NO Mans Sky. You can dogfight space pirates. I need to spin the game up again now that custom ships are a thing.
The custom interiors and crew based stuff is really interesting and I want to see it as a light no fire testbed if nothing else after they said it was the same core tech as their ocean faring ships.
Star Wars Squadrons is pretty good fun.
That looks fun! I am a sucker for games set in classic SW.
Fun in VR, too
If you want something a bit closer to Starfox, rather than an all-range flight arena, try Rogue Flight. It definitely evokes the power fantasy feeling, living up the classic arcade trope of "one ship being readied on a mission to save humanity". There's some very big-name voice actor work in it, as well.
Another good game for the "power fantasy" trope, though it's a bit more outside the target, is Ace Combat 7. Or, perhaps any games in the series, but this one is pretty accessible. The combat is close to what you'd get in X-Wing/Tie-Fighter, but with fighter planes. It breaks from realism a little bit where needed to make the stunts fun. And, the story very much orients around the silent player character being "scary tough" in a fight, to the point enemy fighters are retreating just from seeing your wing markings.
No mention of Starlancer? It kinda flew under the radar but had a nice setting and good controls.
+1 for Rebal Galaxy
Everspace 2 might be what you're looking for. It's fighter piloting and npt battleship style combat bit it's one of the closest feels I had to what Xwing vs Tie Fighter was back in the day. You can drift and swap end for end just like XvT.
You might also like the spaceship portions of Star Wars Outlaws. I've been having fun in there, too.
Freelancer is still the best of its genre, IMO.
It's abandonware, so you can download it for free, and the community has released a ton of mods over the years.
but the combat is a bit too hard for me
I haven't really played since I was at most a teen so maybe the later battles aren't actually as hard as I remember, but if this is a bottleneck then OP may find later sections of the game's main story frustrating. I think the game itself is a good vibe fit and has broadly aged well, but something to keep in mind for OP!
There's a new game in early access called "Jump Space" that has been pretty fun so far. You can play it solo but is more fun with others, as you work as a crew with roles such as pilot, gunner, engineering etc.
Random question about Jump Space. Is it like Sea of Thieves or Void Crew where it's kind of only fun if you're playing with actual friends and everyone is on mic and isn't very functional if you're matching up with randoms?
Been keeping an eye on this game, but have also come to realize that while I like the idea of games like SoT or Void Crew I don't actually like playing them cuz I don't like games that require that level of coordination with randoms who don't know exactly what to do.
To be clear, I'm obsessed with coop games like Deep Rock Galactic and the new Mycopunk. And I've spent decades waiting for that perfect space shooter that transitions from ship combat to ground combat. But the bottom line is I'll always be matching up with randoms and if this isn't that kind of game then I'm gonna sit this one out.
Yes I think it would be frustrating if you are playing with random people. Learning is part of the gameplay so experienced players will have to teach / direct new players. For example, my group died multiple times when we had to deal with radiation just because we didn't know what to do with irradiated material.
On mic is absolutely a requirement as coordination is a major emphasis. Granted the game is still in active development. But from what I've heard, the new features will require even more teamwork and coordination.
I.e. you can have fire on one side of the ship and radiation on the other, whilst in the middle of a dogfight. These elements are scaled to the size of your party and difficulty level though. If you play solo, you have an onboard bot that helps and you don't have to juggle as much.
Thanks for the info. Exactly what I needed.
If you're into Babylon 5, there's actually a game called Babylon 5: I've Found Her that captures the spirit of the fighter combat pretty well IMO. Might be worth checking out!
Wow! Didn't know about that, thanks!!
FTL and star command come to mind.
Isn't FTL more of a base (ship) builder than a space dogfight type game?
Yeah
If you want bigger ships than fighters:
Rebel Galaxy(its completely different compared to RG Outlaw) - big ships, can hire a single mercenary, combat for you happens in 2D and its more of naval style with broadsides and automated turrets.
Between the Stars - you have a spaceship with a crew and can also hire 2 more ships to help you out(once you gear them), game got plenty of quests with some puzzles to boat, "ground combat" which is using dice(or can be disabled completely) and space combat takes a bit to get used to.
+1 for Rebel Galaxy.
It came out a few years ago but it's still a really good game that I'll pick up every now and then. The combat is surprisingly good for a space game that's on a 2d plane.
Completely offline which is nice also.
+2
It's also got a badass soundtrack
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