It’s a slow crawl to death in space. Build your city how you want but people are going to die and you’re going to lose. You’re only going to learn by losing. It’s the pain of watching your entire infrastructure break down that is going to give you the strength to build a sustainable city in the stars. Aboard the prototype vessel Tiqqun, a circular starship with modular design composed of a system of rotating rings, you’ll expand across six sectors, precariously balancing resources and the lives of your crew as explore and expand across the deep reaches of space.

First, you’re gonna die. Don’t be a hero. Losing is how we learn. Eventually, you’ll create enough save states and an infrastructure that will, at the very least, not bottom out beyond any means of saving it.

There are the basic tasks that will allow for short-term survival — keep the hull in good repair, keep the station powered with solar panels, keep your populace growing and trusting your leadership, make each zone self-sustaining with a series of buildings that work in conjunction with one another, focused on zone-specific goals.

There are many raw materials to balance here. The player will have to carefully craft a streamlined factory that then processes those materials, melts them down for components, and utilizes them for further expansion. Sometimes your impending space death is going to come cause you just don’t have enough iron resources to do the next thing. You’re not going to lose right away, but you will feel the dwindling opportunity to complete your tasks, as resources become more scarce around the station, new stipulations and problems are introduced, and the game adds deeper consequences for an imbalanced system of operations.

For better and worse, Ixion, despite its deep space aspirations, is a linear city builder. You’re working across chapters with simple demands that tutorialize the full depth of the mechanics. The story is not inspired but it works. It starts off on uncertain footing… the first commander who links in is chewing on an apple while talking, who thought this was a good audio choice to introduce the game? They even include a Misophonia switch in the game options, but why do this at all?

As it goes, the flavor text is not the meat of the game, anyway, but it’s uneven and hard to invest in very emotionally. The bulk of the appeal and work is in systems management, so it makes sense it’s not backed by a stirring story, but because the game is not freeform and is entirely dependent on its chaptered story to push it along, you might wish for more color and personality in it.

After a couple years on Steam, the game has now come to consoles, and it’s a real smooth transition. It’s a little hard to read the HUD on a television but basically it’s been worked onto a controller in a sensible way.

There are also a slew of difficulty sliders which weren’t present in the original release. You can pretty much nullify every layer of difficulty and it’s pretty sweet accessibility wise that it’s not just an easy-medium-hard setup, but there is nuance behind every system and its difficulty.

Turn much of it down though, and you lose the game of it all. Ixion is nothing if not a thoroughly satisfying and difficult management simulator with hardcore resource systems built into it. You’re going to die but after enough space deaths, you’re also going to build a well-oiled machine of a city.

And that’s when Ixion reaches for the stars. When all systems are locked in and your roadways are flowing with life, your population is expansive and happy, your tech trees have allowed you to build the space station of your dreams, and you’re out navigating and making your own mark in the universe, it feels like a bit of management magic. At its best, Ixion holds up with some of the strongest of the genre, and the more you ride its wavelength, the better it becomes. You’re going to die. Stick in there, though, and you’ll also really get to live your simulated dreams of spaceflight. You get out of it what you put in and your patience will be deeply rewarded.

7/10

Reviewed on Xbox