WARDOGS
WARDOGS
Game
Game2026
Stellar Tactics
Developer Don Wilkins
A Sci-Fi role-playing game featuring turn-based ground combat, space exploration, deep character customization and a massive living universe with thousands of star systems. Equip your ships with the best equipment you can find, gather a powerful crew of mercenaries and set out into the void! From the Steam store page
215 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 4, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
63
Fresh
127 positive · 75 negative
95% range 56–69%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 127 | 75 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 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
1,064 of 1,354 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Mixed reception: praised for depth and scope, criticised for grind and jank.
Many players praise the game's massive scope, depth, and the developer's dedication, calling it a 'real gem' and 'the best game I've ever played'. However, others find it repetitive, grindy, and plagued by a clunky UI and technical issues. [8][20][28][32]
The game's procedural generation and combat are criticised for being tedious and lacking variety, with only three dungeon types and copy-pasted enemies. Some players also note that the game wastes their time with excessive travel and inventory management. [25][30][33]
Praised scope and depth · developer dedication · sandbox freedom
Criticised repetitive grind · clunky UI · tedious combat · time-wasting mechanics
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 8, 2026. Method
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Stellar Tactics sits at 63% positive across 202 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 215 · most liked firstI know making these indie game are hard. I have followed this game for a long time and waited to purchase it until it was near finished. This goes into full release quite soon... this is not a complete experience. The game has a lot on the surface but very little depth to important systems like the combat. You can fire your gun or swing your blade and each weapon has 2 abilities. That's it, leveling does not change this. You can apparently pursue psionics with your main character but that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh wow, Stellar Tactics is now content complete after almost a decade in Early Access: store.steampowered.com/app/465490/S... It's a mostly-solo dev doing a massive space CRPG that goes from tactical ground combat to free space exploration. Very complex, bold and janky, might please spacesim sickos
neutral · AI labelView post →Brilliant game. A true sandbox tactical RPG. Dev updates game every week or so (even implemented something I asked for in forum!). Really enjoying it. I will mention two cons tho: - growth is mostly via equipment. The best equipment can only be crafted and crafting gets grindy rather quick. - Once you finished the main quest, the vast universe feels a bit empty (which is probably very realistic)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Being a one man project earns some understanding, but not quite forgiveness. It's impressive how much was accomplished by a single person's vision, and tons of store assets. And the scope of the universe is very impressive. Bonus points for allowing custom portraits, and sliders to customize the experience! But that starts to falter when, 130 hours in, I've only seen three types of dungeons with the same six kinds of rooms. And the absolute grind- I felt I didn't start to get decent gear…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It could be a great game if: 1. It had a main story/quest, 2. It had tactical battles (covers, overwatch etc.) 3. Had more variative enemies/bosses For now game is a boring dungeon crawler. It is repetative as hell and have no goal.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried to like this game, I really did. I played it for maybe twice as long as I really wanted to trying to see if I was missing something, but its bad. Everything system in the game clearly had effort put into it but only gets about 70% of the way there. Ground combat for example is supposed to be tactical but at the beginning at least its most just shoot melee mobs that rush you as fast as you can. How well you do in combat also doesn't matter because you will heal up in a matter of seconds…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting. My original review is no longer here. I played this game and left a review, probably 4 years ago. At the time, I believe I gave it a "recommend" with the only 2 caveats. The first being that the "faux 3d" space flight for the tactical, real time space battles was bad because it offers nothing tactically (since shields are only 4 sides, not also top and bottom) and makes flying just more of a pain than it needs to be because the controls for it are wonky (in addition to offering…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While there is a good gameplay and story in this game, I cannot in good hearth recomend it. This game actively get out of it's way to rob you out of all the fun. Janky GUI, repetetive tasks, grind and waste of time flying. The galaxy map is 10 times too big for what the gameplay and GUI need (and there is artificial limit for quick travel - yet the places you need to go are outside of quick travel limit. Thusyou need to waste 5-10 minutes flying in FTL, then waste a few minutes more flying…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have tried so hard to like this game, respecting the amount of work put to it, but I just cant. Ground combat Slow, cumbersome, later annoying. You are placed on procedurally generated map with random enemies. It takes ages to clear. Some missions have 6 these maps chained together. Why? To punish the players? Loot is just for stats numbers and honestly you wont feel any difference with new item. I have tried to avoid ground missions at all cost later. Space combat Fun at start, gets boring…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the game, but the game has a complete disregard for your time. Space wastes your time by taking forever to get anywhere. Dungeons waste your time forcing you to walk out of the dungeon through several load screens. Loot wastes your time by filling up your inventory (which has limited slots despite access to a functionally infinite stash from anywhere) with worthless items. Combat wastes your time with clunky animations and extremely limited movement. The combat is very simplistic,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is the 100% successor to Sentinel Worlds, it has every feature except better. Random loot and weapons and ship components. I have only played 6.5 hours and it is pretty epic and I haven't even gotten to fly to the other 999 sectors. For those people that are put off by the initial pages and pages of story, read it. This guy made an entire lore and has to dump it on you somehow. Not a fan of a lot of reading in games but the more that the game progressed the deeper the story got,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Large Nothingness. This game bit off more than it can chew. While it features a vast world with thousands of systems, and even more planets, they are also pretty much all empty. Yes, you can mine, fight, scan, and do a bunch of things within those systems, but there is no difference between those systems. For someone who enjoys the story more than just reptitive tasks, this game is a disappointment. However, I don't regret buying it because it was only made by one person. But I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad game for what it is, but has some inherent problems that can affect enjoyment. I'm willing to cut the dev some slack since they are a solo dev and they never stopped working on this, but I'm afraid I'm done playing this for now. I would like to continue the main story sometime. Positives + I've played a lot of CRPGs and I swear the to-hit chance is rigged or not accurate to the numbers. I can't tell you how many times in Fallout and such I would miss 95% chance to hit twice in a row.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm hoping the game gets better but the UI is a living nightmare. I find myself constantly needing to go online just to figure out how to progress. I hope this game gets better.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →tl;dr: This game is really worth the investment it takes to get into it, but without that investment you might wonder why you are even playing it, and that is a good thing. Wish there were more games like this. Worthy of the time invested. I racked up over 150 hours in this game during EA. I bounced off it a lot at first, then it hooked me in. It is a very good game, It is good at presenting a vast interesting explorable universe through it's varied well connected game-loops and systems. It…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →CAVEAT: I'm recommending this game in the long run, but not in it's current form. I really want to love this game. I've put a decent number of hours into it, and while I haven't fully explored the storyline yet, I think I can give my thoughts at this point. To be fair to the Developer, the game is in early access and the Dev is constantly listening and updating the game, so I think that this game will be a gem in the long run. In it's current state though, it just gets boring quickly. I love…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very old school feeling game in presentation and execution. It's quite simple but also has some complex components. It does seem to be quite repetative, but also, there is bounty of freedom this game offers you. The UI is very clunky and outdated, sounds effects could be done better, a little more customization for living out the fantasy would be nice, and the combat is okayish. But it is a very chill/relaxing game at it's core loop. It's a nice sci-fi TRPG sandbox, that combines ship, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I pride myself of getting games to run smoothly since the nineties. This game just crashes all the time, and its not fixable on my end - so if you read this - hard pass until the developer gets these issues worked out. Its a nice little game in its own right though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Everything I love is in this game. So, I keep playin'. I have spent hundreds/thousands of hours by playing Mount & Blade: Warband and its mods + Battlebrothers. Now, I am spending my time by playing Stellar Tactics. It is a real gem for me. Great game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wish I could recommend this game but I just can't. It has the foundation of a good RPG but is never fully utilized. The sandbox is rife with repeatable procedurally generated dungeons that lack in variation beyond layout. There are only three type. Stations, ruins, and the station/cavernous type. That's it. Every single ruin looks like every single other ruin and you have to do a LOT to progress. You can't even get lucky and find the ruins with the stuff you are looking for because you are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At some point gameplay becomes very tedious and boring. Endless procedurally generated levels with copy-pasted enemies. There is just not enough scenario component to keep player pushing through monotonous grind for the resources. Most of the quests are like "go to another side of galaxy and kill them all". There is no even option to rescue someone or talk to someone (apart from very thin scenario piece).
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Another one with 8+ years on the Early Access clock is Stellar Tactics. An ambitious space sandbox RPG with real-time flight and exploration, but turn-based squad tactics for ground missions. Word is that the last chapter of the main story is nearly ready for beta testing. I wish them all the luck.
neutral · AI labelView post →I really wanted to like this game, it just doesn't work for me. The the biggest problems are it just seems completely random, combat is bland and the writing is not very strong. Star systems have difficulty ratings as do individual dungeons. Finding a star system that is not too difficult at the start is nearly impossible since you have to fly in a random direction in FTL and hope that eventually leads you to an easier region of space, but only if you're lucky. Dungeons even in easier…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In my opinion this game is not polished enough to be called a 1.0 release 1. There is no way to quicksave. Autosaving only happens at the beginning of a floor. The UI has this odd second or two delay after every input. Those three things combine to make the gameplay significantly worse. 2. If I understand correctly, this game has fog of war when detecting enemies. There does not seem to be much of a way to control what direction your characters look in, or how they patrol. There does not seem…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hmmm. I completed the Dauntless tutorial and got to space, just started my first free choice mission. I am not feeling very inspired, alas. The game is very clunky and feels extremely generic and unspired - extremely procedural if you know what I mean. Enemies in locations are a mix of random baddies who for no readily apparent reason all work together to kill me - why is a giant spider teamed up with a weird reptile ant eater thing to kill me? It is disjointed and makes little…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nominated for "Labor of Love" 2025 Steam Awards.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been following this game for years & it gets better & better, great storyline getting fleshed out. You have a squad with you level them up & yourself, flying a ship which you can add to or get another. Ground fighting turn by turn, space battles with your ship a great deep tree of skill upgrades you could easily sink 100 hours into this, mining asteroids it has everything you could almost want in a game worth the price.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →*** Recommended, if you're in for a long haul game. It's basically EvE Offline + Simplified XCom. Which to me is awesome, but it requires a time and brain investment. It really scratches the space game itch for me, and the ground gameplay can be fun, or kinda frustrating and excessive at times. It's good to note that there's MULTIPLE difficulty sliders for this game to help fine-tune your experience. If you don't like the ground combat, for example, there's a specific slider to turn that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →2 hours to play the 1st mission, lots of walking not much else, buggy buggy buggy, Aim keeps getting stuck after 1 shot..need to press q to unblock, happens in the temple...plus all the sound drops out after 1hr of play. AVIOD THIS MESS you know a game is broke when only 7.8% of players have unlocked the 1st ship......the ship you start the game with. due to steam refund policy being 2 hours of play....AVIOD ...the opening 1st lvl takes over 2 yours...so you cant refund it if you play the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let's me live the firefly fantasy of having my own ship and crew as I try to survive in the verse while also enjoying my favorite game genre of turn based rpg combat. It's good!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Title: Broken Contracts, Broken Trust I’ve played Stellar Tactics for years. I’ve supported it through early builds, praised its ambition, and waited patiently for updates. But now? I’m done. I accepted a delivery contract for 14,504 units of silica, worth 147.5 million credits. I followed every step: sourced the goods, reached the correct station, transferred the cargo. The game even shows the payout. But the contract demands “slice”—a typo. There is no item called “slice.” The delivery is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a great TRPG with both ground and space movement, exploration and battles. There is a robust skill system that inreases when skills/weapons are used plus trading, mining and salvaging across quite a large map. There is a central story line with many, many side quests and faction quests. You probably look at the 2016 release date and note that the game is STILL in Early Access but it still gets regular updates, several per month, and the developer keeps eveyone up to date on fixed,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A huge galaxy with lots to do. By huge I mean your great grandchildren's great grandchildren will finally finish the game for you when they clear the scavver base on the 600,000th planet in the game. You can do quests from faction agents or other faction npcs for reputation and rewards, do urgent cargo pickup and delivery missions for financial payout, do ship parts acquisition (boarding) missions, defeat phage, mutant, scavver, or other attacks that you stumble across while exploring, do…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So, earlier this month I gambled between Stellar Tactics and Wartales. I currently have 16 hours in Wartales and am raring to dive back in, I already bought a few expansions for it. I have 7 hours in Stellar Tactics and about 6 was the Dauntless tutorial, I have just been kicked to the main game and farted around a little. I could spend more time in it but I'm not really interested. I've tried to refund it twice, hoping Value might be understanding about the situation and the fact it just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →9 years and barely any change talk about fail taking money and lazy building a game, 9 Years! thats like saying 10 hours to make a french toast meal, any longer will be a lawsuit for fraud.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I deeply respect the tenacity of the solo developer who worked so hard on this game and endured so many trials along the way (he didn't give up and finished it). But unfortunately, I can't recommend it. The gameplay is incredibly monotonous, slow, and clunky, with endless backtracking, boring running around identical maps (tile sets), repetitive (and largely meaningless) encounters, monotonous gear, rather primitive builds, monotonous (and time consuming) ''quests''... And so on. Yes, the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought it 10 years ago and waited for the full release patiently. I always knew it would come out due to the amount of love and care put in and now i am finally fully playing it. Its well worth your time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stellar Tactics: Jank Monster Sometimes a solo developer works a passion project for many years and creates an amazing, singular experience. Think Andrew Spinks with Terraria, Luke Hodorowicz's beautiful Banished or Eric Barone with the exquisite Stardew Valley. Then sometimes you get something like this - a promising game that is so janky that it's excruciating to play. I might have enjoyed this game 15-20 years ago and put up with the exceptionally bad UI, the jank and the lack of respect…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well that is.. something. I mean, it is a decent execution - lots of effort went into all the parts of the game. But it didn't jive for me. Clunky. I think that's the best word for it. Even the single button for "voice" where each time you click it you change which voice is chosen - except there are no names/flavor text for any of them, so you never know what it currently stands at. Plus every time you cycle through, they say something different, so there's no direct comparison. And I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →picked up this solo dev indie game on GOG some time ago. about time to start a playthrough. #StellarTactics #VideoGames #Gaming #Games #IndieGames #CRPG Check Out - Stellar Tactics https://youtube.com/watch?v=JwFUDJesgb8&si=dw4SBjktngmfs_Qh
neutral · AI labelView post →4/10 Stellar Tactics has an identity crisis. It wants to be: - A Space Sim - An Xcom-Style strategy game - A 4x style adventure / exploration game - A modern interpretation of several other games, combined into one. However, it does none of these particularly well. It still feels like it's still in Early Access. There is a great foundation here for something incredible, but it's missing the mark in quite a few areas. The tutorial section is frustrating and quite long. - The spaceship…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Space battles. Boarding enemy ships. Ground combat. Crafting. Sandbox. Need I say more?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An excellent game, I love it! As long as you know what to expect, that its a game made by a solo developer, its incredible how much he created. You have spaceships, with varied equipment and stats, space combat that I haven't even tried yet, mining, crew skills. Also you have a main character, teammates, each with attributes, skills, perks for those skills, varied weapons, with different rarities, crafting, enemies to fight, which are also quite varied. You have a main story, missions,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My original plan was to get well into the game before I did a review. I've got over 50 hours in at this point and I am just leaving the first sector LOL. This game is so damn good. I have no idea why the reviews are mixed. If you like strategy and space games just get this one. I've paid more than twice the cost of this game for some big name titles and not gotten nearly as much enjoyment. Get a ship, assemble a crew, get missions, keep flying. There is a LOT more to it than this but if…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Game needs more content more ship models higher tiers of progression but it is worth the money. I sunk over 900 hrs into this game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1.0 release broke the game. Game slows, then stutters, followed by freezing starting approximately 10 minutes of each session. during early access, game worked fine.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I refunded it because my ancient Pc won't run it well...and its very janky also. It does have a lot of potential if its worked on though and I'll buy again once I upgrade my PC. Take into account its a solo project and an indie game and its got a lot going for it. Maybe needs some polish however. Thumbs up for me because even basement brewed games like this are superior to some AAA slop we are regularly served. And we need to encourage people to continue to make these games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is fantastic, and that's coming from someone who has owned this game for years on Early Access, kept checking back after updates, and has restarted the campaign multiple times to ensure I was enjoying the most up-to-date features, fixes, and functions. I know that a lot of people will say this is an amazing game simply due to the fact that it was all designed and programmed by a single developer, and while that is quite a damn impressive feat — that's not the reason it's amazing. It's…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →AI Slop Fest. AI Voices. AI Portraits. and for spite: They do this big universe generation at the start but it's actually dialing out to an AI station to do the generation. If you are offline, it can't regenerate, so I got suspicious and checked. There is NO disclosure on steam either, this is straight up fraud.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game says its got 160 thousand systems but in reality Its got one , It just been copy pasted 160 thousand times . But is the one sytem any good ? NO . there is one NPC that give you unlimted amounts of the same few quests like kill this guy at the end or kiill them all , every system is the same . Planets are rubish , you cant explore just land at the one mybe 2 RNG sitse . At the site for your quest there are only 2 dungeons , but again its only one with 2 textuers one meatal one stone.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its likely the best game I've ever played. It is heavily influenced by a game from (original) Nintendo called "Buck Rogers" and "Star Quest" (i think that's the name). The depth is unparalleled.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay is not as enjoyable as other's I've played. You tend to plod along with a mission that is fairly predictable and combat being nearly identical from one engagement to the next. The way in which the controls work is just odd enough (not like the other games that you are used to) especially the map and your navigational aids that it makes for a strange/awkward playthrough. I haven't gotten far in the game but my experience has lined up rather well with other commenters'…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stellar Tactics is one of those rare indie RPGs that quietly delivers more content, freedom, and depth than most big‑studio releases and for it's low purchase price, it’s honestly a steal. This is a massive, open‑ended sci‑fi universe built by a single developer, and the amount of work, care, and long‑term dedication behind it really shows. Knowing the dev pushed through personal hardship to keep this project alive only makes the achievement more impressive. There is a full sci‑fi storyline…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not being able to equip 1 handed weapons in the primary slot is terrible restriction.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Others have said it already and I have to add to it. What got me hoocked is tactical space simulation where I the player, navigate the ship in space, take quest, mine, pirate, or defend. It could be a great game if more things get implemented post release. 1. It had a main story/quest is week, you go out of boiling watter into a frying pan Intro of civic History. Then your situation escalation and it never ends, the story tells you, that you will fail but you have to try. Nice setup. Seams…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Only 20 hours in. But i love the variety of activities. The battles are fun but challenging. I love the way skills are increased by using that skill. Still much more for me to explore.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After Nearly A Decade Open Space RPG Stellar Tactics 1.0 Launches March 30.
neutral · AI labelView post →Good Game. Fully supported and worked on constantly. Its late early access I think at this point. I don't have many hours because I'm waiting for final release.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Can't wait to replay this now the story is finally done! The game is a labor of love to a dev who deserves credit for their commitment. Excited to edit my review after a play through or two.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun little game. The game's graphics aren't the best in the world. But they're not awful. Same for the A.I. Could use a bigger player inventory and more weapon types. Not the game you will play all the time. But a nice little side game. To change things up with.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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