Science Fiction is one of the biggest genres in popular culture, especially in video games, thanks to its abundance of exciting tropes; spaceship battles, exploring new planets, philosophical themes, and the possibility of alien races allow designers more creative freedom than they would otherwise have.

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15 Sci-Fi Games With The Best Space Combat

Players who love space combat can't go wrong with the following sci-fi games.

Space combat is one of the most visited tropes among game designers for Sci-Fi, and for good reason; space combat can be visceral, thematic, and extremely exciting when done right. Space simulators in particular combine science fiction with flight simulators to create simulated space battles, while some games simply use spaceships as a vessel for unique gameplay mechanics. Over the years, many games such as Starfield have attempted to streamline and dumb down the often complicated mechanics involved in space combat games, but these games manage to stay challenging regardless of their complexity.

9 Starfield

As Bethesda's first original IP in twenty-five years, there was a lot of hype surrounding its release, which has been somewhat tumultuous. Despite some players having mixed feelings about Starfield, others have found its space combat to be quite difficult and engaging at times.

Starfield'sship design and progression can be rewarding and intuitive to interact with, which is good because many of the decisions made when designing ships and taking perks affect a player's prowess in space combat a lot more than player skill. While this does encourage players to upgrade their ship and grind out the game's content, it's a shame that a lot of Starfield's difficulty comes from grinding out the right perks.

8 Star Traders: Frontiers

Although space combat in Star Traders: Frontiers is optional most of the time, getting into a space battle can be a challenging and extremely dangerous encounter that can often lead to disaster if taken by surprise.

Star Traders: Frontiers features a turn-based combat system in which the player can make orders relating to weapons and the talents of their ship, then move around the order in which these actions are played out during the battle; it's a simple system with a lot of depth in which even the smallest mistakes can have devastating effects.

7 FTL: Faster Than Light

Developed by Subset Games (developers of Into The Breach), FTL is a science fiction rogue-like game that features real-time-with-pause space combat. The game features a variety of weapons and room types for each ship that, when combined with the game's crew management, make for hectic combat encounters that favor talented multitaskers.

FTL's combat can be both harsh and unforgiving, as players must worry about what parts of their ship to assign power to (life support, shields, weapons) and what parts of the enemy's ship to target, as well as protecting themselves from potential boarders. The game's pause option helps players to stop and think about their next move, but players will often find themselves in desperate situations from which there is sometimes just no way out.

6 Battlestar Galactica Deadlock

Set during the First Cylon War in the Battlestar Galactica universe, Battlestar Galactica Deadlock is a space combat game that features a strategic resource management element that helps add depth to the overall experience.

In Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, players take turns simultaneously with their opponent, planning out each and every maneuver of their fleet before watching the cinematic action play out in real-time. The game's combat is all about planning ahead and preparing for the worst, focusing more on overall strategy than skill-based action. Overall, Deadlock is a polished, challenging experience that's great for fans of the Battlestar Galactica universe.

5 Freespace 2

Freespace 2 was developed by Volition (the studio behind Saints Row and Red Faction) as a sequel to the wildly popular spaceflight simulator Descent. Unlike Descent, Freespace 2 has players flying around in open space, fighting high-octane chaotic space battles in a flight-sim that is part simulation and part arcade game.

Freespace 2 is more accessible than most space-sims of its time, but its hectic combat, complex controls, and abundance of things to worry about while in the midst of a dogfight make it an often challenging experience, especially on some of the game's harder difficulties.

4 NEBULOUS: Fleet Command

With ship designs and combat encounters that look like they were pulled straight out of an episode of The Expanse, NEBULOUS: Fleet Command is one of the most challenging and complex space-simulation games on Steam.

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NEBULOUS features advanced movement controls that allow players to make complex maneuvers in real-time, evading missiles through careful movements. On top of commanding fleets of ships, NEBULOUS gives players intelligence tools and realistic radars that help them plan their actions around the battlefield, adding further depth to the experience. Furthermore, NEBULOUS allows players to design and customize their fleet, and each ship contains simulated subsystems, all of which can be individually damaged and repaired in combat.

3 Homeworld 2

This sequel to the groundbreaking retro RTS game, Homeworld, took the gameplay of the original and streamlined it, making the experience more initially accessible and injecting some much-needed mission variety into the game.

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However, Homeworld 2 is notoriously difficult thanks to its often large-scale battles that can leave players with a decimated fleet in dire need of repair, giving them no time between missions to do so and making every mistake in the micromanagement-heavy RTS especially costly. Homeworld 2 also fails to give players any difficulty options, meaning players are forced to master the game's combat in order to progress.

2 Elite Dangerous

Although Elite Dangerous can be a bit of a grind, and players often go long stretches of time without much activity, the game's flight-simulation mechanics remain some of the most complex and tactile in the space-sim genre, immersing players in the cockpit of their ship.

Due to its simulation-heavy nature, the combat of Elite Dangerous is harsh and unforgiving; players have to worry about ammo (provided they're not using laser weapons, which use heat instead), ship defenses, upgrades, and power distribution.

1 Children Of A Dead Earth

For fans of the Kerbal Space Program and other simulation-heavy games that aim to follow the rules of real-world physics, Children Of A Dead Earth is worth a look. Despite its low-budget 3D visuals, Children Of A Dead Earth aims to portray what space combat would actually be like, and as a result, it is extremely difficult to get to grips with.

Before players can even enter combat in Children Of A Dead Earth, they have to worry about intercepting their opponents. After intercepting, the player enters a slow-burning combat encounter; during combat, players have to worry about range, weapon management, and target priority.

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