Space Engineers similar games & best alternatives

Space Engineers - Trailer
Space Engineers - space-engineers_1.avif
Space Engineers - space-engineers_2.avif
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Space Engineers

PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One • 2019

Should you play it?

Space Engineers is a sandbox engineering game where you design and build ships, stations, and planetary bases in a fully destructible environment. Explore planets and space, mine resources, survive hazards, and engage in combat alone or with friends in Creative or Survival modes.

What works

  • Extensive creative freedom and building possibilities
  • Complex physics and engineering simulation
  • Active and supportive modding community
  • Engaging multiplayer with cooperation and factions
  • Regular updates and developer involvement

Things to keep in mind

  • Steep learning curve and complex ui
  • Performance and optimization issues especially on weaker pcs
  • Lack of strong narrative and npc interactions
  • Multiplayer can be affected by trolls and griefing
  • Some bugs and glitches persist

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Airmen

  • Empyrion - Galactic Survival

  • Elite Dangerous

  • Executive Assault 2

  • Trailmakers

  • Sins of a Solar Empire®: Rebellion

Less dominating

Games that feels like Space Engineers but with less domination over others

  • No Man's Sky

  • StarRupture

  • ICARUS

  • Badlands Crew - Drive, Command, Conquer

  • PULSAR: Lost Colony

  • Volcanoids

More story-driven

Games that feels like Space Engineers but with deeper narrative immersion

  • Halo: The Master Chief Collection

  • DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT

  • Voidtrain

  • Dune: Awakening

  • Once Human

  • Borderlands 2

Less intimate

Games that feels like Space Engineers but with less focus on close relationships

  • TerraTech

  • X4: Foundations

  • Red Faction Guerrilla Steam Edition

  • SPORE™ Galactic Adventures

  • Avorion

  • Sins of a Solar Empire II

Choose your own criteria ->

Similarity map

How to compare these games

Compare nearby games

Each card is a nearby game on the similarity map, compared with Space Engineers. Swipe sideways to move between games. Titles already listed in What to play next are left out.

  • Cover and title: open that game’s page.
  • What works / keep in mind: the same highlights as the desktop comparison panel.
  • Bars: the main motivational differences versus this game.
How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

Swipe to compare nearby games with Space Engineers. These titles are not in What to play next.

Space Engineers: A very typical example of its motivational profile. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Competition, Status, Fellowship, Domination. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Exploration, Cooperation, Creativity.

Last update: 21/08/2026