Space Haven is a promising management sim about interstellar vagrants
Something like FTL crossed with RimWorld.
Released about a week ago, Space Haven is a new base-building management game that takes place on a spaceship. Starting with the destruction of earth (a classic) your crew of civilians using borrowed technology and a loaner ship platform sets out to find a new home for humanity. It's a game that clearly draws from RimWorld, FTL, and Oxygen Not Included to create a pretty heady brew—if a fresh one. It just released into Early Access on May 21, though its initial thousand Steam reviews clock in at 87% positive.
Space Haven's launch build has a decent chunk of stuff to do, but no long-term progression beyond getting a ship up and running, fending off pirates, and building a bigger ship. It's also got that delicious Oxygen Not Included tile-based gas system if you're like me and really enjoy balancing pressure and output. I spent a few hours with it and was pretty pleased, at least enough to come back more than once, so it's one that survival-strategy or management fans will want to keep up with. The three-person team behind the game intends to add a mode for playing as a space station, robots and androids, cybernetic augmentation, and space hazards like solar flares. They've also got a roadmap with a pretty extensive feature-set, but aren't guaranteeing they'll get to them in any specific order.
Also, I quite like the art in motion.
You can find Space Haven on Steam for $23 or check it out on the Bugbyte games website.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.