For fans of TV space opera
The space opera you grew up with, now playable
Stations at the crossroads of the galaxy, gates left by a vanished people, living ships and fleets that decide the fate of worlds. Cosmic Starship is a free spaceship game built from the same ingredients.
If you watched Babylon 5, Stargate or Farscape, you know what makes space opera work: many civilizations with long memories, a place where they meet, old mysteries out past the edge of the map, and ships with personalities of their own. Cosmic Starship is an original game with its own story, factions and ships, but it is made for exactly that audience.
It plays as a 3D starship battle game in your browser. You fly one capital ship yourself, command squads of fighters in real time and build a fleet of 48 warships from 14 civilizations, through a campaign that crosses six galaxies. Here is what it shares with the shows.
A station at the crossroads
Babylon 5 showed how much story fits on one space station where every species passes through. In Cosmic Starship your home between battles is Meridian Station: you expand it along five tracks, hire pilots from any of the fourteen civilizations in its crew hall, contract their warships at the dock and trade for mods at its market. The station also fights: in Hold the Station you defend it wave after wave.
Gates, and the people who built them
Stargate built a whole universe on gates left behind by a vanished people, and on false gods who ruled from golden pyramid ships. Cosmic Starship has its own gates and its own old powers. The Aurelian Concord remember the builders of the gates, and why the gates were sealed. The Elder Conclave are older than the gates themselves, with grey motherships, beam transport and ion cannons. The Gilded Throne are parasite god-kings ruling a hundred worlds from golden pyramid motherships. Past the campaign, the endless Deep Space Atlas sends you through gate after gate, each sector harder than the last.
Living ships
Farscape’s crew lived inside a ship that was alive. Two civilizations in Cosmic Starship fly ships like that. The Verdant Choir are a symbiotic collective whose ships are living cities, swarming the field with brood fighters. The Myrr Tidekin rise singing from gas giants in kilometre-long living tide-ships, and in the story they are humanity’s first friends. Fly the two together and their song mends every ship around them (the Tidesong fleet synergy).
Fleets, not just one hero ship
The great space operas end in fleet battles, with alliances that took a whole season to build. In Cosmic Starship you command up to six squads in real time, slow time to give orders, and hire warships from other civilizations to fly on your flanks. Mixing civilizations unlocks fleet synergies: Mandate armour under Elder ward fields, Korrath duellists racing Nomad corsairs, Concord crystal focusing Lumina light. And in the Who Would Win? simulator you can pit any two fleets against each other and watch them fight to the last ship.
And a little real spaceflight
The story starts in Earth orbit, with a nod to the rockets of today: Earthforce’s first flagship is a Starship that throws its Super Heavy booster at the enemy, and its abilities run on a Starlink satellite mesh.
If you liked the shows, start here
| If you liked… | Try this in Cosmic Starship |
|---|---|
| Diplomacy and war around a space station | Build up Meridian Station, then defend it in Hold the Station. |
| Ancient gates and false gods | The Gilded Throne saga and the Deep Space Atlas. |
| A crew living inside a living ship | Fly a Myrr tide-ship or a Verdant Choir hive. |
| Huge fleet battles | Fleet clash missions, squad command and the battle simulator. |
| Old races watching the young ones | The Elder Conclave and the six-galaxy campaign. |
Play free in your browser ▶Beginner’s guide
Cosmic Starship is an independent game. Its story, civilizations, ships and names are original, and it is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by the makers or owners of Babylon 5, Stargate or Farscape. The shows are named here only to describe the kind of science fiction the game is for. Babylon 5, Stargate, Farscape, Starship and Starlink are trademarks of their respective owners.