Empyrion vs Space Engineers: What game is better?

[Tontow]

I haven't gotten this game yet, but I have been looking at a few videos and I'm liking what I'm seeing.

As far as I can tell, the only game that comes close to this one is Space Engineers. And so I'm wondering how other people think they stand up vs eachother as they stand now.

[Phelbore]

1: Search the forums, this is asked every week.
2: Space engineers is an engineering game. You build amazing machines, but there's not a lot to do with them. Empyrion is a survival game. You build pretty cool machines, not amazing tho, and do stuff with them. Lots of stuff, like explore, raid and fight. Which you want depends on what you like to do.

[clasicK]

Originally posted by feanor_269:

Empyrion is a survival game. You build pretty cool machines, not amazing yet, and do stuff with them.

Yet* :p

[ChosenOne]

SE is crap..

[Stone_Templar]

I've had SE much longer, and played this more.

SE has it's advantages. It is maybe a bit more technical and mechanical feeling, the ships fly a bit nicer I think. But, I've had much more, easy, exciting fun on Empyrion.

More to do, explore, and I like the crafting, it's easy to get into and do a lot with in Empyrion.

Crafting is a bit of a pain on SE, and it feels more clunky.

Obviously, both games are changing a lot, all the time still so...

My vote for fun MP survival is empyrion atm.

[Outblader]

I love ESG I'm addicted I found myself saying I'm going to logout as soon as I accomplish this next goal ie. Build this CV, and then I'm playing for hours after that. The simplicity is one of the things that makes it a sucess I hope they never lose that or abandon it.

[Zedd]

What Outblader said...it's too addictive. I told myself I would play for 2 hours yesterday and stayed up until 3.30am. Pass a milestone and the next one just seems soooo close, just gotta get that ore/get your SV finished.

My friend always makes fun of me for buying games, playing a few hours then getting bored and never playing again. In contrast, I'm sinking 50+ hrs a week into this game :O

(Addictive in a good way though...doesn't feel like wasted time at all, since you save all your creations as blueprints)

[K1_CriticalGamer]

i have both ,but definetly empyrion is better like SE

[The MoSS]

Originally posted by ChosenOne:

SE is crap..

Harsh evaluation for someone who does not have Space Engineers in the game list...

I don't have EGS, but I can definetly see its advantages over SE. But It's more of a slander than evaluation to just say "It's a crap" without at least 10 hours in game.

To the topic, it's just about engineering fun vs. shooting/survival fun. I don't think each game can even outmatch the other at what it does better. SE is using it's own engine, specifically made for a space engineering game (with all useful features like good control of blocks, grouping, filtering...), but EGS is using generic third party engine well designed for shooting/survival action game, but somewhat limited (e.g. some "magical" ammo inventory sharing over the whole grid without any connection netween ammo box and gun; planets in EGS are mostly some shooting action game maps glued together - that's why you can't access poles, grid geometry on the poles is total chaos). Where SE can upgrade its engine as needed, EGS has to compromise or baypass.

[Eretic]

SE demands unreasonably many "power" from your PC. EGS is much, much lighter.

[lucyrocketdog]

I also have both games.

I like SE for building machines--it has pistons, rotors, complex building. I still haven't explored the planets fully in SE.

I like Empyrion for the survival elements. The building is a lot simpler, the focus is more on staying alive, growing/hunting food, fighting off aliens.
At this moment in time, I think Empyrion has more for me to do than SE. But if you buy one of these two games, you may eventually end up buying the other game too ;)

[BigCheese]

I have both. Empyrion is the better game.

[LordyMatsuo]

I have played roughly 3-4 hours of both games and here is my early list. Skip to end for very quick 1 line verdicts.

Space Engineers

Pro's

1. Visuals are nicer
2. Smaller blocks make building more pleasing imo
3. Mining animations are nicer

Con's

1. Game is very complicated imo i want to play not study for a mechanics degree
2. Why make me place blocks then weld seperately, this infuriated me but i can see why it is this way for the target audience becuase it is an "Engineering" Sim
3. Lag, I have a decent system and the lag on planets is severe sometimes
4. No real survival mechanics which is the type of game I like so not fair to knock SE for this but it is a con imo for waht i want from a game

Empyrion

Pro's

1. Survival elements which is what i want from a game as i like survival games and this will hopefully improve throughout Alpha/Beta
2. A little easier to get into and just play without too much brain processing

Con's

1. Graphics are no where near on par with SE. I am looking forward to the 8th April patch which is listed to improve textures, I just hope its by a lot. Graphics don't make the game but they are a factor

2. Size of blocks that you place are huge, even bigger than my character. Let's pretend my character in game is 6ft tall. The blocks are 7ft x 7ft x 7ft. How am i supposed to design detail into my builds with blocks this size. In comparision to SE you can build blocks which are more like 6 inches (0.5ft) allowing you to create alot of variation and detail.


Verdict

If you want to play an engineering sim get SE
If you want to play a survival game get EGS
If you liek both styles of games get both becuase whilst they are both space based games they are very different. It would be like comparing Coffee with Tea, both warm drinks but different.

[Outblader]

I keep hearing that they are 2 different types of games. Then why did space engineers add survival mode, planet's and wildlife and attack drones?

[Lee_3po]

The MoSS - "Harsh evaluation for someone who does not have Space Engineers in the game list..."


i don't either, deosn't mean i havn't played it ;) SE sucks compared to this.

[Player One]

I think both have their advantages.

In SE i got more fun in constructing things, but playing around with my constructions is more interesting in EMP. Since SE got planets, both titels got more compareable in the end, but for me they did not bring what i had expected there. EMP does much better work in creating a survival feeling and a real gameplay that i would connect with this aspect. On the other hand i allways miss some depth in EMPs technical part, that feels a little bit to rudimentary for me. For exsample I realy miss presurized rooms in bases and ships in EMP. I was hoping for a better experience on SEs planets, but there are only few starting scenarios to select from and if i tried my own sandbox scenarios there, i could not get the AI involved enough to get some real fun out of it. Bright and less precise DX11 grafics in SE as well as AI encounters and NPCs added without love lets me reduce my SE playtime more and more. But as a real advantage id quote SEs workshop features, that allow players to not only construct vehicles, they can create whole new gamefeatures and mechanics there. SE is living from this aspect! I think SE was ment as some sort of massive multiplayer experience while EMP put much more effort in single player gaming and provides lots of fun playing it alone.

Finally id say SE is a construction game with minor survival aspects while EMP is a survival game with some descent construction aspects..so for me EMP would make the race :)

(It will for sure if they implement pressurized rooms here one day;)