Rating: 9 out of 10
Having seen several YouTubers do some very strange things to our solar system in this game, I decided to try it out for myself.
Drive-by Game Summary:
You wield near unlimited power over the the universe, with control over the laws of physics themselves. You can turn Jupiter into the sun, terraform Venus, or fling the Moon into Earth. With control over things like the radius, density, and mass of an object, you can forge a new home for humanity on distant worlds. Or you can use the Death Star laser to vaporize the Earth. Truly a sandbox game, and not very time consuming.
Save Game Convenience: 10 out of 10
There isn’t a huge reason to save a simulation, unless you’re painstakingly terraforming a planet and want to get it just right, or you’re me and just want to document the sheer destruction you have wrought upon the solar system. However, If you do wish to save the simulation, it’s very easy to do so.
Control Scheme: 6 out of 10
The game provides a basic tutorial on how to navigate it when you first open the game, but it doesn’t immediately take you through all the options. However, it does contain quick tutorials on different aspects of the game, and you can always learn by randomly pushing buttons and watching chaos unfold.
Complete Game Review:
When you first load up the game, it walks you through the basics of the game, including flinging the moon into the earth. From that point, you can toy with the solar system in all sorts of ways, or look at the many major astronomical event simulations Universe Sandbox has to offer.
You can select any planet, and change all sorts of settings of it. You control the mass, radius, temperature, and composition of any celestial body in the universe.
You can also access a library of hundreds of celestial bodies, from stars to moons and black holes to… pigeons. Yes, you can make a universe eating pigeon in this game. Using this library, you can create binary orbits, set a teapot in orbit around the sun, or launch Mars into Earth.
There are also several tools such as the laser tool and the force tool. The force tool applies customizable amounts of force to a planet or star, and the laser has several presets such as the Death Star Laser.
The astronomical event simulations include things like the future collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, or the Voyager probes leaving the solar system in 2019.
With each change you make, the celestial bodies change in how they look. You can essentially turn the sun off, which will instantly freeze all the surrounding planets.
Universe Sandbox is an entertaining game, and is easy to learn and play in a small amount of time. It’s a game you could play for 5 minutes, or longer if you have time. It’s not a particularly deep game, but it’s fun to play and see just what happens when you throw two suns at each other. We rate it at a 9/10, as it’s easy to learn and play quickly, and entertaining.
