Why Competitive Gaming Made Me a Better Player
April 21, 2026
Star Citizen 2026: Where Is the Game Actually At?
April 25, 2026
• The difference between “creative sandbox” and “survival engineering”
• What keeps players coming back after thousands of hours
• How it compares to other space building games like Starbase or Avorion
⭐️ 5 min read
I Bought This Game on a Whim in 2019. It’s Now My Most-Played Game on Steam.
It was 3 AM on a Thursday night in October 2019. I’d just finished a rough session of Escape from Tarkov — killed by a extract camper, lost my gear, the usual. I was scrolling through Steam sales, annoyed and tired, when I saw Space Engineers for $9.99. I’d heard of it but never tried it. The screenshots showed blocky ships and asteroids. Looked like Minecraft in space, which I honestly rolled my eyes at. But it was ten bucks. I clicked purchase. That impulse buy turned into 2,400 hours of gameplay, which puts it at about 0.4 cents per hour of entertainment. Best value I’ve ever gotten from a video game, and it’s not close.
Space Engineers launched in early access in 2013 and officially released in 2019. Developed by Keen Software House, the same studio behind Medieval Engineers. The premise is simple: you build ships, stations, rovers, and mechs in a fully destructible volumetric world. Every block matters. Every conveyor line you run, every gyroscope you place, every reactor you fuel — it all has to work together.
The Real Engineering Challenge
What makes Space Engineers different from other building games is that your ship has to actually function. You can’t just slap thrusters on a brick and call it a day. If you put your center of mass too far forward, you’ll pitch down when you accelerate. If you don’t balance your hydrogen tanks with your conveyors, your engines will flame out mid-burn. I learned this the hard way on my first survival attempt. I built a miner ship that looked great. Launched it toward an asteroid, hit the reverse thrust, and the whole thing flipped because my gyroscope ratio was wrong. I spun helplessly into the dark while my reactor ran dry. Thirty minutes of work, gone. I sat there staring at the screen, honestly embarrassed at how badly I’d messed up.
That’s the game’s secret weapon. Failure isn’t frustrating — it’s educational. Every crash teaches you about physics. Every exploding reactor teaches you about power management. I’ve had ships tear themselves apart because I forgot to enable the inertial dampeners. I’ve had rovers flip because my suspension settings were too stiff. The game gives you enough rope to hang yourself, and it expects you to learn from it.
The modding scene is another dimension. The Steam Workshop has over 100,000 mods as of 2026. WeaponCore, Aerodynamics, Modular Encounters — these aren’t just cosmetic changes, they fundamentally alter how the game plays. I run a mod pack of about 70 mods on my survival server. Adding NPC faction ships from Reavers, Orks, and Assertive Installations turned the game from a building sim into a survival FPS where you have to build defenses before the AI finds you. The tension of hearing a warning siren while you’re 5km underground digging for uranium is unmatched.
Why It’s Underrated
Space Engineers has never broken into mainstream popularity. It peaks at around 10-15k concurrent players on Steam, which is respectable but tiny compared to Minecraft or even Empyrion. I think the reason is the learning cliff. The in-game tutorials are basic. To build something that flies properly, you need to understand gyroscope torque ratios, thruster flame damage, conveyor sorter logic, and script programming via Visual Scripting Tools or even C#. That’s a lot to ask of a casual player.
The YouTube community is brilliant but small. Splitsie, Kanajashi, EctoSage — these creators produce tutorials and creative builds that rival anything from bigger games. But their subscriber counts are a fraction of what similar creators in other games get. I discovered Splitsie’s survival series during the 2020 lockdown and it single-handedly saved my sanity. I followed his tutorials to build my first working carrier vessel — a 40-block cruiser called the “Ugly Betty” because I built it backwards at first and it looked like a flying toaster.
The game also suffers from what I call “the vaporware problem.” People see blocky graphics and think it’s a low-effort game. They don’t realize the blocks are that size because each one is individually simulated for deformation, destruction, and physical weight. When a battle cruiser slams into your base, every single block breaks individually based on impact velocity and material hardness. That’s not Minecraft. That’s a physics sim with a game wrapped around it.
What Still Bothers Me
I’ll be honest — the game has flaws. Multiplayer desync is still a problem. On my dedicated server with 8 players, we get rubberbanding when three people are welding simultaneously. The netcode needs an overhaul. Keen has been promising better multiplayer optimization for years. I’m still waiting.
PvP is basically non-functional without mods. The vanilla weapons are limited — gatling guns and missile launchers. You need WeaponCore mods for any depth. And without proper server-side anti-cheat, griefers can mess up your carefully-built bases. I lost a six-month build to a griefer with a warhead-laden ship in 2021. I was furious. I took a three-month break after that.
Automated NPC factions are also underdeveloped. The Economy Update in 2019 added trading stations, which was nice, but the NPC ships are mostly passive. Without mods, there’s no threat to your empire. You build in peace, which is relaxing but removes the survival tension that makes those early hours so gripping.
Is It Still Worth Playing in 2026?
Absolutely. Even with its flaws, there’s nothing else like it. Starbase tried to compete but went into maintenance mode. Avorion is more of a strategic fleet builder. Empyrion is closer but has less emphasis on engineering. Space Engineers occupies a unique niche — it’s a physics engineering sandbox first, a game second. That approach won’t appeal to everyone, and that’s okay. For the people it clicks with, it’s the only game they’ll ever need.
I got my girlfriend into it in 2024. She built a mobile drilling platform that automated ore collection using timer blocks and sensors. I didn’t teach her. The game taught her. When a new player figures out how to make their first piston-driven mining arm work, you see the lightbulb moment. That’s worth the price of admission.
TL;DR — What I’d Tell a Skeptic
• It’s not Minecraft in space. It’s a real physics sim where you earn every successful flight.
• The learning curve is steep but the ceiling is infinite. Mods triple the lifespan.
• If you enjoy problem-solving and engineering, this is the best $10-20 you’ll ever spend.
• Multiplayer needs work. Stick to single-player or a small private server.
— Rand, Senior Editor at SpaceGA. 2,400 hours. Would be 4,000 if griefers hadn’t broken my spirit in 2021.