''Cosmonautica'' is a video game that blends aspects of

life simulation Life simulation games form a subgenre of simulation video games in which the player lives or controls one or more virtual characters (human or otherwise). Such a game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation ...

and space trading. Players take control of a spaceship and crew it with characters, each of which has their own needs and skills. By acquiring credits through missions, players can expand and customize their ship. It was released via

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

on PC in 2014, and the retail version was released in July 2015 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, and Android.

Gameplay

Players crew a spaceship with a mix of humans and aliens, each of whom has their own needs and skills. Crew members who have different diets do not get along with each other, resulting in conflict. Research unlocks various ship expansions that can add abilities and satisfy crew members' needs. Missions and trading at space stations net the players credits, which can be used to purchase the ship expansions. Docking at space stations also satisfies needs. During the

, a preview from ''

Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' ...

'' compared its various gameplay elements to ''

Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

'', ''

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and Video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and is one of the List of best-selling video game fran ...

'', and '' FTL: Faster Than Light''. The developers themselves cited ''Elite'' and ''The Sims'' as inspirations.

Release

''Cosmonautica'' was greenlit on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

in May 2014. It left early access in July 2015 and was released on Steam,

, and Android.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

indexed three reviews for the PC version, one of which is mixed and two negative. Tom Chick, on his blog Quarter to Three, wrote that the game "makes a great first impression" but has "no meaningful challenge" or interaction. He rated it 1/5 stars and instead recommended '' Space Colony''. At GameZone, Tyler Treese rated it 8.5/10 stars and wrote, "''Cosmonautica'' takes hardcore simulation gameplay, but puts it in an accessible, humor-filled wrapper." In a roundup of recently released games, Christopher Livingston of ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' said he did not complete the game's tutorial, which he criticized for not succinctly explaining the gameplay. The iOS version has a rating of 50/100 on Metacritic based on four reviews. 148apps reviewer Jennifer Allen rated it 3.5/5 stars, calling the iOS version a poor port of the PC game despite being "hugely ambitious". Reviewing an early access version of the game, Tom Christiansen of GameZebo also criticized the mobile port, rating it 2/5 stars, but wrote that the game had potential to improve.

References

{{reflist, 30em 2015 video games Android (operating system) games IOS games Space trading and combat simulators Life simulation games Video games developed in Germany Windows games