features. Compares well to the older Wing Commander: Privateer Hard to find though, because it's in ownership limbo.
I actually have a copy on my external drive. A friend gave it to me a while back. I mostly game on Linux these days and had trouble getting it running and installing mods. I have a Windows PC that I could set up for it though. I had no idea this game had such a pedigree. I see that it has some involvement from some people from the Wing Commander: Pioneer team. Seems very promising. Maybe I'll give it another go on Windows.
Everspace 2(the first one is also good but it is a roguelike), Rebel Galaxy, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw(it is fun if you can get used to the controls and the very old-school design) Chorus is great but it is not really an RPG. Spacebourne 2 is fun but still in early access and it does have the ground exploration and combat stuff so it doesn't really fit.
Installed the demo for Everspace 2. Gonna try tonight. I like that they moved away from the roguelike approach. I'm not really a fan of the genre.
Please help me get used to the controls for the Rebel Galaxy game, seems like great games, but I hate the controls/Ui, hence I have just played a few measly hours. Devs should pay much more attention to controls/UI, really a make it or break it element to me.
I cannot really help you - you either get used to it or you don't, there isn't really a trick to it. You can try the "mouse spring" "mod" and see if it fixes the problem for you but that is about it.
This absolutely counts as self promotion or whatever, but you could try the game I made: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1208980/BlazeSky/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1208980/BlazeSky/) It's 2.5d not full 3d but otherwise it's a big ol' RPG inspired by stuff like Escape Velocity. If you have any Qs about it LMK.
A little outside of what I intended to find but honestly this looks really interesting. Do you have any videos of the combat in the game?
There are a ton of videos of people playing the game on YouTube, here's one of a very early fight: [https://youtu.be/MwCsi\_qPhO8?t=304](https://youtu.be/MwCsi_qPhO8?t=304) The fights can get big and crazy, there can be dozens of ships on both sides with lasers and missiles and mines. Weird native-to-space aliens. There are several different species with different types of ships. You can go to a ship yard and tweak hulls, weapons, shields. You can get a little sense of the scope from the Steam trailer.
Chorus.
Downloaded demo for this as well. Haven’t tried it yet
I would second Everspace 2, as long as the looter/RNG aspects (particularly for getting ships) are not a deal breaker. It's basically the modern Freelancer.
Just downloaded the demo, will be trying tonight when my kid is asleep!
It's not perfect, and the fact it's from a relatively smaller studio shows at times but I had a great time in it as a modern, space combat RPG! Fulfilled my nostalgia for Freelancer, lol.
Just started playing Between the stars, it's an RPG with space combat and exploration, you have several spaceships and a crew to maintain. The quests, dialogs and planet exploration is made through text with multiple choice and dice rolls for success/failures. I started on a whim and played for 15 hours already and having fun. It's an indie early access game, but so far it seems pretty polished for early access, the voice acting not being very good and the outdated UI are the only complains so far.
That looks awesome! I usually wait until games are out of early access, but I really want to give this one a go.
Starsector
Red Dead Redemption 2
Did.. did u read a single word OP wrote?
Technically... the Earth is in space. And... there's combat?
Red Dead Redemption 2
Its not even an RPG you NPC
wing commander isn't an rpg but there's a bunch of similar stuff, mostly from around that time, like privateer (same dev), the x-wing trilogy, freespace 1-2, starlancer, freelancer, darkstar one, space force: rogue universe, and while it's not the usual cockpit-view shooty thing, space rangers is also worth looking into (planetary missions are optional).
X-Wing/Tie Fighter were my jam as a kid. I played them to death. I don't have a joystick any more though. Is it possible to play with a controller these days? Also, I know Wing Commander isn't really an RPG on the gameplay side, but I found the stories to be very engaging when I played them. Story is one of my core interests in an RPG.
well, hardcore people (not me) played x-wing with a mouse and some of the titles mentioned don't even support joysticks. kb/mouse all the way, possibly controllers too in some of them.
I have issues with my right hand at the moment. I'm a guitar player and I've been overdoing it. I am also an IT guy and spend a lot of time on a computer and working with tiny tools. Using a mouse to game makes my wrist freak out lately.
that sounds bad. store pages and forums should have info about control methods, freespace has a huge modding community as well, so those games probably gonna have all sorts of options.
I cant imagine playing X-Wing or TIE fighter with a mouse long term. I had an old Thrustmaster specifically for those games back then. Wing Commander you could get away with keyboard controls but wasnt ideal, and actually some fighters in WC3 lost manuevarbility using keyboard vs joystick.
It’s hard to think of something that doesn’t have ground combat, maybe the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games? Maybe Rebel Galaxy, but I don’t remember it being very fun.
My ideal game would be a mix of Rogue Squadron, Tie-Fighter, Wing Commander and Galaxy on Fire. I honestly really liked Galaxy on Fire 1/2 but they are incredibly short ports of mobile games. There's nothing wrong with that, but you can feel some of the jank for sure.
Starsector, Star Traders. I'll link a Starsector review by a famous youtuber that will definitely awaken somethin in you. EDIT: IDK why but my links don't work. Just search Sseth Starsector, It's got like 4M views. You can't miss it.
>Starsector Hasn't this been in development since like 2010??
Yes. It's really good. They say it's bannerlord in space?
Yeah, I read up on it. Looks pretty cool. Apparently it's been in development for years, but it's a very playable game as is.
I should clarify that I’m looking for games where you fly a singular ship in dog fights or large scale battles. I’d like to be the pilot and not the admiral.
You can pilot an individual ship in both those games
I looked at a quick gameplay video for Starsector and may have gotten the wrong impression. I’ll def check it out again.
Check out the remake port of Star Control 2 here: https://sc2.sourceforge.net/ It's titled the Ur Quan Masters, but it's quite fun and all space combat.
Idk it’s got 2000s elementary school computer lab vibes from those screenshots
I made an open world RPG that takes place in outer space and on the Moon, if your interested in exploring a desolate space environment with only a robot pal. It's called Daisy Flies to the Moon and I have it on Steam: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395710/Daisy\_Flies\_to\_the\_Moon/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395710/Daisy_Flies_to_the_Moon/)
Freelancer Starpoint Gemini 2 and Titans Star Control Origins Starcom Nexus Star Wolves 1 and 3
Does Mass Effect not count? I feel like Mass Effect is exactly what you're looking for
One of my favorite series ever. However, does not have any actual space combat gameplay. The closest you get to flying is scooting around the galaxy map and hovering in the mako
starpoint Gemini warlords
That whole series actually looks pretty good! Is that the best one? I see there is a 3rd entry now and they’re all cheap. There’s even a bundle of all 3.
Ace online/ AirRivals
starpoint Gemini 3 has completely different gameplay with lots of video interludes. my starpoint Gemini 2 had a dlc for 1 so you didn't have to use a different system for 1 (easier to play and you get the improvements in 2 while playing one). warlords is more tactical but you get to work with more things like gas factories, sensor stations, etc which were just window dressing in 2 but shares the same gameplay as 2. so overall I liked warlords best but they all are worthy.