As a Nasa-obsessed child in the 1980s, I loved the classic space trading game Elite, which rendered an entire lonely universe in monochrome vector visuals. Similarly, the surreal, minimalist planetary exploration game Exo One has you piloting a tiny alien craft over weird psychedelic landscapes, surfing thermal updrafts and swooping down impossible mountainsides. Observation and Tacoma set you down in crippled space stations where you must piece together the events that led to disaster. Other games writers and designers, meanwhile, recalled feelings of solitude, awe and fear in titles such as Alien: Isolation, Freelancer, Homeworld and Out There. All of these capture the minimalist elements of space travel – often just isolated noises and details.

Source: The Guardian April 08, 2026 12:29 UTC