This is the chunky space sandbox I didn’t know I wanted

I’ve never been one for the spate of voxel games that have come out over the last decade. I have, however, always been one for a good space sandbox. Space sandbox Avorion has been a long-running Early Access game that just released into 1.0 last month to pretty positive user reviews . After putting aside my general distaste for games that ask me to spend hours in finicky ship customization I found Avorion to be a lovely experience. There was a bit of a learning curve at first, but building your own chunky, blocky spaceships is both pretty easy and surprisingly fun. It has all the usual space sim stuff: You can mine asteroids, trade space goods, watch procedurally generated space empires fight each other and/or join in the fight. The really impressive draw here is that I got to choose my own ships. If I like spheres, I can do spheres really easily. If I like sleek long ships, I can do that too. (I like spheres.)

Developers Boxelware have delivered a pretty surprising experience for an indie in a crowded genre, and a good example of a game that Early Access really worked for. Flying your ship strikes a good balance between Newtonian space physics and accessible control for those who don’t love full-on simulators. The world simulation isn’t as deep as other games—the economy isn’t dynamic, for example—but as a wacky jaunt into building a custom spaceship and bashing pirates I found it a winner. Others get far more into the game—reviews are rife with players who’ve spent hundreds of hours building and managing a sprawling space empire. As a cherry on top, everything in the game is singleplayer and multiplayer.

You can find Avorion on Steam and at the official Avorion website.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.