Stars in Shadow
Skip · Strategy · 2017
The verdict
WAIT.
It has sold at a fair price before.
Today
$24.99Skip
On its price record
$8.06Fair
- Length
- 6h
- Value
- $4.17/hr
- Reviews
- 78% of 837 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at $8.06 or less.
Buy now or wait
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 11 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
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.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series or better, 3 GB of storage. Windows only.
The value story
110 discounts in the 10 years on record, a median of 80 percent off across all of them, roughly 5 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 11 days ago.
On value it sits in the top 33 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 95 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 72 percent. Among the games that feel like it, ENDLESS Space™ - Definitive Edition ($2.49, scores 60) beats it on value, while it beats Halfway ($12.99, scores 33).
More about Stars in Shadow
This site sampled 295 of its Steam-purchase reviews; 2 were written by buyers who refunded it, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to July 2026.
The drop-off
84% start to 2% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
- Players online
- 11 when we last checked, on Oct 15, 21:55 UTC
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
Nice streamlined 4X game with reasonable replayability - the limitation being the optimum ways of setting up planets and going through the tech tree is fairly static, so once you have the hang of it, most of each game becomes very similar, with only moderate variation for a couple of the more unique races you can play. Building your empire, sending out scouts and colonists, are all fairly straightforward and...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
Did you love Master of Orion 2? So did the devs, and this game is a love letter to it. I even dare say it's better, with a simplified and improved planet development system that hits the just right balance.
I'm sure I had no problems with SiS a few years ago when I played it, and really enjoyed it. But coming back to it here in 2026, it's IMPOSSIBLE even on "easy". Enemy ships are just, well, invulnerable. Missiles, fighters and bombers are useless, they all get destroyed on turn 1 - so half the game's weapon options are rendered tactically useless from the git go. It wasn't like this first time I tried it. It just...
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
Stars in Shadow scores 38/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/464880/stars-in-shadowReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 28, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.