Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars

I played this game's immediate predecessor, Weird Worlds, extensively, and made the "Odd Adventures" mod that racked up a little notoriety near the end of that game's shelf life with Shrapnel Games. As a result, I'd dare say that I have more experience with the Infinite Space series than anyone who hasn't actually worked on the games or made a large-scale modification of their own (Hi, sgqwonkian!) I say that to say this: if you liked Weird Worlds, you will probably like "Sea of Stars", but the game's future will depend greatly on how much Digital Eel has put into this game's engine. If the modding options really are "all that and the kitchen sink", SoS should be able to have a good run... if not, it's little more than an incremental upgrade, with a few jarring changes from the comfortable SAIS-derived interface that will disconcert both newbies and veterans. The most obvious change is that the game is now 3D. Unfortunately SoS seems to get all the worst aspects of this change: the s...

Everyone who played Weird Worlds (Infinite Space II) probably loved it as the '30 Minute Star Control 2'. Well, a decade later here's a third instalment that adds very little new and makes the UI far worse. Firstly, the horrendous 3D map. It takes a bit of getting used to, but eventually, if you turn Nebula Density down to low, you will learn to get around. The inventory and item collection screens are really clunky too, but after much trial and error you'll discover that deep down this is exactly the same game as Weird Worlds, except far ugly and harder to use.

Really disappointing. I've owned and played the previous 2 for years and looked forward to this 3rd installment. The 3-d is unnecessary, confusing, and poorly executed. The gui is non-intuitive, the controls more so, and general usability suffers, especially in light of how the previous 2 worked. Game play is similar, with the expected races and worlds, treasures and artifacts. The "value" of an item isn't as obvious now, and they've added a credit system of sorts, both of which are interesting improvements. There's a few new twists on some old favorites, but combat seems even flukier and one sided than the first... I went from steam-rolling fight after fight to getting annihlated in the blink of an eye, with no in between or warning. Sure, this is a rogue-like, but even rogue didn't pit you up against Dragons in dungeon level 2. I can't recommend this game, and it bothers me that I can't. This reminds me of Masters of Orion 3... I was excited and had great expectations, but...

First of all, if you are a fan of Weird Worlds, you will enjoy this game. It plays very much like its predecessor, but with a 3D universe map. If anything, my quibble is that it plays a little bit TOO much like its predecessor. For the record, it's been about a decade since Weird Worlds, and we are not getting too many new ideas or upgrades with Sea of Stars. The ship models are cartoony and not very impressive, but the 2D art has improved overall. The unusual weapons, aliens, and planets are just as clever and enjoyable as before. The space combat actually seems to be a little more forgiving, and as a result, is more fun. Weird Worlds was ahead of the curve and was an unusual roguelike game before roguelikes became popular again. Now with games like FTL and Binding of Isaac out there, Infinite Space III feels a bit dated and dusty. Still a great time, just don't expect anything groundbreaking. Hope to see more innovation when Infinite Space IV hits the market in 2025.

I loved the first two Infinite Space games. They were awesome quick games to sit down and play when I needed a quick break from work. Very stress free and fun. I had the highest expectations for the third installment in one of my all time favorite space sims... and I have played it for less than an hour... What killed it for me was the new 3D navigation map. It feels unfinished clunky. The previous games had an awesome 2D star map you navigated and it worked flawlessly. I really hated going to different stars only find find out I was navigating through a nebula unexpectedtly due to how the map works. It is really a shame because I have always loved this type of game and this franchise. Edited to fix a spelling mistake

This is a fantastic game. I've played the others in the series and they get better with each one. If you enjoy a space exploration game you can play in less then 30 minutes, then this is the game for you. The developer has been great about adding new content on a regular basis.

[h1] STRANGE NEW ADVENTURES IN INFINITE SPACE - Part III [/h1] "Sea of Stars" is the 3rd part of a popular series of video games about randomly generated star systems, space captains and background stories! "Particle Vortex Cannon", combined with another long-range weapon, is my favorite Attack Combo - like in the past 2 games. Unfortunately, "Sea of Stars" is still in Early Access. But it's playable! In the end you land on a personal highscore, no matter what the end looks like - survived or dead! The 3rd Dimension greatly improves the in-game immersion! And a single game lasts no longer than what You can see on my steam-based game-time-counter!

Sea of Stars at it's heart is one of the most elegent time wasters you will ever play. Embark on a galactic adventure for exploration and profit spiced up with deadly combat, and do it all in twenty minuites or less. Sometimes that less is your first encounter the game will neatly explode your ship even on the easy setting. Long before the terms "Rougelike " and "Sandbox" this game was all those in it's past two lives. For new players it offers a pretty rich well thought out world to knock around in. For long time players it has almost all your goodies waiting to be found [except for a few of the rather broken ones, cough, altheric mirror, cough] plus some new goodies. You can still build a floatilla to help you with the dangers of infinite space, but there are some major upgrades here. Fighters cant be destroyed in combat. well they can but you get to rebuid them after combat, so now you can actully use them instead of hoarding them. Second you can upgrade your ships! Want a ...

I am a big fan of Digital Eel's Infinite Space series. I bought SAIS shortly after it came out in 2002 and then when Weird Worlds came out I played the heck out of it. It had the same basic gameplay but enhanced resolution and a greater variety of actions. I recently started playing the 3rd game in the series which transitions to 3D graphics. I don't think that 3D inherently ruins the gameplay of games that make the switch. However, in this case the simple 2D "window" GUI has been changed into an alternate GUI that does most of the same things but in a slower and less intuitive manner. There are some options (combat and otherwise) that seem to be missing. The change to a 3D planet configuration doesn't change the gameplay in a positive way. It just makes it so that you need to rotate the sector before you move anywhere. Pros in IS3: + Now you can flee to a star system of your choosing. + The 3D sector map means that you are less likely to get boxed in by nebulas or other hazard...

Having played each of its predecessors, I was expecting to find this game fun enough to play for a while and then put down; but in fact I've found it surprisingly sticky. It's not the game I play for hours on end, but it has a firm niche as the game I'll play when I have just a half hour or so to play. The 3D map is a bit hard to work with; it could really use a way to pan around so you can see more distant parts of the map (and a way to reset to your actual position, of course). Even more desperately it needs a search function to find systems (whose names are known from the start) or planets/features that you have discovered. In several of the possible plots there are messages that name a specific system, leaving you squinting at the map trying to find it. Despite those QoL problems, this game marks the point at which there are finally enough random things in various pools (especially possible plots) that playing it several times back to back doesn't become boring. I've come to de...