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Stars in Shadow

Stars in Shadow

Stars in Shadow is a turn-based 4X strategy game and a vivid tribute to the genre classics. Compete with alien factions to explore and colonize nearby starsystems, build fleets to defend against rivals, negotiate or conquer them. Win by unifying the galaxy, through diplomacy or force.

Released Jan 19, 2017 Developer Ashdar Games Publisher Iceberg Interactive Platforms Windows StrategyIndie4XTurn-Based StrategySpace
View on Steam ↗ $24.99 (US · as of 2026-07-26)

What players say

Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.

78.9%positive787 reviews
Recommended · 1 found this helpful

“Easily the best and most polished Master of Orion-inspired game out there. If you're looking for MoO's spiritual successor, this is it.”

— a player, Steam review · 33 hrs played
Recommended · 1 found this helpful

“Master of Orion 2 clone, but with most systems effectively streamlined without penalizing gameplay. Some flaws: tactical combat more detailed than MOO2 but also messier - less battle space and hopeless pre-battle fleet deployment. Overall though, IMO, a much slicker game than…”

— a player, Steam review · 207 hrs played
Not recommended · 1 found this helpful

“Well, this game was fun. Now the developers have made hard almost impossible to do and normal plays like hard. At least I can't tell the difference. Mid game everyone already got endgame Adamantine armor and end game artillery vortex weapons... sigh, and has 10x the units and…”

— a player, Steam review · 83 hrs played
Read more reviews ↗

Player activity

Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-24 00:16 UTC · history via SteamCharts.

19playing at last check
2324-hour peak
464all-time peak
0 50 100 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025 79 avg · Jan 2017

Achievement stats

Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.

62achievements
14.1%median completion
1.4%rarest: Menagerie
84.2% of players 60.0% of players 54.6% of players 49.8% of players 47.8% of players 47.1% of players 43.3% of players 40.0% of players 39.5% of players 38.8% of players 38.8% of players 38.2% of players 36.3% of players 33.7% of players 31.9% of players 29.7% of players 29.5% of players 28.2% of players 26.2% of players 22.8% of players 22.0% of players 21.9% of players 20.1% of players 19.3% of players 19.1% of players 18.2% of players 17.6% of players 17.5% of players 15.8% of players 15.7% of players 15.1% of players 14.1% of players 13.7% of players 12.5% of players 12.1% of players 12.0% of players 10.6% of players 8.4% of players 7.6% of players 7.1% of players 7.0% of players 6.9% of players 6.7% of players 6.4% of players 5.6% of players 5.0% of players 4.9% of players 4.9% of players 4.6% of players 4.4% of players 4.3% of players 3.9% of players 3.7% of players 3.4% of players 3.2% of players 3.0% of players 2.4% of players 2.4% of players 2.3% of players 2.2% of players 84.2% 0% most earned rarest
Almost everyone has
84.2%One Small Step — Establish a colony
60.0%Victory Is Life — Win a tactical battle
54.6%Uplift — Establish a colony on a planet with a primitive species
Rarest badges of honor
1.4%Menagerie — As the Gremak, perform Experiments on slaves of 6 different races
2.0%Ironic — Win a Conquest Victory as the Phidi
2.2%Imperial Pardon — As the Gremak, convince a Marauder company to join your empire

Price tracking

US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-25. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.

$24.99current · sampled 2026-07-26 08:39 UTC
$24.99lowest since tracking began2026-07-25
US24.99 USD
EU24.50 EUR
UK20.99 GBP
Australia36.50 AUD
Canada32.50 CAD
Japan2,800 JPY
Brazil73.99 BRL
China92.00 CNY

Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.

China≈$14 Brazil Japan Canada US Australia EU UK≈$28

Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.

Latest official news

Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.

May 25, 2026
Development Update: 25 May 2026

Belit Tseri glowered from the gantry of the Arkship Ganzir's engineering gallery at the melted housing of the lane amplifier. "Something was bound to fail during transition," said the engineer, eyeing

May 13, 2026
Development Update: 13 May 2026

The hull of the Arkship groaned as the vessel was ejected from the hyperspace anomaly into the structure of real space-time. Belit Tseri reeled at her station on the bridge, struggling to maintain her

Aug 11, 2020
Development Update: 10 August 2020

Just a quick patch with a few bug fixes and resolution scaling changes. Patch Notes for 10 August 2020 (ver. r38774) Gameplay Additions and Changes Improvements to AI judgments about which planets sho

Jul 18, 2020
Development Update: 18 July 2020

Hudson : Well that’s great… that’s just fuckin’ great, man. Now what the fuck are we supposed to do? We’re in some real pretty shit now, man! Hicks : Are you finished? Newt : I guess we’re not going t

Nov 16, 2019
Development Update: 16 November 2019

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I wil

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Screenshots

Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.

Facts & details

From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.

GenresIndie, Strategy
Player tagsStrategy · Indie · 4X · Turn-Based Strategy · Space · Turn-Based Combat · Sci-fi · Turn-Based · Turn-Based Tactics (SteamSpy community voting)
FeaturesSingle-player · Family Sharing
LanguagesEnglish
Achievements62
Estimated owners20,000 – 50,000 (SteamSpy)
Official sitehttp://stars-in-shadow.com/
Minimum system requirements (PC)

Minimum: OS *: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 Processor: Intel Core 2.6 GHz or equivalent Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series or better Storage: 3 GB available space Additional Notes: Stars in Shadow requires the OpenGL framebuffer extension. This extension is present on almost all graphics drivers released after 2010, but laptops made before 2010 with vendor-locked graphics drivers may not be able to run the game.