Space Engineers 2

Yes (Please Note that this is an Alpha, there is only a Creative mode. I only recommend it if you want to Support the Devs or you want to experiment with the new Engine)

Space Engineers 2 delivers a remarkable leap forward in space-building sandbox games, offering an intuitive and accessible building experience that even newcomers can quickly grasp. The new grid system and automatic build symmetry feature significantly simplify ship design, allowing players to create and pilot their own ships with ease within just an hour of gameplay. Performance is solid, running smoothly at high settings with minimal frame drops even during intense destruction sequences.

The game shines as a sturdy creative sandbox, where the joy of constructing and crashing ships recalls the playful spirit of childhood Lego battles. The building mechanics are surprisingly snappy and intuitive, supported by helpful features like precise block alignment, symmetry planes, and blueprint creation. Although still in early access and lacking survival elements, the core gameplay foundation is strong and promising for future updates.

Overall, Space Engineers 2 offers a polished and engaging creative playground with excellent potential to become the definitive space engineering game. It’s an exciting start that invites both veterans and new players to explore, build, and experiment in a beautifully realized space environment.

Space engineers 2 is something I was anticipating for a long time. This release exceeded expectations %150, and its only released a fraction of its content. I have almost 7,000 hours in Space Engineers 1 and im hoping to doubling that in this game

Overall I have had a great experience with SE 2. It runs decently enough, although I would recommend having a beefy computer to run this game. Yes the game is very bare bones at this stage. But the 25 cm grid system or something is absolutely fantastic. It feels so freeing. You can add tons of tiny intricate details. You can truly make ships that are super space efficient. Never have I played a game that gives you this much precision to build. Also the destruction is great, it is like SE 1 but even better. Given Keen's excellent track record for SE 1, I am hopeful that SE 2 will also continue this trend. Yes, I would highly recommend this game, the building alone makes it unlike any other building game I have played.

If you wanna support and be apart of the progression of this wonderful game definitely buy and play whatcha can and give feedback. Dont buy and be impatient cause they have specifically told us how this release is going. So far its gorgeous and a simple creative mode sadly the crafters, system, and survival isnt available but I will continue to support this studio and I cant wait to see what they do! I cant wait for survival and scenarios! These devs bring us the best they can and put a lot of detail and play into their games! If you buy be patient and realize it wont be binge playable until further progression is complete.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

Graphics are definitely a step up from Space Engineers 1. They are fantastic.

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

It's your Space Engineers gameplay, with some new features. If you liked SE1 gameplay, you should like SE2's gameplay.

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

The Audio is (at present) good but not fantastic. The heavy thump of your boots when you jump is love. The thrumming of reactors is pleasing, but there's more work to be done yet.

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

Anyone could be able to get into this in creative.

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

Honestly? Runs better than Space Engineers 1 for me. I've had zero crashes or lag compared to SE1 up to this point.

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

Not pocket sized, but not bad.

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

Placing blocks is easy, mastering the nuanced creative aspects is hard, as it should be.

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

Jump in, get building. Although the "grind" could be said to be the hours you'll spend perfecting your ships.

---{ Story }---
☑ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

There is no genuine lore present at this time, although there should be a story by the time of full release.

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

The only limit is your own creativity. And with mods coming in the future, this should have the longevity of Space Engineers 1, and then some.

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

It's an alpha, yes. But it's still worth the money. Why would I pay $60+ for "AAA" games, when I could pay a fraction of that with infinitely more playtime?

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

Minor bugs here and there. I personally haven't experienced anything disasterous, but it is an alpha, so expect some bugs.

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

I'm having fun, it's running well, but there's many systems they have yet to add, so it's not a 10/10 yet. May update this review when more systems are added to the game. I'll definitely get my money's worth out of this game though.

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

This game is in its early stages, just like how space engineers 1 was. The developers are making content for space engineers 1 11 years after its release. If there was a company where I could trust the process, it would probably be this one.

A very welcome improvement from the base game. If you are looking at this game for getting into the space engineers franchise, i might caution you against it for now because it is largely unfinished. If you are a space engineers one player and are looking to learn the new building system, i completely recommend it. Right now it is lacking in many aspects that space engineers one provides, but the things we already have here are amazing and extremely promising about the game's future.

Bought for Future Updates . I am not Playing it if there is no survival and multiplayer

Incredible graphics, shadows, physics, textures! You can watch the destructibility for hours. Being able to detail the buildings with my own hands makes me ecstatic!

Thank you very much to the responsive developers who listen to the community and add everything you need to the game!

Still early access as of the time of me making this review, but so far it has all the charm of the original and a lot more capabilities. Seems a bit more stable than I remember SE1 being. A worthy upgrade for sure, and I trust these guys to finish their game, they did right by me as far as the original is concerned.

Lots of creative possibilities, even as an early release, you can make some amazingly detailed builds.

The game is currently in EA and whether it is adequate for you depends on what you normally do in SE.
If you mainly ...
... build ships in creative mode, I recommend the game. You will love the new grid system.
... play survival, wait for VS 2 (releases probably at the end of 2025).
... play multiplayer, wait for VS 4 (release date unknown, probably mid 2026).
... build complex mechanics / mechs etc., wait for rotors and hinges (release date unknown).
If you are new to Space Engineers probably wait for or close to the full release (~ 2027/28).

As of the time of this review this game is just a tech demo, I do like what they improved on from the original Space Engineers but there is not much to say until they add the survival/combat gameplay and more ship parts. I will likely edit this review when the game is in a more finished state.

Its Space Engineers, its no2, its an ALPHA, the potential is all there, Keen Software house have delivered before, they do deliver this time.

Shaping up to be better than the original however they are forcing some changes that should be optional like the new flight controls they may make mouse control easier but it's not good if you are using a controller and want more realistic flight makes me feel like my ship is a toy now with the new controls.

Only buy if you want to support the devs there is no game here yet just limited building.

Can't recommend this yet, it doesnt have multiplayer or survival scenarios yet. Maybe check it out later down the road.

This game should be labelled as "very early access". There isn't anything here yet. Just a physics and ship building demo. I'm confident in time it will turn into an incredible game, much like SE1. If you're looking for a new game to play straight out of the box, don't buy this just yet.

As an early Alpha player of SE1, I can say this is much like that alpha from so long ago. From my perspective a lot looks promising, the engine functions better than SE1 and the destruction is that much more satisfying.

Much like the first Space Engineers this is a physics engine with a space sandbox on it. Much to my disappointment, there has been less progress made thus far. Doors do not open / close (yet), and much looks to be catering to promises made to the community. This is an alpha early access after all, so lots will surely come.

I know many players wanted the refined build system (I didn't care personally) and it's here indeed. control scheme is much like the first, though lacking much of the features of the first SE like commanding blocks remotely.

My hopes for Keen on this one:
- not so much paid additional content or none at all. It isn't fair to simply limit a player based on what expansion or content pack they have. Just roll it out as a update. The players will thank you for it over some cash grab.

- Please fix the texture issues present when using a older graphics card, not everyone can freely dump cash on a new video card just because the game you make demands it.

- Keep performance in mind when continuing the game build and development. This is great, very sufficient so far. But when planets roll out or when we get to npc enemies, nobody wants a slideshow.


So far as a beginning it looks great, I remember much of SE 1 features took a long time to develop and flesh out, certainly hoping this is a series of lessons learned in QOL content and overall gameplay. Looking forward to mulitplayer and hosting servers once more.

I'm super stoked with the alpha! To be fair this is very early access, but I already see some fundamental engine improvements that would have been impossible without a massive refactor (which at some point is eventually just a new game).

Keep going guys looking forward to coming along for the ride

I really like the game at this moment in time but honestly if you want to play a full game you either have to wait till this is done or buy the first one. Personally I would like to have the ability to set the controls for specific blocks instead of fixed controls on a spaceship.

It's really cool to see improvements in these early phases of development. I'm looking forward to see survival mechanics and it's gameplay as it's bit empty in the original Space Engineers.

If you're considering buying this game in early access: Question should be do I want to support developers of this game?

Make no mistake, it cannot be overstated just how much of an alpha this currently is. Unless you are among the most die-hard fans of space engineering this product is not for you - for now at least. For the most part it is currently just a tech demo. The foundation is there, and it is a very promising one at that. A monumental improvement on mechanics and the engine itself, combined with an impressive pace of development thus far. The passion and talent we have seen from those at Keen is undeniable. This game has a very bright future.

Seems smooth, needs content. Missing solar system map. Needs new objects to build...very minimal currently...Recommend waiting on more content to arrive.

Game looks amazing, such graphic improvements over SE1, no survival mode yet but i got this game to support it. There doing an amazing job so far. keep in mind this is super early alpha and game as of this moment is more of a tech demo then a game.

Get it to support it but don't get it thinking your about to play a full game tonight. (early access) is the tag so DYOR and stop leaving random negative reviews like spoiled children.

great game seems lots of fun just can't wait till it's officially out because in early access it is lacking things to do at the moment.

I have grown up with the original space engineers. This game is coming along good and like what the devs are going to add in the future. The physics right now are better than se1. I cant wait for them to add water which wasnt possible in se1.

READ THE ROADMAP BEFORE YOU BUY!

The game is NOT complete, it's creative only with nowhere near the number of blocks and types as SE1. No planets, no survival. The game is basically the blank slate showcasing all the engine improvements and game play changes to expect. You can practice building and blueprinting ships using the new unified grid system and other building features. So far KSH has done wonderfully their approach of being open and transparent about their progress and their timeline and are hitting their marks.

They were open and honest and even said, "don't buy the game until it's the game you want.", listen to them.
I purchased it the first week, because I believe they will do right by the game. They are committed, and so I am too and support them by my purchase even if I rarely play it in this state. I keep it installed and I pop in after updates to see changes.

I figure a year or so from EA release is what it will take them to implement a system with survival game play that will interest most people looking for that kind of game. Either buy now to support, or wait until 2026, but if you want that experience now, this isn't the game for you.

Hell I had SE1 for 2.5 years before I even started really playing the game very often, it kind of sucked in the beginning too compared to what it has become. This is for people who want to support the devs and shape development. They will follow through. Hell, planets are in SE1 because they listened and followed through.

Like any art, sometimes you just need to trust the process. If you can't, wishlist this game and revisit it in 2026.

I kown it can be a good game but now it is very limited. Please don't give up this game because of the low number of player. It is a good seconde opus but now it is quite boring. You can only built vessel without utility so a don't make sens.

As other reviews have said - this is far from a complete game and not worth its price tag. However it has some great improvements over the original and development is going at a solid pace so I'd say it's a good investment.

First things first... look at SE1 and what amazing work the team has done there... that being said this is no where near a playable game at the moment hence the big splash screen that says ALPHA! this game is moving in the right direction and it looks great so far if you're one of those types that has to have a complete game now go play ANTHEM or something for the rest of you be patient let this game sit in the oven and support the project... ill update this in the future...

At the time of this review, Space Engineers 2 is in alpha state. The blocks themselves have very little functionality, but the core of the new game is there. It's a solid release with much opportunity for creatives. If you want to help shape the next generation of the Space Engineers franchise, then pick it up. If you're looking for the full-fledged experience, then Space Engineers (the OG) is what you want.

I love SE but I haven't even been able to play this yet, I get stuck at the main menu. I submitted the bug to the website like they want a couple days ago and requested help. As of yet no response, I understand it's EA this is a bit much though, I don't want to refund the game, but really?

would not play it in its current state, just hoping it avoids the fate KSP2 did
i have a 4070 SUPER, 64gbs of RAM and an i7-14700 with 20 cores, yet the game runs too poorly for what little content it actually has

i might reconsider when/if it receives optimisation patches and just overall content

The highly anticipated sequel known as "regular ass quality of life changes that should just be in space engineers one, that will very likely get paid 10 dollar item pack dlc's before it even gets through half of its "adding everything the first game has" roadmap, the sequel" Review may change in the year 2027 when this games level of content becomes flush with the one i already spent loads of money on.

The game is nothing more than SE1 with a new splash of paint. They claim they want feedback to help improve it, but when you do, you are slammed with hostile and ignorant responses that make you not want to participate at all.

As others are saying, this is a super limited alpha version. Expectations should take into account the very transparent unfinished state of the game. Having spent nearly 2000 hours in the first Space Engineers, tooling around in this for under an hour has me completely stoked to see it progress.

It looks, feels, and sounds fantastic, but there is truly nothing to do in the game at this time. If I had any real concerns, it's that I hope they flesh out the AI to give us a more "alive" world to play in compared to the previous game, but they are admittedly very far from tackling that in the game's current state.

I'm glad we are a getting a sequel, the original space engineers was getting quite long in the tooth and the engine was showing signs it had reached its limits. I particularly like the integration of small and large grids.

However.... the controls are absolutely terrible. I don't know what was wrong with the old controls, they worked just fine and most actions only required only a single key press. Now over half the controls require two key presses and its made building things suck. I really want to take advantage of the new engine and grids to build more awesome stuff, but I hate playing twister with my hands just to rotate a block or cycle through variants.

Keen, if you actually read these reviews, go back to the old controls as much as possible. The new controls really suck. Until the controls are fixed I wont be recommending the game at all.

barely anything to do, look at this as an early supporter donation. If you have the spare money to do so feel free. Stick with Space Engineers 1 if you want any real gameplay besides exploring some new creative tools :)

This is a very early alpha, and the devs have been upfront about that from the start. They've given us the privilege of testing Space Engineers 2 so it can evolve into a worthy successor to the original. What’s impressive is that they’ve been completely transparent about the current state of the game and their roadmap and they’re still actively updating the first game while working on this one.

At this stage, SE2 is more of a tech demo than a full game. The devs have made that clear. The negative reviews seem to come from people who are highly uninformed and haven’t been following development or reading the updates. If you’re expecting a finished game right now, don’t buy it. The whole point of this release is to test, report bugs, and give feedback.

That said, if you love Space Engineers, this is a great chance to help shape the future of the franchise. Buying in now gives you access to the game and all of its updates from the very beginning so by the time of release you will be a design pro.

SE2 still has years of development ahead of it, and the expectations are high, it has a lot to live up to. If you're not interested in testing the new engine and want a complete experience, just stick with Space Engineers 1. It’s one of the best sandbox games ever made, packed with content, and easily worth 300+ hours. If you've never played it then by the time you’ve really mastered it, SE2 will probably be close to completion.

For those who played the Original: Space Engineers 2 is more of a tech demo right now than an early access. Block selection is bare-bones minimum and many of their features are not even working, like doors. In addition, creative mode is only available. Survival is not included and nor are any of its aspects, like ores, tools, weapons, etc. For now, the only reason someone may buy Space Engineers 2 is to experience the new features for themselves (Copy/paste blueprints and combined small and large grids) or to get ahead of the game and begin making blueprints ahead of time for when the game is better advanced. Other than that, I would consider it a glorified tech-demo/pre-order rather than an early access. My review will likely change as the game does. But for now, I recommend holding off on purchasing it until more updates have been released. Just don't write off Space Engineers 2 just yet. If it will end up anything like its predecessor, SE2 will definetly be a game deserving of a good review.

I have generally liked the devs and their work, so I wasn't going to leave negative feedback, but after playing a bit more, I'm changing my review to a negative. The community engagement is extremely weak and communication with devs is opaque at best. The official forums are neither well-organized nor well-managed. I played a little more since my initial review, and I'm only more irritated with the state of the game.

This is not an alpha release. This is at best a pre-alpha tech demo. 30USD is an outrageous price for the state of the "game," and I'll be requesting a refund after updating this review. I will buy and play this game when it's an actual game.

I have around 1,100 hours into the original game. Only creative mode is implemented in SE2, and some of the base features of the game, such as inventories, are not implemented at all. Ship drills exist in the game - but player and object inventories don't, so drilling into an asteroid just creates sparks and destroys voxels. Player tools seem to be limited to a paint tool and something called the debug gun, a limitless energy weapon for destroying stuff.

At this stage even in creative mode you can't gather materials or make inventory items, you can only build ships and I guess crash them into each other. Refineries and assemblers exist as decorative objects.

Buy this game only if you want to support Keen in making a better, faster, more feature-rich Space Engineers game. Do not buy it in this first stage of Early Access if you want a fun, playable game.

Pros:

-Significantly higher maximum speed than the original game
-Significantly improved graphics and performance. Seriously, the graphics so far are beautiful, especially if your system can handle raytracing.
-Improved UI and more intuitive building, including a unified grid system that reduces building limitations
-Crashes are already greatly improved. They still involve a ton of math and the engine can't handle complex crashes at full sim speed even with a high-performance PC (I was playing on GeForce Now Ultimate), so you can't really see every stage of the crash happening in real time - but the dynamic fracturing looks much more realistic than in the first game.

Cons:

-There is essentially nothing to do yet; not even the banal gathering of materials.
-The roadmap promises a lot of very cool features, but a lot of detail remains unpublished so it is very hard to know what to expect. It's hard to be certain what you're buying, and the price is definitely too high for the game in its current state. I think I paid $10 for the original game in Early Access, so $30 this time around for a game in this state doesn't feel great.
-Ship handling characteristics seem significantly worse. I flew for all of two minutes using the premade blue ship, and the ability to change trajectory in flight didn't feel like it matched with the ship's gyros and engines - at a standstill the roll/pitch/yaw were responsive, at speed it was extremely sluggish.
-I don't like the change in how the personal jetpack works. With your inertial dampeners engaged, your maximum speed is very low - you have to disengage them to achieve maximum speed. With inertial dampeners engaged, course corrections are all but impossible to make accurately. When traveling middling distances by jetpack, I always set my course with inertial dampeners on, and disengage them when I'm aimed in approximately the right direction, periodically briefly re-engaging them to make course corrections. This no longer works properly, as re-engaging your dampeners immediately drops your velocity and you must then disengage them before building speed again.

Neutral commentary:

-Keen is much more established than when they created the original SE. They clearly have the budget to make a superior game, and if sales go well they probably will. The Early Access for the original Space Engineers was painful - although SE2 is already significantly better in some areas, it is significantly less playable than the SE1 Early Access. That said, they absolutely put the work in over the years to make SE1 a fun, worthwhile experience.
-The quality of the game will hinge on any number of design decisions that have yet to be made public, and may not yet have been made. There are aspects of SE1 that never worked adequately, such as pistons and hinges; will SE2 fix these? Will SE2 introduce features the devs said they could not manage in SE1 due to engine limitations? Will the inventory supply/demand code be rewritten from scratch so it doesn't suck? Only time will tell.

tl;dr, buy this game to support Keen, don't buy this game to play it at this stage.

As someone with 2500 hours in SE1 (developing mods and running 10-20 player servers) and 1 hour in SE2 I'll weigh in on this.

TL;DR: If you want to play Space Engineers, buy SE1. If you want to support the development of a second generation of SE, buy this as basically a crowdfunding option for a game I estimate will come out in 2-3 years.

This is a basically using Steam as Kickstarter/Indigogo with a playable demo. If you're backing this, realize you're not getting anything day 1 or even day 365. That said, Keen has proven that given enough time and support they can create incredible things! They have abandoned games in the past, but the reason for that was to focus on their best IP, Space Engineers. I believe this will continue to be their flagship IP, so I have no qualms about Keen seeing SE2 through. They would only abandon it if for some reason they jumped to another IP, but I really don't see this happening. Keen is SE.

I understand the reason for the SE1 -> SE2 fork, because at this point not breaking Torch and the million mods people use is dam near impossible even with small changes. Also, VRAGE3 is a new engine in many ways, which I truly believe was necessary, and there's no way it could be integrated into SE1 at this point.

From what I've seen of the roadmap, I'm excited for the future of SE2. Keen is really good about community and mod support, and it sounds like they are doubling down on this with better tooling and a new cleaner mod API.

I think the community needs to be patient on this one, which most people who know Keen are. Keen has done this before, releasing games that are barely playable then working on them over the course of 3-5 years and making them awesome. It's their dev pattern, and as long as the customers/players know this, I don't see it as a bad thing. I do feel bad for anyone discovering SE for the first time who accidentally bought SE2 not understanding that it's basically just a skeleton of a tech demo for the purposes of crowd funding. I knew it would be like this going in, so I was more than happy to pay to support development, but if you want to play SE buy SE1.

Don't get me wrong I love space engineers 1. That said. I was excited about the ease of building in this new one. I wanted the raw out of box feel like before YouTube tutorials were ever invented. What I found was college level controls a confusing mess. Now to be Fair this early in development. Its got shinier graphics, optimized engine. ect. Time will tell as it sits, you can support them or wait. My advice is too wait.

People complaining about the game still being in barebone build clearly did not read their description before buying this is not the full game it is only to support the build of the game so if you're coming in expecting multiplayer I'm sorry to tell you your expectations were too high it is saying that it is for the support of Keen software to develop sp2 furthermore I limit anyone who is leaving a legit negative review for a game that has not technically came out yet I do not however want anyone buying the game if they think they're getting a full game I cannot recommend people to play this game as of now because it is still in the pre-build phase but I do recommend the game in the near future when it is complete

Early access doesn't justify releasing something at 0.0.0 version. It's basically a game engine demo.
I will still keep the game and I'm still excited for the future updates. But no, I do not recommend this.

Good game, yes. Completed game, no. most of the bad reviews were people who didnt realize that it was a incomplete game and a snippet

Wait three years and see how it progresses.

In the current state, this game should not be for sale, I'm growing tired of game publishers releasing for sale games that have near to zero content and for 44 AUD at that, dangling a carrot that it will get better. it is a trend that has to stop

Alpha has not always been a word for games with near zero content. and is progressively getting worse.

why would anyone want to play a 1/100th baked game when they can play the first game that is functional and polished, this offers negative play for the consumers. Space engineers 1 was not this barren when first released

Its in EARLY ALPHA.
There's not much to do but test the new engine and build mechanics and see the pretty new graphics.
Don't buy unless you want to support its development. But if you want to support development then buy it.

Its got a lot of promise but its Early Alpha with nothing substantial in it. Personally I'm excited to see its future but yeah guys there's not much here right now.

If you love Space Engineers then you will love this game as well despite it being in Alpha. Stunning visuals. Fantastic audio. The building system does take a little bit to get used to but it has a lot of potential to make things a whole lot easier in the long run. I cannot wait to see what they have in store for the future!