This is the game genre for space explorers, traders and fighters. Main feature that is in common for space combat games is real time combat, use of joysticks, finding a better ship, equipping better lasers, beam, rockets or torpedo weapons, and then the fun may commence. Everyone is expecting Star Citizen to come out, mainly because it was by far the record setting crowdfunding project ever(only being topped by DAO that got hacked in cryptocurrency), that proves how big cult following of this type of games is out there, but until that game comes out we have an abundance of old and recent space combat games. Here are some of the best ones.
Freespace 2
Eye candy of the time and great game, Freespace 2 had it all. Capital ships fighting in nebulas, every once in a while you get new cool ships to fly with. Once you complete a mission you can relax in your massive space base until the next mission. Freespace 2 had that nice feel when piloting the ships where you had to use constant afterburners to get to the objective fastest and destroy that aliens Shivan scum.
Freelancer
This game was one of the most played games when they released it back in 2003 because of good looking universe and fast action paced space combat gameplay. Picking items from destroyed ships and trading to mass your wealth and buy even better ships and advanced weaponry made this game one of the best.
X3: Reunion
Capturing ships and exploring the universe has never been so much fun as in this game.Imagine open space "sandbox" game where you have the freedom to do what want and not necessarily follow plot quests and just explore and do your thing. There are ships available for various tasks, fast scouting ships, freighters, powerful battleships etc.
Elite: Dangerous
Latest on this list is Elite: Dangerous released in 2014. You can explore big part of our galaxy with more than 200 million star system. Talking about huge, this game is quite complex There is a big economy system in this game and you can spend many hours exploring our Milky Way Galaxy.
