For a somewhat more directed and engaging experience, I recommend Pulsar: Lost Colony (1). It actually just recently (two months ago) saw a 1.0 release after 8

For a somewhat more directed and engaging experience, I recommend Pulsar: Lost Colony (1). It actually just recently (two months ago) saw a 1.0 release after 8 years in early access (2). The best way I can describe the game is that it's a 5-player cooperative FTL-meets-Star-Trek-RPG. The dev team is pretty small, but from the perspective of having that "Star-trek like experience" they have actually done a pretty good job of really capturing it and making it engaging and fun. Up to 5 people can play cooperatively, but myself and two friends have sunk probably 30-50 hours into the game exploring and progressing (the AI controls the roles that you aren't able to fill). It's also got a pretty active community with games to jump into but it's kind of hard to find other people with equal skill level as you when you are just starting out. The gameplay is there, but it feels pretty unpolished in terms of bugs and graphical assets and it would really be something special if a AAA studio bought the game and added in some professional-grade assets because it's otherwise a really well-made experience. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PULSAR:_Lost_Colony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PULSAR:_Lost_Colony [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-XbLEvhI_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-XbLEvhI_s