Shadow Empire on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Shadow Empire is a deep turn-based 4X wargame with a unique blend of military focus, procedurally generated content and role-playing features. Players take the seat of the supreme ruler of a small nation, with the goal of reconquering a devastated planet.
Shadow Empire is a strategy, simulation and 4x game
developed by VR Designs
and published by Slitherine Ltd..
Released on December 03rd 2020 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 1,471 reviews of which 1,280 were positive and 191 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.3 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 38.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 4.84€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Shadow Empire into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows Windows 8, Windows 10
- Processor: 1.5 GHZ
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 8MB video memory, 1280x768 or higher resolution
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX Compatible 9 Sound Card
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
If your dad has every dune novel splayed on his bookshelf and you've played a dozen other war games then yeah this is in your wheelhouse, if not then buddy... this is an autism only zone, i dont know why you're here. if the phrase "aurora 4x" rings a bell. Then 1 im sorry, god help you. 2 proceed. Ok jokes aside the best thing i can say about this game is that. It tries to combine a lot of different things on top of a completely open, randomly generated framework, and SOMEHOW, Somehow... it manages be coherent, and not a jumbled confused trash fire, and shockingly its actually somewhat balanced and quite fun. Its rough but not buggy or broken and has weird problems inherent to its design which you Will notice but for a small production, thats pretty good. The planet generation is so chaotic that you'll need to play a lot of games just to get a feel for the settings and kind of planets you like because they are very different so it's gonna take a while to figure out what even is fun about the game as you try to learn it. Lastly an imagination, patience, optimism, and creativity help, y'know naming units, having personal vendettas against characters, creating little stories or whatever, this is absolutely a numbers driven strategy game but light role play is a staple of this kind of game and helps with player morale. if you're a miserable or very boring person then just go paint miniatures.
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My friends all think that this game looks horrible, and I'll admit some of the artwork is pretty terrible... I don't care - there is nothing quite like this game. From having a robust random planet generator that will impact how you play each game in immense ways to building a regime to managing your cities private and public sectors it is a very in-depth game that to me sparks my imagination each game in how I am building up my regime. Oh, and by the way all of the above is (arguably) not even the primary focus of this game which is in fact combat. This has a very in depth combat system and a logistics system that will punish you if you don't respect its impact on your troops and reward you when you do respect its impact on enemy troops. Full disclosure I spent a LONG time reading the manual and to this day play with it up on my second screen, but one of the strokes of genius with this game is that you CAN play it (on a lower difficulty) without fully understanding everything. Yes, the game strongly rewards a deep understanding of its mechanics but for the most part you can just do what makes sense and fight your way to victory. 10/10 game and one I would take with me to a deserted island.
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This is pretty much the only counter-pusher traditional war-game type game I've actually ever liked, and if you look around a bit, you'll find it's broadly considered to be the best game of it's type to currently exist. It does a pretty good job of telling you what it is right here on the store page, so I don't really need to. I do want to point out that the vast majority of negative reviews essentially state "reading is for dummies and the manual is too big. 0/10 because I couldn't figure anything out". Well yeah. Maybe there is a reason the manual is so large. I will also state I didn't read 90% of the manual and it has not matter one bit after my intitial game or two, across like 300 hours. You can absolutely figure the game out while being a stubborn idiot if you try hard enough. But you should probably just read the manual.
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Unusual and bizarre game, has elements recognisable from traditional 4X games, Paradox titles, Civ and Total war, in a pseudo-scifi space colony future setting ala Rimworld. 8/10 Shadow Empire positions you as the head of state of a neo-industrial space colony after an apocalyptic galactic war that threw all of mankind back to the technology of the early 20th century. Partially though RNG and a bit through choice you can customise which planet you are on, from small planetoids to massive swap-planets with other intelligent aliens. Play is turn-based and the gameplay loop consists of managing the economy, bureaucracy and military of your nation every loop, dealing with factions, setting goals. Political and bureaucratic power is generated and spent as 'PP' and 'BP' points. 'PP' is used to execute 'stratagems', which are actions that effect your nation, zone, an individual unit or leader, as well as changing existing policy. 'BP' is the abstracted way of developing technology and economic/political development. Natural resources include food, water fuel, metals, energy, radioactive and rare earth metals, as well as special resources like high-tech machines and parts. A very interesting part of the game is how the economy and politics works. Unlike in other games, you are restricted by manpower needed to build and then operate buildings. It is not abstracted in any way, if you have 20k manpower then you can only operate within that limit. Additionally your nation has both a public (your state-owned mines, factories, farms) and private economy, (generates tax revenue) you must balance between those. Population growth comes slowly, from villages you acquire through expansion and certain events, so you are quite limited in some cases. This depends on how fractured your nation is (how many zones/states) and how you set up the game. Quite similar to Stellaris, your inner circle of cabinet appointees all come from different factions who can and will be a pain in the backside for political advantage and favours. You also have some internal non-government factions such as a major corporation, your militia, slavers, workers unions, a crime syndicate and a cult. Combat and logistics is very detailed, you can set up a full order-of-battle with independent or multi unit formations (battalion/regiment/division and brigade/corps/army based on size), you can transfer troops and equipment between them as well as set up ad-hoc battle groups with units from different formations. These must be supported by a logistics system that will supply food, fuel, munitions and reinforcements so they can move and fight. I have a few criticisms, first is that the game is the overall lack of polish, the graphics are of course stylised but they aren't really that pleasurable visually. There are numerous spelling and grammatical errors, and I don't think a lot of the tooltips and descriptions are that well thought out. Secondly, the in-game help available is quite limited, which isn't that bad because the people playing this game are pretty savy strategy wise but I'd say it limits who I'd recommend the game to. Overall I'd recommend to anyone who likes 4X games, the paradox suite of titles and colony sims i.e Rimworld.
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This game is actually so fucking good. Don't be fooled by the appearance; Shadow Empire is so much more than your average complicated yet boring wargame. Obviously it's very complex. There's really no way to learn the game except to sit down with the manual and poke at the UI for a couple of hours until you've figured it out, but the complexity feels different to similar games in a way that's hard to describe. There's loads of stupid little detailed mechanics that are unintuitive and full of ideosyncracies, but the game is constructed such that it's easy to notice problems and learn how to fix them. It's clear that despite the game having an absurd level of simulationist details it is actually designed as a game first and not just for realism. Obviously you'll get past the complexity eventually, which just leaves you with the game. The 4X-ish framework built into a wargame full of detail leaves you with so much room to approach problems and develop your empire/military uniquely to fit the circumstances of the game. Or alternatively, it starts to feel like a proper oldschool grandstrat, full of little management details and satisfying blobbing, free of the RP trappings, event trees and mana of a modern Paradox game. Even the game's stupid amateurish visuals have such a consistent charm to them that gives the game more atmosphere than it has any right to have. Obviously the game is not for everyone, but the group of people it's for is much larger than it might appear looking at screenshots. If you're considering the game enough to read rambling reviews like this one, you should probably just give it a try.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Shadow Empire is currently priced at 38.99€ on Steam.
Shadow Empire is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 38.99€ on Steam.
Shadow Empire received 1,280 positive votes out of a total of 1,471 achieving a rating of 8.29.
😎
Shadow Empire was developed by VR Designs and published by Slitherine Ltd..
Shadow Empire is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Shadow Empire is not playable on MacOS.
Shadow Empire is not playable on Linux.
Shadow Empire offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
Shadow Empire offers both Co-op and PvP modes.
There are 2 DLCs available for Shadow Empire. Explore additional content available for Shadow Empire on Steam.
Shadow Empire does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Shadow Empire supports Remote Play Together. Discover more about Steam Remote Play.
Shadow Empire is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Shadow Empire.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 14 June 2025 16:35 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 12 June 2025 16:27 |
| Steam price | 14 June 2025 12:49 |
| Steam reviews | 14 June 2025 05:52 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Shadow Empire, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Shadow Empire
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Shadow Empire concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Shadow Empire compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Features
Online players
83
Developer
VR Designs
Publisher
Slitherine Ltd.
Release
03 Dec 2020
Platforms
Remote Play
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