Crying Suns

Crying Suns on PC is a story-rich tactical rogue-lite about commanding a battleship through a fallen space empire. The current storefront name remains Crying Suns across Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG; there is no verified rebrand or replacement edition. Alt Shift is credited as the developer, while current storefront metadata varies between Alt Shift and Alternative Shift SAS for publishing.

The game is built for players who want deliberate fleet decisions, procedural exploration, and a structured science-fiction campaign rather than an open-ended 4X empire builder. Its strongest identity comes from combining narrative discovery with real-time-with-pause tactical battles between capital ships and deployable squadrons.

Commanding a Fleet Through a Collapsed Empire

You play as Ellys Idaho, a clone of a legendary Imperial admiral awakened on Gehenna by Kaliban, the last functional OMNI. The campaign follows your attempt to reactivate the dormant OMNIs while crossing hostile sectors and uncovering why the Galactic Empire collapsed.

Each run combines procedural space exploration, resource management, random encounters, and tactical battles. You select routes through star systems, decide which points of interest to investigate, and balance fuel, hull integrity, ammunition, squadron strength, and other supplies before moving onward.

The narrative is divided into six chapters, giving Crying Suns a more directed structure than an endless sandbox. A failed run sends you back into the relevant chapter, where altered encounters and route choices create a new attempt at the same larger objective.

That structure matters because Crying Suns is not primarily about building a permanent galaxy-spanning empire. It is about learning the rules of each chapter, improving your battleship, managing risk, and reaching increasingly dangerous encounters with enough resources to survive.

Capital Ship Combat And Squadron Tactics

Combat takes place on a compact hex-grid battlefield where your battleship, weapons, auxiliary systems, officers, and squadrons operate together. The battleship provides the strategic foundation, but fighter and support units often determine whether an engagement becomes manageable or collapses under pressure.

You can deploy squadrons, reposition them, activate weapons, and use officer abilities while reacting to enemy formations. The pause function gives you time to assess the field, line up attacks, and coordinate several systems without turning every encounter into a reflex test.

Battlefields are not empty arenas. Neutral units and environmental elements can influence positioning, while some neutral forces can be captured to create a territorial advantage. This makes movement and timing important even when the opposing battleship is the obvious target.

The free Advanced Tactics content significantly expands the combat model with additional weapons, squadrons, auxiliary systems, officer abilities, enemy behaviours, and battleship modifiers. Unlockable ships are not simple upgrades; their distinct technological modifiers encourage different approaches to fleet composition and battlefield control.

Later content also adds the OMNI Forge, a point of interest where squadrons can be upgraded. This gives exploration decisions more tactical weight because a detour can improve your fleet, but spending too much time or fuel away from the safest route can leave you weaker before a boss encounter.

Story Events, Resources, And Risk

Crying Suns includes more than 300 possible story events across its procedural runs. These encounters cover civilians, stations, factions, strange signals, derelict sites, and problems aboard your own ship. Choices can provide resources, reveal lore, create new dangers, or offer short-term gains with longer-term consequences.

The event system is most effective when treated as part of fleet management rather than as separate dialogue content. A seemingly harmless decision can consume supplies, damage the ship, alter your route, or expose the weakness of a battleship that was already preparing for a sector boss.

There is also a persistent discovery loop. Completing chapters and progressing through the campaign reveals more of the Empire's history, the nature of Ellys Idaho, and the relationship between humanity and the OMNIs.

Players looking for a more puzzle-like tactical roguelike may also appreciate turn-based science-fiction tactics such as Into the Breach, although Crying Suns places more emphasis on route planning, fleet logistics, and narrative events than on perfect individual turns.

Last Orders And What The PC Version Includes

The current PC package includes the free Last Orders extension. It adds the Prag Mah and Phalanx factions, two playable battleships with different playstyles, four special officers, twelve battlefield items, thirty related events, new achievements, and quality-of-life improvements.

Last Orders is not presented as a separately purchased campaign. Storefront descriptions identify it as a free extension included with current purchases, and existing owners receive the added content through the normal game update process.

The earlier Advanced Tactics update is also free content rather than a paid season pass or a collection of licensed expansion packs. Crying Suns therefore has a straightforward commercial model: a paid base game with substantial gameplay updates integrated into the PC experience.

GOG offers a Deluxe Edition that bundles the game with a digital artbook and the original soundtrack. Those extras are separate from the gameplay additions, so players mainly choosing between editions should focus on whether they want the bonus digital materials.

Who Should Play Crying Suns?

Crying Suns suits players who enjoy single-player tactical roguelites, science-fiction mysteries, resource pressure, and stories revealed through repeated attempts. It is a good fit if you like making route decisions, comparing ship configurations, and pausing combat to coordinate multiple units.

The game is also approachable for players who find harsher roguelikes intimidating. The chapter structure provides a clear sense of progress, and the difficulty options allow the campaign to be approached as a narrative journey or a more demanding tactical challenge.

It is less suitable for players who want deep crew simulation, unrestricted galaxy exploration, or a long-term economy with diplomacy and colonisation. Crying Suns focuses on one battleship and its fleet rather than on managing a full interstellar civilisation.

It should also be skipped by anyone looking specifically for online play. The PC storefront listings identify Crying Suns as single-player only, with no verified co-op, competitive multiplayer, or split-screen mode.

PC Features, Controls, And Storefront Differences

The PC version is primarily designed around keyboard-and-mouse controls. The developer has stated that official controller support was not planned for the PC version, so a gamepad should not be treated as a supported hardware feature even though community control-mapping tools may exist.

Steam provides the expected platform features, including achievements, trading cards, Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing. The Steam edition requires the Steam client, while the Epic version uses an Epic account. GOG's version is DRM-free and does not require GOG Galaxy to play.

Text localization is available in English, French, German, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish from Spain, and Japanese on the current Steam listing. English is the listed spoken language, so players should expect localized text rather than a fully dubbed campaign in every supported language.

For another space roguelike built around navigation, survival choices, and unpredictable encounters, compare its route-planning appeal with procedural space survival adventures like The Long Journey Home. The two games differ in combat design, but both make resource decisions and changing routes central to the experience.

Crying Suns FAQ

Is Crying Suns still called Crying Suns?

Yes. The current Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG listings continue to use the name Crying Suns. No verified storefront rebrand or replacement edition has superseded the original title.

Is Last Orders paid DLC?

No. Last Orders is described as a free extension. It adds the Prag Mah and Phalanx factions, playable battleships, officers, battlefield items, events, achievements, and quality-of-life changes to the existing game.

Does Crying Suns have multiplayer or co-op?

No. Crying Suns is a single-player experience. The PC editions do not list online multiplayer, local co-op, competitive play, or split-screen support.

Does the PC version support controllers?

Official controller support is not listed for the PC version, and the developer has stated that adding it was not planned. Keyboard and mouse are the intended PC input method.

How is the campaign structured?

The story is arranged across six chapters. Each chapter uses procedural routes and events, with battles, resource decisions, and sector progression feeding into a larger narrative about Ellys Idaho, Kaliban, the OMNIs, and the fallen Empire.

Is Crying Suns a real-time or turn-based game?

Its exploration and battles use a real-time-with-pause structure. You can pause combat to issue commands and coordinate weapons, officers, auxiliary systems, and squadrons before resuming the encounter.

Does Crying Suns have full voice acting?

No. The listed localization options apply to interface and subtitles, while English is the supported spoken language. The story is delivered through text, character scenes, and event-driven narrative sequences.