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Game
Game2014
Distant Worlds: Universe
Developer Code Force
Distant Worlds is a real-time grand strategy wargame developed by Code Force and published by Matrix Games. Distant Worlds was released on March 25, 2010. Three subsequent expansions, Return of the Shakturi, Legends, and Shadows were released in 2010, 2011, and 2013, respectively. The game appeared on the Steam platform on May 23, 2014, under the name Distant Worlds: Universe, gathering the original game and all… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
170 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 15, 2026 · last updated Oct 16, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
59
Mixed
53 positive · 37 negative
95% range 49–68%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 53 | 37 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 4 | 2 | 70 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
1,122 of 1,508 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
60% recommend · 53 yes, 36 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 89 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (1,394 of 1,858 positive).
Players praise the game's depth and complexity, calling it a favorite 4X strategy game. [1][2][3] Many reviewers report that the game fails to launch on modern Windows systems. [4][5][6] Some players find the UI and font size unreadable at high resolutions. [7][8]
Representative posts
- [4]
Imagine charging $30-$60 bucks for a game that doesn't even work and when you are told that you just say "oh It's old so I can't fix it". I can expect to have to fan patch a Half-Life mod from 2001 to work, but not a product being sold for $30 lmao
- [7]
TLDR: UI and font size make the game nearly unplayable. PROS: ➕Incredibly deep 4x mechanics ➕Massive universe map CONS: ➖No native way to increase font/UI size - Text is literally almost unreadable at 1440p ➖Terrible UI ➖Insane learning curve Final Verdict – [2/10] What I was hoping for was Crusader Kings 2, but in space. What I got was the humble beginnings of an IP that I found unplayable due to technical issues. …
- [1]
For all those who encounter a crash on startup: try editing startup.ini in the game folder. Change "Play Movie 1" to "Play Movie 0". After putting more than 750 hours into this game over more than 10 years, I am finally ready to write a review. This is it. The space 4x strategy game that I keep coming back to among all the others. I have played Stellaris, Sins of a Solar Empire, Masters of Orion, StarDrive, Endless …
- [2]
Distant Worlds Universe had been sitting in my Steam library for quite a while and I thought nothing of it. But when I recently learned how to play this initially daunting game (thanks to the tutorials from TortugaPower on YouTube), it has quickly become my favorite and addictiest 4X game. An absolute gem. DWU is a 2D, realtime-with-pause 4X game. But where most 4X games I've played tend to more or less resemble …
- [3]
Weird I never wrote a review for this one. A great, large-scale Space Empire Conquest Game. My current game is 40 empires, 1400 systems, currently setting up 5 ground-bombardment-and-invasion fleets for some pirates that have been extorting me for a while. If Shadow Empire is my favorite ground-based strategic-war game- this is easily my favorite space-based one. It's a classic and it has a few mods that add a BUNCH …
Summarised from 34 of the 149 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Distant Worlds: Universe sits at 59% positive across 90 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Distant Worlds received generally positive reviews upon its release. RTSguru gave it 8 out of 10, praising the replayability and large galaxies, while diverting some criticism towards the user interface and graphics. Gamesquad awarded it an 8.0 out of 10, praising the automation options and the economical system of the game. However, they expressed some concern towards the game's tutorial, stating that "while the game does help the new player with its efficient UI and two tutorials, the player still feels like the game stuffs him in a spacesuit, gives him a pat on the back and kicks him out the airlock to fend for himself." Metacritic recorded a weighted average score of 81/100 for Distant…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 170 · most liked firstFor all those who encounter a crash on startup: try editing startup.ini in the game folder. Change "Play Movie 1" to "Play Movie 0". After putting more than 750 hours into this game over more than 10 years, I am finally ready to write a review. This is it. The space 4x strategy game that I keep coming back to among all the others. I have played Stellaris, Sins of a Solar Empire, Masters of Orion, StarDrive, Endless Space, even space 4x games as far back as Spaceward Ho! and Stars!, which…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm gonna go to a Distant Worlds concert tomorrow with @audev.bsky.social and @loto.bsky.social ! Woo! Wondering what FF game songs they're going to perform.
neutral · AI labelView post →Love this game, although I just recently got it to run on Steam. I'm old-school and love the depth of older games - unlike the playschool crap they put out these days. For those having issue, I have a windows 10 machine. Went through the 'pinned' troubleshooting guide, which was useless. Found someone's comment about finding the game's Startup.ini and setting playmovie from 1 to 0. That was it, works like a charm. Hope this helps someone. Update - I've downloaded and installed the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Spend as much time with your loved ones as you can and when you can - and take lots of photos and videos (and screenshots in game!) We last saw each other at the NYC Distant Worlds in June which also happened to be her birthday, and i will treasure that memory always
neutral · AI labelView post →Install Game Right click it in your library and select Properties... Click Installed Files, and click Browse In the files locate startup.ini and open it with a text editor Find 'playmovie 1', and change it to 'playmovie 0' Save Open the game directly using the executable That should get the game to work, it did for me anyway. If that doesn't work, install https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=8109
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Distant Worlds 3 event happening in Elite Dangerous is so cool; folks have built an entire roleplaying game platform around it, there are radio stations, a magazine, a SRV racing circuit, a bunch of people doing nerd things in spreadsheets, plus more, and it's entirely community-driven.
neutral · AI labelView post →An Elite Dangerous player discovered a way to write new stories into the margins of the 12-year-old space sandbox, and now thousands are testing it. How the nearly 9,000 players on the Distant Worlds 3 expedition are contributing to the birth of something new.
neutral · AI labelView post →An Elite Dangerous player discovered a way to write new stories into the margins of the 12-year-old space sandbox, and now thousands are testing it. How the nearly 9,000 players on the Distant Worlds 3 expedition are contributing to the birth of something new.
neutral · AI labelView post →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 in Distant Worlds 2. April Choice supports One Tree Planted | bit.ly/4jcEFj0
neutral · AI labelView post →Everyone cheered when they started playing music from FFXV and I wanted to cry happy tears lmao, that game will always hold a special place in my heart Also they played Ascension from 16, Dion enjoyers we were fed Anyway Distant Worlds was beautiful and super fun 11/10
positive · AI labelView post →Imagine charging $30-$60 bucks for a game that doesn't even work and when you are told that you just say "oh It's old so I can't fix it". I can expect to have to fan patch a Half-Life mod from 2001 to work, but not a product being sold for $30 lmao
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →FINAL FANTASY FEBRUARY Not really sure what I want to say on the last day, so here's my copy of Theatrhythm. For my first Distant Worlds concert I got the VIP tickets which included a meet-and-greet with Nobuo Uematsu. A rhythm game stuffed full of his music felt like the natural choice!
neutral · AI labelView post →Game was great but doesn't work anymore. There are some tips in the community to get it going but none of it worked for me. Avoid unless you want to spend hours ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with settings and ultimately go nowhere.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not for the faint of heart. If you played Stellaris, but wished there was infinitely more micromanagement, this might be the game for you. First off the game definitely show's it's age in a lot of area's. If you are playing a W10 machine checked the pinned thread in discussions for how to configure the game. For me I had to install DX9 to get it to run. I also had to reduce my resolution to 1680x1040 to see the game icon's which don't scale well to modern resolutions. The game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Returning to game after some time with new laptop and Launcher not working (Tried everything reasonable), s'pose they want you to shell out for DW2... Remember that before you buy, either. Edit: Discovered solution steamcommunity.com/app/261470/discussions/1/3882723431863857319/
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Introduce yourself with the last five concerts you saw: Halestorm, Lindsey Stirling, and Apocalyptica Stardew Symphony Sabaton & Judas Priest Distant Worlds - Final Fantasy Symphony Eorzean Symphony I... uhh... really like video game symphony music. 😅
neutral · AI labelView post →I've hardly been to any concerts or musicals unless you count video game music concerts, in which case: I've seen Video Games Live twice, Distant Worlds, two seperate video game and Final Fantasy symphonies, a Zelda orchestra, and Sonic concerts also! Next is Stardew Valley and Clair Obscur 👀
neutral · AI labelView post →Today's game of the week is very special to me. This is my copy of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for the 3DS, signed by Nobuo Uematsu at a Distant Worlds concert. I couldn't think of anything better to have signed than a rhythm game where he wrote most of the music.
neutral · AI labelView post →TLDR: UI and font size make the game nearly unplayable. PROS: ➕Incredibly deep 4x mechanics ➕Massive universe map CONS: ➖No native way to increase font/UI size - Text is literally almost unreadable at 1440p ➖Terrible UI ➖Insane learning curve Final Verdict – [2/10] What I was hoping for was Crusader Kings 2, but in space. What I got was the humble beginnings of an IP that I found unplayable due to technical issues. While I loved the complexity and potential available…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So unbelievably sad about this one, it was one of the best galactic strategy games out there, but it desperately needs a fix to work on anything past windows 9. None of the suggested fixes have resolved the issue, so the game has essentially sat in my steam library for years in the hope that the devs will deign to fix this. Even the GOG version is broken, so it really shouldn’t be up for sale. I’m holding on to this in the vague hope that this will get along better with Steam machine w/ Steam…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well what can I say. I had this game in my library for a couple of years reluctant to start playing as it seemed overwhelming. Boy was I wrong and wish I'd started earlier. Everything can be adjusted to your playstyle. Heck you can even automate everything and just explore the galaxy Star Trek style. To get the game to run on win 11 just go to the setup ini file and change the intro video to 0 rather than 1 so that it skips the video at the start avoiding a crash.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →“Distant Worlds: Universe is my favourite space strategy game. Not my favourite space strategy game released this week and not my favourite space strategy game released this year. It’s the definitive version of the best space strategy game I’ve ever played and I want to share the excitement with everyone”. Rock Paper Shotgun. Probably. However I will never know since the game is not launching. There exists a forum post with tips to get this to run, but none of those work. This game has been…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game did not launch it appears there is host of things to try to make it work , however I am not the IT type, to reinstall or try installing an older version .net framework for a $3 game I feel this is the responsibility of the DEV'S to make their game work or at least provide a comprehensive fix. I would consider this abandon ware.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →no multiplayer. thank god
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Distant Worlds Universe had been sitting in my Steam library for quite a while and I thought nothing of it. But when I recently learned how to play this initially daunting game (thanks to the tutorials from TortugaPower on YouTube), it has quickly become my favorite and addictiest 4X game. An absolute gem. DWU is a 2D, realtime-with-pause 4X game. But where most 4X games I've played tend to more or less resemble board games, DWU is closer to a simulation with RTS elements. Resources must be…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We listen to and analyze six pieces of music from #FinalFantasy XI Having limited experience with the game itself, we pull primarily from Distant Worlds and New Worlds albums and think on the nature of medieval or renaissance music PLUS: Xenogears, Final Fantasy VIII & FFVII Rebirth comparisons:
neutral · AI labelView post →Oh cool, the Distant Worlds 3 starport is in-game now and it's like 50,000lys away from civilisation... but it's got a cute name...
neutral · AI labelView post →albums i downloaded recently: Cowboy Bebop OST 1, 2, 3, Tank the Best, Vitaminless Distant Worlds Zelda 30th Anniversary Concert Live at Symphony Hall Video game Orchestra Speeding through adventures(Sonic OCRemix) Window to the Stars(Mario RPG OCRemix) Nujabes albums Evangelion/FLCL OSTs
neutral · AI labelView post →Game is so unoptimized for modern systems its unbearable. The game doesn't start past the launcher which I believe is due to it not being optimized for windows 11. If you want to play this game you'll probably have to get a virtual machine and then get the OS for windows 8.1 and possibly having to pay for the license code.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Spent the day traipsing around downtown Houston with friends from out-of-town today. First to an Astros game (they dominated the A's), now a Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy concert.
neutral · AI labelView post →I want to play this game but I can't read anything the text is tiny and dense
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It just doesn't start. if you have Windows 10, good luck playing because it want start
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🚀Go behind the scenes with the x.com/SlitherineGa... / Code Force team as they reveal how they built Distant Worlds 2 using the Stride engine. Learn about their technical choices, performance optimizations, and more! #GameDev #Stride3d #StrideEngine www.stride3d.net/blog/distant...
neutral · AI labelView post →game does not launhc on windows 11, tried lots of supposed fixes
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun fact about me: I am so very good at jumping onto trends late, hence why my first ever FF game was 14, and I missed the train there too by starting at Dawn Trail. Based on recommendations from friends and a Distant Worlds concert, which played Zanarkand, I have decided to start with 10.
neutral · AI labelView post →Doesn't run on windows 11.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think any video-game themed orchestral concert (Distant Worlds, etc.) could be vastly improved is there were no screen involved. leave the distraction of cutscenes and gameplay footage out of the symphony hall and allow the music and performance itself to be the unfettered primary focus!
negative · AI labelView post →I was surprised like half of Distant Worlds was XIV and XVI music, but thinking about it if you played a “new” Final Fantasy game in the past decade it was going to be either XVI or a XIV expac
neutral · AI labelView post →Complete unusable RUBBISH. Code Force should've fixed this long ago.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My plans tonight. Had to close my eyes during FFXVI’s ‘Ascension’ at Distant Worlds last night to make sure I didn’t get spoiled by the accompanying game video. :3
neutral · AI labelView post →Better than Distant Worlds 2
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →All of the sudden this game stopped working on my Windows 10 PC, and none of the community fix guides worked for me. Pretty frustrated by this fact and therefore cannot possibly recommend it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game on discs and all it's DLCs several years ago and it ran fine on my then Windows 7 computer. I especially liked the game editor; really useful for viewing the entire galaxy and all my opponents. The editor gave me a ton of options for improving things and it was hard to avoid using it. Anyway, the game was fun to play and not really that hard to understand. None of the disks now work on Windows 10, so that version of the game is now just history. The current version…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It just doesn't start on Windows 10 ... Waste of money
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot get this game to work. I checked all the boxes on the support tab and searched the web for fixes. It opens in task manager but then fails. Please comment if you can help
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Distant Worlds concert making me want to find my whimsy again and remember all cool ppl i met playing ff14. Listening to Amanda perform Flow and realizing that a couple bad experiences do not make up the majority of my experience with the game Also i miss playing Au Ra
neutral · AI labelView post →Some doodles after going to the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert. It was the first time going to a video game concert and it was really fun 😭
positive · AI labelView post →It won't start. It goes to their launcher and then a game mini-window comes up for a second, and then it goes away and that's it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →not for everyone but 10/10 for me much better than the sequel and still my favorite rts to this day
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →my son likes the tech progression but its very complicated for a 12yr old but he found videos and it was much easier. one of his favs.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →still bouncing off the walls with excitement DISTANT WORLDS WAS SO LOVELY AAAAA i've always wanted to hear a vidy game orchestra live 🥹
positive · AI labelView post →$2.99 buy it on sale omg I’ve owned it for years but I seen today it’s $2.99 on sale If you like 4x grand strategy games this game has years of mod support a amazing Star Trek mod and I can’t recommend it enough
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Even at Distant Worlds when they played music from xvi there was some miserable person saying out loud how they didn't like the game and gods I was so close to turning around and looking at them but their friend told them to stfu (thank you)
neutral · AI labelView post →This review is based on thousands of (unmodded - vanilla) hours in DWU, not in steam as it won't run on modern systems. If you came here from DW2 then I guess I could say that this is the game I want DW2 to be, and hope it will be one day. There are two main reasons why. If you are not coming from DW2 you can skip this bit. 1 in DWU you have almost total freedom designing ships and bases. You can use what is available to you in terms of resources and tech and design a bedstead with a reactor…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →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,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →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…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Weird I never wrote a review for this one. A great, large-scale Space Empire Conquest Game. My current game is 40 empires, 1400 systems, currently setting up 5 ground-bombardment-and-invasion fleets for some pirates that have been extorting me for a while. If Shadow Empire is my favorite ground-based strategic-war game- this is easily my favorite space-based one. It's a classic and it has a few mods that add a BUNCH of extra fun.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of my favorite 4X games. This game includes all of the expansions to the original game. I didn't see all that much improvement in Distant Worlds 2. I see that some people have had issues running it on Windows 10 & 11. I never had an issue, but I also understand that there is a fix to that.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Finish the first rough rough draft of my novel DISTANT WORLDS, a queer space adventure love story that is a game changer for the genre. Yes, I will also write the TV pilot or feature film version. Or the graphic novel version (might even draw it?) #ScriptSky #FiveAfterFive
neutral · AI labelView post →Looks like something I would enjoy, but takes a ton of time to learn, at least I would think, to play as in-depth as I would like. Game ran perfectly, despite being on modern hardware, and performed well... just seems to be one hell of a micro management game (which I typically enjoy) with tons of automation, partially or fully, which turn it into more of a macro game. Gives the feel of Starsector, but in a more basic sense, as attacks appear to be more HP based instead of location based, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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