Shortest Trip to Earth is still a very fun roguelike, and those who are familiar with the subgenre will be very keen to jump right in. Newcomers might be better served going for a slightly easier game at first, but veterans of the likes of FTL will likely enjoy what Shortest Trip to Earth has to offer. Just be prepared for plenty of starting from scratch.

All in all, I think that Shortest Trip to Earth has a niche appeal. It's extremely detailed and management-heavy, so if that sounds good, you may enjoy it. There are tons of modules to experiment with, a variety of resources to trade and manage, so many crew members with different skills, and what seems to be a longer campaign than FTL featured. They have certainly added a lot of stuff to the basic format, but it feels rather unpolished. Too much of what was added feels like busy work instead of interesting decisions, or it creates so many choices that the game can slow to a crawl as you sort through the options. The game begs for better ways to manage the management and display options to the player.

A difficult, interesting journey through deep space that constantly has you making interesting decisions. The complexity isn’t always a good thing but there is a ton of replay value here.