That’s the beauty of it: you set your own goals, assign your own traits to your species, and play it however you like.

Or, if you prefer, it’s about establishing a race of friendly technocrat turtles that help other species expand. Stellaris is a deep, gripping strategy game about building up a space-faring empire and squashing any foe in sight. The Paradox team behind medieval story generator Crusader Kings 2 turn their talents skywards, and the results are stunning. Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 It’s the kind of game you can spend a week playing, put it down, and then come back months later without worrying about where you left off. And if you're playing on the latest consoles, Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition is now available for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S with a free upgrade for anyone who already owns a copy. It’s a sandbox, but you’ll always have a goal to aim for. The proper rules of physics apply, and the most satisfying achievements require careful planning and attention to detail. Before long, you’re agonizing over the correct entry angle for a moon landing, or the right configuration of engines to achieve maximum thrust. But the more you play, the more you want to understand it. On the surface, it’s a game about building ridiculous rockets and launching tiny green men into space – and then watching the whole thing literally fall apart before your eyes while you giggle. Half toybox, half science project, Kerbal Space Program is the most fun you can have while learning about space. Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S Individual challenges keep you locked in for each play session, but it’s the twisting story that keeps you coming back. You navigate the station’s warren-like corridors via CCTV cameras and freely-controlled drones, using environmental clues such as schematics pinned to walls to figure out what to do next. It’s that slowly-unfolding, sinister story combined with moment-to-moment puzzling – unique puzzles with clever UIs appear once, never outstay their welcome, and then disappear, replaced with the next one – that makes Observation so unique. Except that something strange is happening, and you keep receiving the same message from an unknown source: “BRING HER”. Everyone else is missing, and the ship is falling apart: it’s Fisher’s job, with your help, to patch it up and get back on course. You play an AI aboard a spaceship where the only person left alive is Dr Emma Fisher, the game’s hero. From No Code, the creators of Stories Untold, comes a tense sci-fi adventure that’s part slow-burning horror, part puzzle game, all wonderfully voice-acted. The smallest game on this list is one of the most intriguing.

Space simulator pc