Space Engineers review

This Space Engineers review is based on official sources and player reviews, not on our own play time. Keen Software House's sandbox game, in which you design, build and fly ships, stations and bases in a destructible world, costs $19.99 on Steam. Keen says all of its DLC is cosmetic. This page covers the original Space Engineers, released in full in 2019, not Space Engineers 2, which has been in Early Access since January 2025.

What is Space Engineers?

Space Engineers is a sandbox engineering game by Keen Software House. You design small and large ships, asteroid stations and planetary bases from more than 200 block types, such as thrusters, rotors, pistons, turrets and conveyors, then explore, mine and fight in a fully destructible world. Its volumetric physics engine gives every block and voxel mass, inertia and damage, so ships can break apart and terrain can be drilled and reshaped.

There are two main modes. Creative gives unlimited resources and instant building with no death. Survival asks you to weld blocks together by hand, manage power, oxygen and hydrogen, and respawn after death. You can play alone, in co-op or competitive multiplayer, or on dedicated servers, and the Steam Workshop hosts ships, mods, scripts and scenarios.

The game entered Steam Early Access on October 23, 2013, and fully released on February 28, 2019. Keen still ships free updates: Prosperity arrived on July 27, 2026, and Warfare 3, a free combat update with guided missiles and EMP weapons, was announced in September 2026.

Is Space Engineers free?

No. Space Engineers is a paid game. Steam sells it for $19.99 in the US as of October 30, 2026, and Keen's official store lists the same $19.99 price with buttons for PC (Steam), Xbox and PlayStation. Keen's store also sells Space Engineers: Complete, the base game plus all DLC, for $99, which it describes as a 19% bundle discount.

Once you own the game, updates are free. The Prosperity Update of July 27, 2026, for example, added a new Factorum encounter, a Ping Grid button for tracking missing ships and economy improvements at no extra cost, and Keen says the coming Warfare 3 combat update will be free as well.

Per Steam, single-player needs no internet connection. Multiplayer is part of the base game, and Keen recommends a connection of 5 Mbit/s or more for it.

Is Space Engineers pay to win? What money buys

Steam lists 20 DLC items for Space Engineers as of October 30, 2026. Nineteen are block, skin and emote packs at $4.99 each, such as the Prosperity Pack, Warfare 2 and Decorative Pack #2. Space Engineers Deluxe, with the 2013 build, the original soundtrack and concept art, costs $7.99.

Keen's Steam description says all DLC is cosmetic-only, so everyone plays with the same gameplay. The Prosperity Pack page says the owner of the pack "has no advantage against other players." If friends own a pack and you do not, you can still join their multiplayer game or server.

Steam lists no in-app purchases, and the base game has no premium currency, loot boxes, subscription or battle pass.

Based on what the official stores sell, we rate it as not pay to win; we will check this again when we play it ourselves.

Space Engineers vs Space Engineers 2

Keen now develops a separate sequel, Space Engineers 2, so check which game a store page or video covers. This page is about the original Space Engineers (Steam app 244850), which Keen also calls SE1.

Space Engineers 2 entered Steam Early Access on January 27, 2025, and costs $29.99 in the US as of October 30, 2026. Its Steam page calls it a playable Early Access Alpha sandbox focused on engineering, exploration and colonization, with a story about Miro and Ivan Sokol in the Almagest system. It received a major update, Drive, Automate & Detonate, in July 2026.

The two games are bought separately. SE1 is the full release with more than ten years of development, a large Workshop library and console versions, while Steam lists SE2 as an Early Access game for Windows. Keen keeps updating SE1: its Warfare 3 combat update was announced on September 10, 2026.

Space Engineers on PC, Mac, consoles and mobile

On PC, Space Engineers runs on Windows only. Steam lists no macOS or Linux version, and Keen's official store sends PC buyers to Steam. Steam also lists partial controller support, Steam Workshop integration, Steam Cloud and a built-in level editor.

On consoles, Keen's store links the Xbox version for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and the PlayStation 5 version, and each DLC pack has its own buy buttons for PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Steam lists cross-platform multiplayer.

There is no mobile version. Multiplayer ranges from small co-op sessions to large community servers, per the Steam page, and private dedicated servers are supported.

Space Engineers system requirements

Steam lists these requirements for 64-bit Windows 10 with DirectX 11 and 35 GB of storage.

Minimum: an Intel Core i5 at 3.0 GHz or an AMD equivalent, 8 GB of RAM, and a GeForce 750 or Radeon R9 270X or better.

Recommended: an Intel quad-core i7 at 4.5 GHz or an AMD equivalent, 16 GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX Vega 56 or better.

Both tiers list a DirectX-compatible on-board sound card. Single-player needs no internet connection; for multiplayer, Keen recommends 5 Mbit/s or more. Steam does not list a separate spec for dedicated servers.

Games like Space Engineers

These games from our catalog also involve building or commanding ships and vehicles, and all four are free to play:

Crossout: Targem Games' vehicle combat game, published by Gaijin, where you build armored vehicles from parts and fight online; on Windows, Xbox and PlayStation.

Foundation: Galactic Frontier: FunPlus's space strategy game with fleet battles and third-person ground missions, on iOS, Android, Windows and Apple-silicon Macs.

Star Trek Fleet Command: Scopely's base-building and fleet combat game with alliance PvP, on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.

Star Hunter - Infinite Lagrange: NetEase's sci-fi space fleet strategy game, on Windows through Steam plus iOS and Android.

• Crossout
• Foundation: Galactic Frontier
• Star Trek Fleet Command
• Star Hunter - Infinite Lagrange