Distant Worlds: Universe
Code Force · 2014 · Strategy, 4X, Space, Sci-fi, Simulation
PC
Mostly Positive72% · 1,41481Metacritic
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About Distant Worlds: Universe
✦ AI summary
Command epic galactic empires across procedurally-generated universes with up to 1,400 star systems in this pausable 4X strategy game that blends real-time accessibility with turn-based depth. Automate mundane tasks, engage in diplomacy and espionage, design custom ships, and carve your own path through space—whether you're conquering aggressively or building peacefully in sandbox mode.
The Universe is Yours!
Distant Worlds: Universe is the newest chapter of this critically acclaimed sci-fi series, adding incredible new features and an exciting new storyline. Universe is also the ultimate collector’s edition, the first time all previous Distant Worlds releases have been included in one package, along with an updated manual and greatly expanded modding support.
Distant Worlds is a vast, pausable real-time 4X space strategy game. Experience the full depth and detail of turn-based strategy, but with the simplicity and ease of real-time, and on the scale of a massively-multiplayer online game.
Vast galaxies are made to order: up to 1400 star systems, with up to 50,000 planets, moons and asteroids. Galaxies are so deep, fun and immersive that you won’t want to finish the game. Build, expand and improve your empire while playing through one of the storylines, with victory conditions or in an open-ended sandbox mode.
Each galaxy is packed with life and activity. Encounter other empires, independent alien colonies, traders, pirates and space monsters. Explore star systems, asteroid fields, gas clouds, supernovae, galactic storms and black holes. Discover evidence of civilizations long since past, uncovering secrets about the galaxy's troubled history...
Best of all, you can play the game your way: enjoy a quick, intense game in a crowded sector of space or take your time in an epic game spread across a vast galaxy!
A new official storyline built using the new modding capabilities, covering the first war between the Freedom Alliance and the Shaktur Axis, in which you have access to the tech required to build your own planet destroyers, establish the Ancient Guardians and research and deploy the Xaraktor virus.
Distant Worlds: Universe is the newest chapter of this critically acclaimed sci-fi series, adding incredible new features and an exciting new storyline. Universe is also the ultimate collector’s edition, the first time all previous Distant Worlds releases have been included in one package, along with an updated manual and greatly expanded modding support.
Distant Worlds is a vast, pausable real-time 4X space strategy game. Experience the full depth and detail of turn-based strategy, but with the simplicity and ease of real-time, and on the scale of a massively-multiplayer online game.
Vast galaxies are made to order: up to 1400 star systems, with up to 50,000 planets, moons and asteroids. Galaxies are so deep, fun and immersive that you won’t want to finish the game. Build, expand and improve your empire while playing through one of the storylines, with victory conditions or in an open-ended sandbox mode.
Each galaxy is packed with life and activity. Encounter other empires, independent alien colonies, traders, pirates and space monsters. Explore star systems, asteroid fields, gas clouds, supernovae, galactic storms and black holes. Discover evidence of civilizations long since past, uncovering secrets about the galaxy's troubled history...
Best of all, you can play the game your way: enjoy a quick, intense game in a crowded sector of space or take your time in an epic game spread across a vast galaxy!
Distant Worlds: Universe contains all of the following:
Features:
- Truly Epic-Scale Galaxies: play in galaxies with up to 1400 star systems and 50,000 planets, moons and asteroids. Vast nebula clouds spiral out from the galactic core, shaping the distribution of star clusters in the galaxy
- Private Enterprise: the private citizens of your empire automatically take care of mundane tasks like mining resources, transporting cargo, migration between colonies, tourism and much more. This frees you from micro-management and instead allows you to focus on a macro-scale
- Diplomacy: interact with other empires, discussing treaties, making trade offers or just giving them a piece of your mind. Talk to pirate factions, tapping into their underground information, or paying them to do your dirty work for you...
- Choose your Playstyle: Start with a single planet and sub-light ships, or as an established space-faring civilization with warp drives. Play as a Standard empire or as a Pirate faction, with many adjustable victory conditions and gameplay choices depending on your actions.
- Intelligent Automation: automate the various tasks in your empire, so that you can focus on the areas that you enjoy most. Or have your advisors make suggestions in different areas like colonization, defence or diplomacy – helping you learn the best tactics and strategies
- Explore: explore the vast galaxy, discovering valuable resources, potential colonies for your empire and making contact with other empires. Uncover secrets that lift the veil on the galaxy’s mysterious past...
- Colonize: send out colony ships to found new worlds for your empire. Develop your new colonies by keeping them well-supplied with a steady stream of valuable resources
- Defend: patrol the outlying areas of your empire to protect from raiding pirates or dangerous space monsters. Construct defensive bases at your colonies. Build up your fleets to defend against enemy empires. Recruit troops to invade enemy colonies and conquer the galaxy!
- Espionage: covertly seek out information about other empires, or even disrupt their progress with acts of sabotage
- Research: develop new technologies for use in building your own unique ships and star bases
- Characters: including Leaders, Admirals, Generals, Ambassadors, Governors, Agents and Scientists, all with defined skills and traits and the opportunity to advance and improve
- Design and Build: A very flexible system allows you to design and build the ships and star bases in your empire. Construct mighty military ships ranging from escorts to carriers and dreadnoughts at your space ports, or build mining stations, research installations or secret monitoring facilities at remote locations throughout the galaxy
- Built-in Game Editor: fine-tune your own galaxy, adding or removing star systems, planets, asteroid fields, ships, star bases, space monsters or anything else. Modify the attributes of any empire in your game
- Extensive Help: exhaustive, built-in, context-sensitive help is always only a single key-press away. Press F1 at any time for a detailed explanation of the current game screen, your currently selected item, etc
- Tutorials: in-game tutorials familiarize you with all of the game elements and tools
New to Universe!
- The entire Distant Worlds series in one package! Universe includes the Original Distant Worlds, Return of the Shakturi, Legends, Shadows and the new Universe expansion!
- Comprehensive Modding and Customization Support: Allows adding/removing/changing most items: resources (including new colony-manufactured resources), ship components, planetary facilities and wonders, fighter designs, alien races and race families, diplomatic dialog, empire policy, custom characters, ship and base design templates, governments, plagues, research tech trees and more
- Can customize most of the images used in the game: ships and bases, fighters, alien races, planetary facilities and wonders, characters, troops, components, resources, ancient ruins, planets, stars, asteroids, animated in-game effects and more
- Use a previously saved and editor-customized game as a map for a new game (instead of generating a new galaxy)
- Powerful new event system accessible from a considerably-upgraded Game Editor. Set up your own storyline in a custom map with triggered events and custom victory conditions
- Add story triggers on specific in-game objects or events, executing one or more actions on other in-game objects (either immediately or delayed)
- Can replace most of the user interface icons and sound effects
- Add your own custom help files to the in-game Galactopedia
- Switch between different customization sets with a couple of mouse clicks from the main game menu
- Comprehensive 99-page Modding Guide that outlines how to make Mods and explains all of the settings in detail
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Vanilla install looked rather unplayable and I installed dastactic dw1 ui mod and also went into the .exe props and overrode the DPI settings to System(Enhanced) and it was fine. Unfortunately, they aren't hi res fonts, so they are a tad blurry around the edges, def not clear fonts. I'm not sure how much this can be improved upon as I just wanted to see if I could get the thing readable after reading the negative reviews. Back in the day, I was drooling over the complex looking 4x system here and was just dying to get this game. Well, somewhere over the years I must have picked it up on sale as I don't even remember purchasing it, could have been on a Bacardi shopping spree for all I know. With that said and it installed, I would love to sink my teeth into it as it has the reputation of being the one of the best space 4x games of all time. If we are ever in another pandemic lockdown with months to spare ahead of us, I may just do that. In the meantime, I have many 4x games, some space, that are more readable.4 found this helpful
Distant Worlds: Universe, developed by Code Force and published by Slitherine Ltd., stands as one of the most ambitious grand strategy games ever created within the 4X genre. Serving as the complete edition of the series, it combines the base game with every expansion while introducing additional improvements, modding capabilities, and refined documentation. Rather than focusing on cinematic presentation or fast-paced gameplay, it invites players into a massive living galaxy where exploration, diplomacy, warfare, trade, and empire management are woven into an incredibly detailed simulation. From the moment a new campaign begins, the sheer scale becomes apparent, with enormous procedurally generated galaxies containing thousands of celestial bodies and numerous competing civilizations that ensure every playthrough unfolds differently. What truly separates the game from many of its contemporaries is its flexible real-time design paired with extensive automation options. Players can pause the action whenever needed to carefully issue commands or analyze the state of their empire, creating a pace that rewards thoughtful planning instead of rushed decision-making. Virtually every aspec…3 found this helpful
not for everyone but 10/10 for me much better than the sequel and still my favorite rts to this day2 found this helpful
I didn't realize this for a while but I've been a fan of this game since it released may 23rd 2014, because I bought two copies of the game for I and my brother on the 29th of may 2014, and then I bought myself a copy of Distant Worlds 2 uh um, eventually, but I have it now is the point. I think the game is great in short. I was looking up um games that are like Star Control II The Ur Quan Masters, and somehow this game came up and I thought it was the greatest thing, I played like 90 hours immediately and then I blitzed out for a decade and then some. I think it's great though
Pros: -Detailed 4X -Shipbuilding -Ship Salvaging -Ship Boarding -Piracy -Tax (evasion) -Automation -Well optimized -Affordable on sale -Will run on a potato. Cons: //Good luck getting this game to work. You need a DX 11 install from 2016 that doesn't work anymore. Assuming you can get that from old depreicated links in 10-15 year old posts from the Slytherin fourms, the remainder now relies on you to actually install and run the thing properly, which is an utter nightmare. I don't even remember how I did it, and this is the third computer I've got it working on. It's arcane knowledge. // -Poorly balanced gameplay mechanics. -Poorly balanced weapons. -Poorly explained mechanics. -More UI screens than a Paradox game. -Overtly complex and unexplained scaling formulas -Weak modability -Old game, no more updates, go play DWU2 if you want updates, and if you can afford it. This game is for people who like Hoi4, but want to experience Hoi4 in space. 9.5/10 Uncut Diamond of a game. Could've been better, but it is what it is.
I'll give it a borderline positive mainly because it has not aged well over the years compared to its competitors. 60/100
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