Featuring both creative and survival modes, there is no limit to what can be built, utilized and explored. Players build space ships, space stations, planetary outposts of various sizes and uses (civil and military), pilot ships and travel through space to explore planets and gather resources to survive. Some resources are absolutely critical: run out of refined uranium for instance and you might find yourself without the power you need to refine uranium.
In Survival mode you'll have to dig the resources you need to build out of planets and asteroids and you may find yourself in danger not only from enemies but also from running out of food water or air. Creative mode is pure sandbox: you have all the resources you need and what you build is constrained only by your imagination. You can choose to play Space Engineers either in Survival mode or in Creative mode. Most of the action takes place in orbit but there are also explorable planets populated both by space pirates and dangerous alien creatures.
This voxel-based game resembles Minecraft in its basic structure: players must mine resources and fend off enemies to survive in a hostile world but the real fun is building exciting and elaborate structures including space ships and space stations. Space Engineers is a science-fiction survival and building game.