# Star Traders 4X Empires — user reviews > 33 indexed App Store user reviews of Star Traders 4X Empires by Trese Brothers, rated 4.00/5 from 24 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/star-traders-4x-empires/id872458628/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/star-traders-4x-empires/id872458628.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 10 · 4★ 9 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 3 ## Newest reviews (10 of 33) ### 5/5 — Great strategy game! *2015-12-07* Well worth the money I spent, it was fun before the elite. ### 5/5 — Best strategy title on the app store *2015-11-14* This is so far the best true strategy game i have found ( not one of those crappy clash of clans type games) and if i could afford it i would buy elite for this AND the rpg, this game series actually has a bit of lore to it and i like that, managing the clans is always tough when old hatreds remain strong, and that just adds to the experience. Not only that, but this is so well done that my skills from other strategy games actually work in this, which says a lot for a mobile game. Good job, Trese Brothers, and keep up the good work! ### 5/5 — Very Good, But needs something *2015-09-07* It is an outstanding game, however randomly generated maps are definitely needed. I own the elite version btw, but I bought it through the in app purchase so I cannot write a review there. ### 5/5 — Thank you, Trese Brothers. *2015-06-01* TLDR: check out the forum, watch the lets-play vids on YouTube and then download this engrossing 4X game... This is yet another great game from the Trese Brothers, with constant updates, a great community and exemplary customer support. Did I mention that the game was good too? Yes. It most definitely is. ST4X, as I will refer to it, has great depth to explore as you defend your fledgling colonies against the alien menace. It runs stably on my iPod touch 4th gen running iOS 6.2, with few bugs; with those present being quickly eliminated by the TBs as they appear. The ship designer is probably my favourite part of the game, followed closely by the enormous tech tree. Posting on the forum will result in a direct reply from Cory or Andrew usually within a few hours, alongside the community veterans that helped me out a lot when I started ST:RPG. Looking forward greatly to Templar Battleforce when it releases in early July. In the meantime, I'm off to smash some more Xeno... ### 5/5 — Love! *2015-03-16* These guys are amazing and update frequently because they actually care. I love this game and all the others! ### 5/5 — Must have *2015-02-14* If u like your 4x this is the one to get. Solid support from the Trese brothers and continually being updated and expanded. ### 5/5 — Elite not on sale? *2015-02-12* The February update says elite is on sale for $2, but it isn't. Can you please fix this? Thank you! ### 5/5 — Best 4X game on iOS *2014-10-20* Best 4X game on iOS- there simply isn’t a competitor. To copy another review I made on a game these devs made: This game has it all- good game, awesome devs, good updates. They do updates *very* frequently, constantly putting out new features and content. I’ve never had a bug stick around for more than a few weeks before it gets wiped out of the game. 5/5! ### 5/5 — Smashing 4X Game *2014-09-16* This is a beautifully simple and easy to play 4X game, which has layers of complexity to keep you involved. ### 5/5 — Mr *2014-07-26* One of of my preferred 4x games. The 5th star is largely merited for the continuous attention to the game (not only bug fixing but ongoing deepening of gameplay and mechanics) and open and argumented discussions with the community. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 2/5 — Confusing *2015-01-27* I know my way around 4X games - I've been playing them for as long as the genre has existed. But I found this game confusing. The "tutorial" did not adequately explain what was going on, and used abbreviations without clarifying what they stand for or why the item is important. The interface is unclear and doesn't provide sufficient feedback for me to easily see what I'm doing. That being said, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that there was a good game in here for those who have the patience to figure out what's going on. It seems to have plenty of complexity and potential. Good luck, to those who stick with the unclear and baffling UI and figure it all out! ### 2/5 — Boring *2014-07-07* Nothing really happens in this game, you always run out of living space on planets and there's not much to actually do ### 3/5 — Clunky and slow, but... Dunno - thought I had something there *2019-04-10* Seemed cool until I played for around 4 hours last night and never saw what a battle is like. Don’t think I’ll pick this one up again. Probably. I mean I do know where the baddies are now... And I do have some combat upgrades in the works... ### 3/5 — A very good start *2014-07-16* As 4X games go, this has all of the components of a great one. Tech trees are extensive, ship design is a nice touch, and development models are well built. There are rough spots that further development and refining will take care of, so I hope the devs are looking at this as the first of many versions. (Movement mechanics and combat need work, and more data access options to diagnose what's going on with your economy and colonies would be a good thing. The tutorial is also too thin, so much of the learning curve is trial-and-error.) Still, this is a lot of fun and has a lot of promise for tomorrow! ### 4/5 — I love it! *2019-11-30* I know absolutely nothing about strategy games, but I love this game! The learning curve is steep, but it’s a whole lot of fun. ### 4/5 — Very Great Game, But One Significant Bug *2019-05-12* TL;DR: Very great design and strategy but has a small inconvenience bug This game is a very great implementation of idea to game I think. The complexity and strategic elements of this game are very deep and well designed. The background music adds a lot of suspense where its much needed as you never know when you will discover the enemies, and when you do it usually marks the time you should transition from focusing entirely on economy to focusing mainly on warships with some economic focus still. However, there is a bug in the game thats not terrible but is annoying for sure; there are sometimes sectors of the map adjacent to worlds that for some reason your ships can’t move to, which makes attacking and defending worlds a bit harder. Finally one detail I’d like to add is how, because of how big the maps are and how much time you spend managing a growing number of colonies, a round can get VERY LONG. I spent about 7 and a half hours and 286 turns on the tutorial level with normal difficulty (32x32 map). Given that, I think playing with the bigger maps and on harder difficulties would easily cause games that take literally DAYS to finish ### 4/5 — It's fun but I don't understand the politics *2017-01-02* It's good buts it's very complex ### 4/5 — Has promise *2014-11-09* This game has a lot of promise. My biggest complaint would be the economy is tough. I considered marking it down to three stars for that. However, the tech tree is quite large, and it is fun to play (at least on normal or easy difficulty). I would give it five stars and buy the full version if there were a random map option, as this would ensure infinite re-playability. ### 4/5 — Brilliant but... *2014-08-16* Trust this game is made for smart people who know how to handle an empire or fight a war and it has an amazing simulator but once you start to lose money like when your fighting the xeno you will continue to lose money as more and more problems pile up due to the lack of cash so I would really like it if you could make the economy a lot healthier and reduce the impact of trade wars or embargos ### 4/5 — Great game but... *2014-07-12* The economy is way to hard, even in easy my profit was negative and I didn't know why because I kept all of my worlds' morales up and kept my worlds' populations up. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Get it spend some money for great devs *2021-01-20* Base game is amazing I would probably get the expansions if I could. Ship design is a nice touch. I’d say improve the tutorial and add a economy screen but those are just me being an idiot other wise amazing keep doing what your doing devs your doing great. ### 5/5 — Epic. *2019-11-09* Trese Brothers games are, in this humble gamers opinion, the pinnacle of strategy and RPG’s on mobile. Be it free to play, or paid for, the amount of content you get is ridiculously good the ongoing bug fixing and content/ mechanics upgrades are fantastic and put many other game companies, on many different platforms, to shame. Thanks for the stupendously good games. ### 5/5 — Great 4X *2019-02-28* Trese Brothers are now part of the IOS scene and are providing quality games. This one is no exception. Visuals are a bit simple, but the game is not. Once you get past the learning curve you are left with a rewarding and very nice 4x. Thanks guys!!! ### 5/5 — Finally *2017-06-04* A thinkers space empire strategy game. If your ready to manage population and the effects of war both militarily and civilian sector, manage it, and own it; this is the game for you. I'd love to see Battleship class vessels, expensive and long construction times to adequately reflect the substantial economic stability required to construct them. ### 5/5 — Awesome game! *2016-08-24* Engrossing and exciting! I love everything about this game! I think it could do with a better help section however, as some aspects can be a little confusing! It's a solid 9.5/10 ### 5/5 — Great game! *2016-05-14* I really enjoy this game! It is nice to have a game that you can play at your own pace rather than waiting hours or days to complete a project or building. I would recommend this game to those who enjoy turn-based strategy games, and it is one of the best games I have found on mobile! ### 5/5 — Thumbs up *2016-05-13, version 2.6.5* A great little RTS ### 5/5 — Ugly game but your eyes will adjust *2016-01-13* It looks like poopy, but the game is really fun to play once you get use to it. There are many maps and a lot of different combinations of factions, tech branches, and ship builds. I don't like the way the grids look, and the learning curve is steep, but literally everything else is rad! You can play before you pay to unlock a few extra features--glad I downloaded it. ### 5/5 — Hidden gem *2015-12-20* A great turn-based 4X-type game, reminescent of the Galactic Civilisation and Master of Orion series. No money assle, lots of depth and well thought out. The faction system is the best idea i saw for the genre, allowing for internal affairs being as much important as the external ones. Wow, such a hidden gem. ### 5/5 — Amazing Developers *2015-12-15* I have owned Star Traders Elite for nearly a year now, and it was one of my favorite games, it got stale after a while, but now they have come out with Empires, another great title, The developers deserve way more credit and attention than they get. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-23.*