Games like Star Merc

If the retro and story-driven rhythm of Star Merc stuck with you, this helps. These games are a good place to start.

Starlight Drifter
Create your own character and explore the universe in this sci-fi space game allowing you to choose where to explore and what to do, where your decisions will affect the universe and the ending you experience.
Story-driven, Replayable
67% of 46 Steam reviews are positive$19.99
Stellar Tactics
A sci-fi RPG where you wake from cryosleep 500 years late, build a squad of mercenaries and set out into a universe of over 160,000 star systems. Turn-based ground combat in the classic style, ships to customize, board and capture, mining, trading and a galaxy slowly eaten by a disease called Phage. Big, slow, old-fashioned and generous with your time.
Story-driven, Replayable, Mysterious
77% of 1,694 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 21$24.99
Between the Stars
Take the helm of an interstellar cruiser and cross a procedurally generated galaxy to save the Republic. Real-time capital ship battles, a crew to hire and level up, hundreds of text events with lasting consequences, and a story that pulls you along. Every warp jump brings a new decision, and some of them sting.
Story-driven, Replayable
75% of 1,983 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 10$29.99
Sector Unknown
Sector Unknown is a solo-developed, isometric sci-fi RPG set in a shadowy expanse of space. Begin on a desolate planet, establish a stronghold, explore space, ally with or dominate local factions, and combat a despotic organization set on ruthlessly exploiting the sector's resources and inhabitants.
Retro, Story-driven, Replayable
78% of 390 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 1$24.99
Star Valor
A top-down space action RPG where you start as a nobody with a small ship and work your way up in a procedurally generated galaxy. Mine asteroids, run cargo, hunt bounties or turn pirate, join one of six factions or stay independent, and build a fleet worth fearing. Made by a single developer, and it shows in the best way.
Retro, Replayable
88% of 3,322 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 114$24.99
The Captain
In this retro-inspired adventure game you will have to race back home across the galaxy. Collect new friends on your journey. Make new enemies. You won't be able to save everyone. Who will you leave behind? Which civilizations will you save - or destroy - along the way?
Retro, Story-driven, Replayable
92% of 308 Steam reviews are positive$19.99
Paradigm Island
Step into the shoes of a young mercenary in the midst of an identity crisis. Explore a surreal world on the edge of collapse, shape your identity through choice, and navigate a web of shifting loyalties, hidden agendas, and uncomfortable truths.
Story-driven, Replayable, Mysterious
83% of 24 Steam reviews are positive$14.99
Star Story: The Horizon Escape
Join the journey of a funky space archaeologist who crashed on an unknown planet. A text turn-based adventure RPG in which your choices actually matter. Talk, explore, fight, make decisions to find a way out! Colourful graphics and the old comic book spirit.
Retro, Story-driven, Replayable
89% of 104 Steam reviews are positive$14.99
Star Traders: Frontiers
Captain a starship through a galaxy in turmoil. Play pirate, merchant, bounty hunter or spy across 33 jobs, build your ship from 45 hulls and 350 upgrades, and watch your crew grow cruel or clever from your choices. A deep, turn-based space RPG where every run tells a different story.
Retro, Story-driven, Replayable
83% of 3,690 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 42$14.99
Star Wolves 3: Civil War
Large-scale battles have become a vestige of the past, depleting resources of conflicting parties. Settled space, where welfare and order had reigned, has become a cemetery for dead ships which is flooded with pirates and adventurists.
Retro, Story-driven, Replayable
84% of 556 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 9$4.99
Starcom: Unknown Space
An action RPG about drifting through a hundred star systems in a ship you built yourself. Scan strange planets, investigate over 230 anomalies, pick your allies among alien factions, and piece together a story that treats you like a capable adult. Calm, curious and quietly addictive.
Retro, Story-driven, Replayable
92% of 4,515 Steam reviews are positivePlayers online now: 29$24.99
Space Wreck
The biggest little RPG in the world. Post-apocalyptic retro space adventure with an extreme focus on role-playing and replayability. Inch wide, miles deep - intentionally short yet surprisingly deep.
Retro, Story-driven, Replayable
88% of 174 Steam reviews are positive$16.99

Cheaper than Star Merc

Darkstar One

Darkstar One offers a fantastic amount of freedom of choice.

$1.79

Console Space

You are the captain aboard a starship. Make decisions in the terminal's text logs: from repairing the reactor to moral dilemmas that irreversibly…

$0.99

Interstellar Pilot 2

The hit mobile game Interstellar Pilot 2 has come to Steam. Join the TEF forces heading to the Gatopean sector to find a new home for mankind.

$0.99

Plancon: Space Conflict

Damn aliens! The choice is: the Universe — or nothing!

$1.04

Element Space

Year 2199. Assemble an elite crew and make allies to combat a shadowy organization threatening the future of humanity.

$0.99

Star Nomad

Explore, trade, fight & plunder in this tribute to classic sandbox spacesims of old.

$0.99

Unforgiving Trials: The Space Crusade

The world is dying. Many years after the banishment of the evil that plagued the land, the world was hit by waves of unbearable heat.

$0.99

Suits: A Business RPG

Corporations control the entire global government. Injustice has inspired a revolution in Suits City.

$0.99

ROD: Revolt Of Defense

Explore a random generated space. Find artifacts and treasure maps. Build and develop your base on a flying platform.

$0.99

Mark's Power

“Mark’s Power” is a cozy adventure in the spirit of classic games.

$0.99

Family Man

You owe us money, Joe, and we plan to collect. We don't care where it comes from, but you'd better not skip town on us.

$19.99

Flashback

Flashback is a strategy game oriented to your choices. You will play the role of a deliveryman and live in a turbulent city for a month.

$0.49

Hidden gems like Star Merc

Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters

Experience the award-winning space saga. Travel to hyperspace, discover alien worlds, and meet an eclectic cast of characters.

Free

Stellar Tactics

A sci-fi RPG where you wake from cryosleep 500 years late, build a squad of mercenaries and set out into a universe of over 160,000 star systems.

$24.99

Sector Unknown

Sector Unknown is a solo-developed, isometric sci-fi RPG set in a shadowy expanse of space.

$24.99

Starcom: Unknown Space

An action RPG about drifting through a hundred star systems in a ship you built yourself.

$24.99

Space Wreck

The biggest little RPG in the world. Post-apocalyptic retro space adventure with an extreme focus on role-playing and replayability.

$16.99

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

A decade of choices, friendships and first love on a strange planet, lived again and again with every memory intact.

$24.99

The Captain

In this retro-inspired adventure game you will have to race back home across the galaxy. Collect new friends on your journey. Make new enemies.

$19.99

SpaceBourne 2

Fly, fight, mine and trade your way across a procedurally generated galaxy, then run the faction that rules it.

$19.99

Star Valor

Mine, trade, hunt bounties or go pirate in a procedurally generated galaxy that plays out differently every time.

$24.99

Between the Stars

Captain an interstellar cruiser across a procedural galaxy, fighting real-time battles and living with the consequences of your choices.

$29.99

Starcom: Nexus

Explore hand-crafted star systems, upgrade your stranded shuttle into a warship and unravel the mystery of how to get home.

$19.99

The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition

A sci-fi RPG about waking up decades late to a colony run by corporations, and deciding what to do about it.

$39.99

Newest games like Star Merc