Best Sci-Fi Simulation Games

The genre of simulation games is broad and varied, covering anything from hyperrealistic flight simulators all the way to management simulators like Two Point Hospital. While there are a limited amount of activities to simulate (that can actually be made fun to play), science fiction provides an abundance of opportunities for simulation games in the form of advanced technology, spaceships, and space itself - the only limit to what can be simulated in a sci-fi game is the imagination and technical capabilities of the developers behind it.

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Although some simulation games focus on being as realistic as possible, others aim to simulate the feeling of performing specific activities over the nitty-gritty realities of them. This list aims to include a variety of science fiction simulation games that vary in their accessibility and general fun-to-realism ratio.

8 Hardspace: Shipbreaker

This low-science fiction simulation game tasks players with salvaging various spaceships with a variety of tools, often putting their lives on the line in order to salvage valuable resources from increasingly complex ships.

The game takes on a blue-collar theme in a semi-dystopian sci-fi future, with the player taking on salvage contracts in order to pay off a massive debt. Hardspace: Shipbreaker also features solid physics simulation that allows the player to understand and predict what their actions result in, with just enough unpredictability to keep them on their toes. Despite its repetitive gameplay, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a fairly accessible simulation game for those who don't mind a relaxing and low-maintenance experience.

7 Surviving Mars

This colony simulator published by Paradox Interactive tasks players with growing and managing a successful colony in the harsh environments of Mars. What makes Surviving Mars unique from other city-building colony-sims is that it's extremely unforgiving to those who fail to plan ahead. Players must constantly build around the needs of their colonists, keeping a multitude of things in mind as they expand.

Surviving Mars manages to straddle the line between pleasantly challenging and completely inaccessible, something that many simulation games fail to do, and while it may not be the most detailed colony simulator available, it's a thematic and atmospheric simulation experience that's worth trying for fans of low science fiction.

6 Space Engineers

This sandbox simulation game focuses on complex and detailed spaceship construction and engineering, allowing players absolute freedom with the game's accessible tools. Space Engineers may focus on its heavily simulated construction mechanics, but it also allows players to explore and fight with their ships, even allowing for planet exploration.

Space Engineers features a hyperrealistic physics simulation that allows everything to be disassembled and destroyed. Furthermore, the game's modular construction system allows the game to be more accessible than similar simulation games. Space Engineers is best played in the game's online multiplayer, though it can also be a rewarding experience when played alone.

5 NEBULOUS: Fleet Command

Taking clear influence from the space battles of TV shows such as The Expanse, NEBULOUS: Fleet Command puts players in control of a fleet of customizable spaceships battling it out in real-time using a realistic radar system, advanced movement controls, and precise targeting tools.

NEBULOUS is a heavy simulation game, and as a result, it provides the player with detailed control over their ships, leading to tense situations in which even the slightest movement matters. Although its controls can take a little getting used to, the game's sheer scale and attention to detail make it one of the most immersive science fiction simulation games available at the time of writing.

4 Elite Dangerous

This descendent of the original space trading game from 1984 is a massively multiplayer space exploration game with complex and intricate flight simulation that takes a little time to master, but its detailed and reactive open-world galaxy makes it worth learning.

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While Elite Dangerous does give players a lot of freedom with its variety of gameplay options, it remains a game focused on intergalactic trade, economy, and simulated spaceflight. Elite Dangerous is primarily for players who don't mind going long stretches of time with nothing but the surrounding stars, a peaceful atmosphere that can quickly be broken by the sudden appearance of space pirates, having players engage in the game's solid combat system.

3 X4: Foundations

This space-sim is one of the more complex and open-ended simulation games on this list, leaning heavily into its sandbox elements and giving players total freedom to explore both on and off their ship, although the game does focus on spaceflight.

X4 is special for its snowballing gameplay structure in which the player begins as a lonesome pilot taking odd jobs and can progress to be the leader of an entire empire. The game even has features for building space stations, upgrading ships, and empire management.

2 RimWorld

This science fiction colony-sim focuses on construction and management simulation on procedurally generated planets, tasking players with keeping their colonists alive and expanding their colony while dealing with environmental hazards, neighboring factions, and raids.

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RimWorld simulates a variety of elements that make its procedural worlds and characters feel and act both reactive and dynamic. Each generated character has its own simulated relationships and psychology, making each of them unique and offering different challenges depending on the colonists. RimWorld is highly accessible and easy to learn, especially with its multiple difficulty settings, but it offers an abundance of complex mechanics and strategies for those who are willing to spend a lot of time in its world.

1 Freelancer

Designed by Chris Roberts (of Wing Commander fame) and originally released in 2003, Freelancer is primarily a combat flight simulator and secondarily a trading game. In Freelancer, players can roam the game's open world hunting bounties, being a pirate, or being a peaceful trader. Freelancer may be a flight simulator, but it's tremendously easy to control and offers one of the most accessible science fiction simulation experiences.

Freelancer is great for fans of science fiction such as Firefly and early Star Wars films, putting players in the shoes of a Han Solo-like character and sending them out into space to explore and make their riches in order to progress. The game's story is fairly generic, but its well-directed cutscenes and talented voice actors make it worth playing through.

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