Overall, I’m genuinely impressed by Into the Stars. It’s a fun game that’s easy to control and learn, but provides enough depth that strategy fans will likely get a kick out of this, along with more casual players.

Into the Stars is a gorgeously-rendered sibling of FTL, featuring all the tension of collecting resources and fighting space aliens with none of the tedious micromanagement.

Replayability is primarily to be found in the exploration of the star system laid out for your quest but I can imagine this would only stay entertaining for a while and only true completionists are likely to keep playing over and over again to uncover all they can.

Into the Stars, despite some lack of variety, isn’t boring. Even for being a bit repetitive, it provides urgency, difficulty, relief and frustration in-game that runs pretty flawlessly.

Conceptually, Into The Stars had the potential to be a compelling spin on a formula established by the immeasurably superior FTL, but across the board, it is littered with uninspired and dull design choices.

To add insult to injury, we’re towing a city with thousands of colonists, and it’s paramount to build them all kinds of morale-improvement buildings. They’re the last hope of humanity – and they will get depressed and start to rebel if they don’t get a new VR entertainment center! Too bad it’s not an option to just hurl these guys straight into the nearest star. [Issue#208, p.50]

The worst thing about Into the Stars is overwhelming boredom that makes you look for something more interesting on the ceiling. You’ll have much more fun playing FTL once again or hunting pirates in Elite Dangerous. [05/2016, p.67]