Astrox Imperium is an ambitious space sim that feels and plays a bit like a blend of Homeworld and Freelancer. You sandbox your way around a large open world galaxy, following a bunch of spaceship themed professions (mining, space battles etc etc). It's a great idea but this falls flat, and hard, not least because it's simply not a complete game.

The game has been in Early Access since 2019 and while it's still getting updates, it's deep in Development Hell. The developer made a commitment to complete and publish the game by 2021 and they failed to meet this promise to gamers. There's no reasonable expectation that this will ever be completed. Whether the developer lacks the time, funds, or skill/talent required to complete a video game isn't really something gamers should be expected to accept as an excuse.

On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers.

The game assets are far from bleeding edge, with lowish polygon counts and somewhat low resolution textures, making this look like it's at least 10 years old. It's unclear why the developers weren't able to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets for the game, and also irrelevant... what matters is that this looks poor in comparison to more professionally produced games as a result of their decisions.

The game itself lacks polish, and it's unlikely to ever get it... there's only small token updates being pushed out every few months, which just isn't acceptable given the 2021 commitment to complete the game. Because this is a work in progress it feels empty and soulless.. another reason in general not to bother playing games until they're finished. Yeah, even Star Citizen. This certainly is no Star Citizen.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

So, should you buy this development hell game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

Astrox Imperium has the cash grab price of $15 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. For comparison, the $15 asking price for this game could get you completed, fully working games like "Hearts of Iron IV", "Stellaris" or "Deep Rock Galactic". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.

You will be fighting more with controls and UI rather than playing the game

It's basically EVE offline. Exceptionally well polished for an Early Access game. The fact that this is all made by a single dev on his own is really impressive. Highly recommended