Don't we just love sci-fi MMOs with their large open worlds, filled with stunning landscapes, futuristic cities, and alien planets?
These futuristic worlds allow us to experience new wonders at every turn.
Whether it's a battle against an alien invasion or a quest to uncover ancient secrets these games offer sci-fi lovers a new and exciting adventure.
25. Elite Dangerous - Year Released (PC / PS4 / XBO)
Explore the Milky Way in a hyper-realistic 1:1 ratio as CMDR. The galaxy is your playground as you mine, fight, trade, and customize your ship. Join the Federation, the Empire of Achenar, or the Alliance of Independent Systems and carve out your own section of space.
Elite Dangerous can take a while to get into the groove, and it can be a bit of a grind to get what you want. You will also need to work on the controls yourself since the tutorial is incredibly simplistic. Once you make it through that, you can spend countless hours seeing all the new anomalies that the galaxy has to offer.
24. Phantasy Star Online 2 - 2012 (PC, XBO, XBX, PSV, PS4, NS)
For us old gamers, Phantasy Star lived only in the planetary system of Algol. Now, you can take your character to various systems and planets to explore. Play through many adventures as you build your character.
The most recent update to New Genesis is getting a ton of flack, but it is still a beautiful game to go through. The combat is addictively fun. Microtransactions will kill you if you let them, which is true for all free games.
23. Star Trek Online - 2010 (PC, XBO, PS4)
Jump into the galaxy of Star Trek and play through a ton of storylines. Interact with legendary characters with your customized captain and starship. Play as the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, or Cardassians in this great game. Star Trek fans will love this game.
There are many shortcomings for non-fans to overcome especially the on planet play. Fans will love the opportunity to lead and create their own crew to play through the great Star Trek universe.
22. Star Conflict - 2012 (PC, Steam OS, OSX, Linux)
Join one of the three factions engaged in a war over the technological remnants of an ancient civilization. Fight for the tools to build your ship and progress through this epic space adventure. The standard PVP and PVE are a blast to play through.
There are plenty of things to do for both solo players and groups working together. The sandbox mode is pretty muddled. This game is free, but free-to-play players mayfind the grind a little too much.
21. Spiral Knights - 2011 (Java)
As a Spiral Knight, you venture out from your home world on a mission to save your dying planet only to crash land on the planet of Cradle. You join with your fellow knights to enter the ever-changing Clockworks to discover the hidden power of the planet's core to return home.
While the game's player base has dropped off in the past couple of years, there are still people playing this game. They recently celebrated their 11th anniversary. Another free-to-play game that makes you grind for upgrades, but it is fun to play.
20. Space Engineers - 2019 (PC, XBO)
Survive space using your engineering skills to build everything. Explore space and planets in an open-world style game in both solo and co-op modes. Space Engineers features both a creative and a survival mode that lets you build and take apart just about everything.
Survival mode is where it’s at for me. It forces you to manage resources and figure out how to survive. What do you need to build to keep moving forward? How do you stay alive? If you don’t play on the easiest level, the replayability will keep you coming back.
19. Skyforge - 2015 (PC, XBO, PS4, NS)
Defend the planet of Aelion against invading monsters in Skyforge. Aeli, the god who protected Aelion, is nowhere to be found, so it is up to you and your fellow immortals to defend the planet and gain followers.
Reach out from Aelion to explore other worlds. Skyforge is a beautiful mix of sci-fi and fantasy.
Blasting through enemies to grind through the game is fun. There are some issues with some of the translation and storylines, but overall, this game is easy to dive into.
18. VEGA Conflict - 2013 (PC, iOS, Andriod)
Battle against the VEGA Federation as a rebel miner. Use your home base to build your fleet to engage in battle against non-playing characters and other players. Gain resources to gain the strength to defeat the tyrannical VEGA Federation.
Each encounter requires strategy in building your fleet.
You can build 80 different warships and customize them with different accessories to lead your fleet to victory. It’s a great mobile game (although PC is fun too) to kill some time each day.
17. Satisfactory - 2019 (PC)
You're an employee of FICSIT charged with building a factory and exploring the surrounding area. Customize your facility to help complete Project Assembly. Satisfactory is still listed as early access, which means it isn’t quite finished.
Despite this, they have sold over three million units of the game. It sounds like a boring building game, but it is an oddly fun and creative endeavor in this genre.
16. Astroneer - 2019 (PC, XBO, PS4, NS)
As an Astroneer, you get to terraform seven planets and use your resources to make a sustainable base. It’s the Intergalactic Age of Discovery, and it is up to you and your companions to discover and reform new worlds.
With unique play and resource management, Astroneer is a great way to spend countless hours. The challenges of each world give you plenty of play time to develop the planet as you see fit. Replayability is at the highest level with this game.
15. Starbound - 2016 (PC, OS X, Linux)
After escaping the destruction of your planet, you find a habitable planet and beam down. You need to fix your ship, so you gather what you need. Now, it is up to you to explore the open world. Chooseyour role in the stars.
Obviously, I love the 2D side-scrolling element of this game. There is so much to do in the game, but you get to decide what you want to do. The story is optional. Exploring and discovering things in the randomized galaxy is amazing.
14. Empyrion: Galactic Survival - 2015 (PC)
You leave Earth as part of a fleet to find Empyrion. Something goes amiss, and you crash in an escape pod on an unknown planet. Survive the world and gather materials to get off the planet and finish your mission.
Every planet creates a new challenge for you to overcome. Use the resources wisely as you struggle to survive. This game can be a constant challenge but in a good way. Fans of survival games will love this game.
13. Hades’ Star - 2018 (PC)
Create your own empire in the stars. Work together with other players to gather resources to advance in the game and expand your empire. Push further into the Hades Galaxy by colonizing planets and building a thriving economy.
This game takes a ton of time. This is a long-term investment that pays off. Turn based combat is complex and takes hours to master a strategy. It might be hard to get into at first; however, if you give it time, it will be a daily game in your library.
12. OUTRIDERS - 2021 (PC, XBO, XBX, PS4, PS5, Stadia)
The Earth will soon be uninhabitable, so you are sent out to the planet Epoch to colonize. Some kind of storm, the Anomaly, infects and kills many of the colonists. You are infected and placed into stasis for a few decades. When you awake, the world you find is different and divided.
The combat in this game keeps you hooked.
Building the characters and using different builds adds a great variety to the game. It can be a bit of a grind to unlock; however, the action is so good that it makes the grind easy to take.
11. No Man’s Sky - 2016 (PC, MacOS, iOS, XBO, XBX, PS4, PS5, NS)
You wake up on a planet with no memory (this is sounding like a theme in these games). You have to find your spaceship and leave the planet. You have to uncover the mysteries of the new galaxy and travel to the center of it. Plenty of controversy surrounded this game upon its release.
I think we are all pretty familiar with that. Since launch, Hello Games has done an amazing job of turning this into a great game that people have really enjoyed.
10. DC Universe Online - 2011 (PC, XBO, PS3, PS4, NS)
Brainiac creates a massive war between villains and heroes, so he can take over the Earth once the battle weakens the Earth’s defenses. Future Lex Luther comes back to tell the Justice League of the upcoming disaster. You design your own hero or villain to stop the upcoming doom.
Fighting alongside the greatest heroes (or villains if that is your thing) from the DC universe is super fun. The storyline of the main story is great. While it is a free-to-play game, you can spend money to play through many additional episodes, which add great content to the game.
9. Anarchy Online - 2001 (PC)
As a new colonist on Rubi-Ka, you arrive onthe planet after a newly signed peace treaty. Scientists have found “The Source” (which is what all life on the planet comes from), and now you have to navigate through the battle for control of all of the various factions on the planet.
At first glance, Anarchy Online looks like a dated game because it is; however, there is a reason why this is one of the longest lasting MMOs. With its well fleshed out storyline and complex gameplay system, it is easy to see why people are still playing it 21 years later.
8. Star Citizen - 2015 Early Access (PC)
Build your life in space beginning as a cargo hauler. Living life on the fringe of legality by running missions to make a little money. It’s a space simulator and FPS all at once. This game has been in development hell since 2011.
It is still in alpha testing, but what we get to see is breathtaking. It is still full of goofy bugs and glitches that need to be worked out. If we ever get a finished product, this could be one of the best games ever made.
7. Risk of Rain 2 - 2020 (PC, XBO, PS4, NS, Stadia)
You crash land on a planet, again. Collect money and upgrades while defeating enemies while you look for the teleporter to the next world. Play through the game loops to unlock new characters.
The goal of the game is to explore and find stuff. You have to do it fast. The longer that you stay on a planet, the harder it gets. Speed is at a premium. Just not at the expense of farming for money and materials.
6. DarkOrbit - 2006 (PC, Mac, Web)
Choose your company between Venus Resources Unlimited, Earth Industries Cooperation, or Mars Mining Operations and start destroying enemy ships. Gather resources and upgrade your ship. This game has seen a massive dropoff in players.
There are 300 million registered users. It’s like an upgraded version of Asteroids. It takes a lot of grinding to upgrade your ships, but it is a great time to spin around and kill your opponents.
5. PlanetSide 2 - 2012 (PC, PS4)
A wormhole opened above Earth. And then it closed. It opened again 100 years later. And closed again. Third time’s a charm except when only half the fleet makes it through. The unlucky ones who made it through the wormhole can’t get home.
The massive online battles are incredible. The best thing, it’s free-to-play but not pay-to-win. It can host up to 2,000 people in a single match. Choose your class and enter the massive battlefield on behalf of your faction.
4. EVE Online - 2003 (PC, MacOS)
Earth begins to colonize the Milky Way with the assistance of a wormhole. When the wormhole collapses, the colonists are left cutoff from Earth and need to survive on their own. Over the generations, the survivors wrote off Earth and the colonization as legend. Now, you get to make your mark on New Eden.
With 7,800 star systems to navigate, EVE Online gives a ton of exploration options. The single universe setting makes things very interesting as players and alliances control what is happening in the galaxy. Now that it is free-to-play, many of the game’s mechanics have been placed behind a paywall.
3. Star Wars: The Old Republic - 2011 (PC)
Taking place 300 years after Knights of the Old Republic (and 3,600 years before the movies), Star Wars: The Old Republic gives you the chance to jump into either the Galactic Republic or Sith Empire.
Make your mark on the Star Wars galaxy. Whether playing as a Jedi or Sith or Smuggler, this game does a great job of immersing you in the Star Wars storyline. I haven’t played in a while, but I know I put in way more hours than I’m willing to admit.
2. Warframe - 2013 (PC, XBO, XBX, PS4, PS5, NS)
Play as an ancient warrior race, the Tenno, who is fighting a human cyborg enemy, the Grineer. Craft gear and weapons to fight in this super fast paced combat system. The design of this game is amazing. The fighting is insane as you fly through enemies and hack away at enemies.
The art of the game is beautifully original. It can be tough to get into early because it is a bit complex. Hang in there, it gets highly addictive.
1. Destiny 2 - 2017 (PC, Stadia, XBO, XBX, PS4, PS5)
As a guardian of the Last City, you must protect humanity. The Red Legion is attacking the city. Pick your class and fight back. Unravel the story and save the Last City. This game is consistently one of the top played games on Steam, which is pretty good for a game that is five years old.
The gunplay is fantastic. There are consistent updates with plenty of new content for the game.
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