When comparing Space Engineers [Early Access] vs Star Citizen (still in development), the Slant community recommends Space Engineers [Early Access] for most people. In the question“What are the best Space Sims on Steam?” Space Engineers [Early Access] is ranked 4th while Star Citizen (still in development) is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Space Engineers [Early Access] is:
Space Engineers makes it easy to build any items or objects making sure any skill level can easily have fun in game. All one needs to do is select what they would like to build from the menu and then choose the parts they would like to add.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Easy to build
Space Engineers makes it easy to build any items or objects making sure any skill level can easily have fun in game. All one needs to do is select what they would like to build from the menu and then choose the parts they would like to add.
Pro Destructible ships
Players are able to smash ships into each other with satisfying destruction physics.
Pro Prefabricated ships available in game that are modifiable
For those that do not want to build a whole ship from scratch there are prefabricated ships available upon start that are also modifiable so users can customize to their liking.
Pro Includes a singleplayer mode, called "Squadron 42"
Squadron 42 is a single player campaign that takes place in the in game universe that allows players to play offline.
Pro Over $73million in funding
A game with the huge scope of Star Citizen will cost a lot of money to develop, and through multiple campaigns, Star Citizen has raised a huge amount of money to make that happen.
Pro Vast, detailed sci-fi world
A long term goal is to have over 400 different star systems in game, most of which will have many planets within them.
Pro Ability to command persistent ships and stations
Players will be able to command multi-person ships with other users who will be able to command their own stations on said ships.
Pro Dynamic economy system
The economy of the game and the actions to keep it moving are constantly going on in the background but allows for players to step in and out of it at their leisure in order to take part.
Pro A true PC game
It's been stated that the game will take full advantage of PC's capabilities and will not be held back by a need to accommodate a console port.
Cons
Con Servers are a "lag hell"
Due to the nature of physics simulation of custom built ships, the game requires top hardware to host the game, still making it a "lag hell" if there are more than 10 players.
Con Still not a whole lot to do
Being an early access game there is still a lot of missing features such as missions, thus leaving no much to do other than the free building mode.
Con Commercial launch is still a year away (2016)
The commercial launch of the persistent universe game will be sometime in 2016.