Avorion - X Series meets minecraft sort of

[Derek Withers]

I got this on Steam a couple of days ago and think its brilliant. Fans of the X series of games might well like it as a lot of the game mechanics and gameplay are very similar. Even the sectors have similar sounding names. The main difference with Avorion is that you can design and make your own space craft. Its a voxel based game I think and the graphics are quite blocky but its the gameplay that has me hooked. Being voxel based though you can try and shoot the engines or weapons of other ships.

The galaxy is vast, 10,000 sectors in total. Its a sandbox game but the idea of it is that at the edge of the galaxy you mainly have iron asteroids to mine to make your ship from. As you move in you find better metals to mine but the enemies get tougher too. Even the strapline for the game is very similar to X i.e. Explore, Mine, Build, Trade, Fight.

It is early access but feels like a beta or even the finished game. It is less than £14 at the moment and I reckon I will get many hours from it yet.