Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2014
Drox Operative
Developer Soldak Entertainment
Drox Operative is a starship action RPG with warring alien races, fierce space battles, a dynamic, evolving galaxy, and co-op multiplayer for Windows and Mac.Eons ago the Drox ruled the galaxy through their mighty Operatives. These elite starship captains were trained to accomplish the impossible at whatever cost necessary. From the Steam store page
197 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Lemmy, Bluesky) · newest Sep 12, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
85
LovedLoved
159 positive · 27 negative
95% range 80–90%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 159 | 27 | 0 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
11 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
289 of 322 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 197 · most liked firstDrox Operative is Soldak Entertainment's space ARPG in which you play the eponymous Drox Operative, a sort of mercenary. You are plopped into a procedurally generated sector where you must achieve any one of a list of victory conditions. Whether you succeed or fail (by producing a loss condition) the sector closes and you start the process again. The problems start with the foundation. The game is almost entirely created from code recycled from Soldak's older Diablo clones. Added to that old…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I run a blog/YouTube channel in which I focus entirely on space games. I started it over five years ago, and in that time I have played a TON of space games. This is the best of them. All of them. Seriously, if someone put me on a desert island with one game, this would be it (Distant Worlds if I could have two). It's pacing, variety, design and playability are all astounding. If you have any interest in space games. ANY DAMMIT. Get this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Drox Operative is an action/ Shoot 'Em Up RPG that has plenty of features that make it a very interesting game. Although these same features end up making it lose some of its replayability (a single game can take many hours). The gameplay makes up for the game's poor graphics. Gameplay The objective of this game is to pick a side and help them win. There are 5 ways to win and 4 to lose: - Military win or loss - Diplomatic win or loss - Economic win or loss - Fear win - Legend win - Bounty…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever played a space strategy game where you have to colonize planets, trade and maintain a diplomatic relationship with other races and take care of your own people while doing so? Ever wondered what it would be like to be that random event that caused citizens to rebel, technology to be sold to your enemy, a race that you would like to be a friend but just won't listen because some element in the game says 'Hell no!'? Well in this game you can; This is a top-down space shooter, but around the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Only 121 reviews at the time I write this; this is rather sad because this game is a gem! It's got loot, upgradable spaceships, random quests, loot, you can win by being a bastard, loot, and well, I suck at reviews but this is FUN !
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to like this game. I really honestly do. I love the concept. I love flying around in space shooting ♥♥♥♥. But honestly, this game fails on a lot of levels. It just misses the mark in a lot of glaring ways. 1) Scaling: I understand that a "boss" monster is gonna be tough, but when he's got 10x your health/shields/whatever and can do vastly more damage per hit than you can (to the tune of damn near 1shotting you), it just takes the fun out of it for me. 2) Speed: Enemy ships can and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played this game for far longer than my Steam hours would indicate-one of the most engaging and fascinating games I've ever played. I spend hours and hours reading about and trying various space games and I keep on coming back to Drox Operative. It's like I'm playing Diablo but Diablo is happening inside Starcraft. Maybe it's not like that at all. God, I don't know. No other game is as good at making me feel very very strong and influential while simultaneously making me feel…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I highly recommend this game. It may not be much to look at but it's one of those games where every galaxy you play has a different little story to go along with it. I love being able to observe (and meddle in) the wider politics of the game world while slaughtering bad guys ARPG style. It makes the game into more than just an excercise in loot gathering.The other thing I find important that this game has is an insane amount of character customization and different ship parts which unlock all…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't look at my "hours played", as I play offline mostly. Look at my achievements. If you're looking for a good 2D space combat game like "Solar Winds", "Starscape", or "SPAZ", this is not it. Keep moving. This is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grind fest with a space skin on it, nothing more. Think Borderlands, with no plot. All there is to this game is grind for XP, grind for better random items, that's it. It also shows strong evidence of no playtesting. There's no attempt to make this game fun. Expect to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game can only deal with the default settings for Window 10's Ease of Access features. Change anything, and either the buttons you see on the screen no longer match the location where you have to cklick, or you just see the top left part of the game' UI. This is a bug that has existed for years. Sorry, I cannot reset the Windows settings every time I play this game, and set the back afterwards. By the way, this is fixed in Drox Operative 2.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you are looking for a 4x space conquest game keep looking. This game is a straight ARPG blow everything up and grab thier gear. Kill, quest, and level up. As you level you spend 'stat' points to upgrade your ship. Componant slots open up and put gear into slots (many many dif combos) including crew members that level up. Total mindless destruction. Random rogue like loot. Leveling up. Respawn/random sectors. Help the races or destroy them. Blow lots of stuff up than blow some more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The consensus seems to be that Drox Operative is the best game that this dev has ever made. I don't agree with that - I think Zombasite is far superior to this... an all-time classic. If you've never played a game from them before and can only afford one, I'd advise you to get Zombasite. The playstyles have a lot of similarity, but Zombasite has more depth. That said, Drox Operative is a lot of fun. You could say it's a 4x game where you are strictly a mercenary and don't have any real stake…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A sci-fi ARPG where you play an agent of the Drox Guild seeking to spread the influence of the guild throughout the universe. You're dropped into a sector full of different species, and have to make them all fear you, become a legend by destroying the most powerful monsters in that region of space, become an economic powerhouse, or ally with all the species in the sector (and destroy the species that won't). The developer, Soldak, is a small shop that keeps iterating on the same idea - an ARPG…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Drox operative 2 is literally the exact same game, just with more stuff and a better leveling system. Get that instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →PROS: 1) Wide variety of weapons systems to equip your ship with. The range and effects of these systems are so diverse that it can completely change the feel of the whole game based on which weapon combos you choose. 2) Fills the niche of Star Control I & II while combining that with the addictive gameplay of the Diablo series (but in SPACE!) 3) You are in a 4X Space Conquest game (with many different empires striving for galactic dominion), but you are NOT one of them. You are a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short Version: Diablo and Heroes of Might and Magic had a baby and stuck it in a rocket and sent it off to space where it was raised by FTL to appreciate the finer points of spaceship building and random events and run-on sentences. Action-RPG and 4x-Strategy gameplay mesh well in Drox Operative, which is slightly dated but extremely enjoyable as a replayable grind-to-gear fest. Also: 'Drox Operative' is actually space lingo for 'Super Space Mercenary', in case anyone is as confused as I was…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very fun Diablo-esque space RPG. You create your ship, then progress through the dynamically created levels gaining levels and items as you go. Once you meet one of the winning/losing criteria of the system, then you create a new system to explore. When creating a new system you can set the base level of the enemies in it, as such you can to an extent set your own difficulty level. Additionally you can set the size of the system, number of races etc as you can in many other games. If…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Guess it is better than the other Drox games just from the improved gameplay. But, twenty bucks? Gzeez.. There is a demo there if you want to try it out. Works great on an old ubuntu linux with minimum specs, and radeon mesa graphic drivers.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is mildly interesting for about 5 hours until you realize that it never really goes anywhere. - Loot drops are rarely interesting - Most seem to be so similar to what you've already found. So what should be an amazing part of this game is lost to eventual tedium. - Enemy AI is non existent as far as I could tell. Enemies always behave the exact same and move in similar ways. So basically the only difference in enemies are the shape, color and race which are all simply cosmetic.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The starship command genre is a tiny one to begin with, so expecting any overlap with disparate genres like ARPGs is foolish at best. And yet we have Drox Operative, a wholly unexpected merging of Diablo-style looting and progression with space combat and starship design. That’s enough of an accomplishment on its own to be notable, but the free spirits at Soldak Entertainment didn’t stop there. As with their other titles you’re not battling or questing to defeat a singular threat or advance a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Man I love this game. If you've played Space Rangers you know exactly what you're getting into; only this one feels faster with better controls, better graphics, and without any guesswork on silly choose your own text adventures. It's a bit like a "Space Diablo" with various other npc factions vying for power a la a game of Galactic Civilizations. It places an emphasis on faster paced hotkey combat and little to no emphasis on "buy this item low at this planet and sell for higher at this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This review is a part of the Steamified's Community Reviews program and the credit goes to both Steamified and Soldak Entertainment for providing the key for review purposes. Let me start this of by saying that I'm not exactly a fan of space-based games. I play it occasionally but never really sink in a significant amount of time into any given titles of the genre but after giving Drox Operative a try, I find it to be very accessible and, more importantly, highly enjoyable! Originally a 2012…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR at end. I'm 8 hours in and truly enjoying this game. It's actually been some time since a game sucked me in like this and to be frank I wasn't expecting it at all. I won the game bidding during the holiday auction so it was free and it was the game I bid on after winning my first choice with the points I had left over. I was so wrong. This game should have been the first choice. Heck I would have gladly paid for a game of this quality. Now on to the actual game itself. The weakest…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a good shoot & loot game. Don't expect anything much deeper. Like I said, it's good, not amazing. The replay value is very high, and can suck up a lot of your time. But once you start to learn how things work and that the Scavengers are massively OP you'll get pretty bored.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At the beginning, it is quite overwhelmingly complex. But after you understood it all, it's quite addictive. There is tons of equipment and races to choose from, which makes every playthrough really unique. And I gotta tell you, even if the graphics don't look so great on the screenshots, there can be quite awesome battles going on, which will fill your screen pretty nicely. Only thing that bothers me, is the sound design: The weapons sound... old/weird, the music isn't really fitting and the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great little Diablo meets Space RPG. You fly around in a ship, earn levels, find and equip all different types of items and weapons, and kill lots of baddies. My only complaint is the game gets pretty boring after a while. The scenery never really changes, you fly around in a circle map/area that has randomized planets and such scattered about. Warping between areas just brings you to a new circle random area. The background colors change slightly but the content doesn't. Fun game and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Others have said it really well: it's like you're playing Diablo-in-space while working for factions that are playing Master of Orion. The graphics aren't beautiful but the core gameplay is amazing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →tl;dr: They give you options of different ways to win, but then throw a 'mandatory quest' curveball that can potentially screw over everything you've been working towards with no warning that they are going to do it. It happened to me exactly that way, so I'm giving at thumbs down. I was quite ready to give this game a thumbs up, and then it really screwed me over during my first session with 12 hours in. Without getting into all the technical details, you play as mercenary, more or less,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Diablo in space.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is like Diablo in space but more amazing. Stages (sectors?) develop organically and your actions have a real effect on how the world's situation plays out. Quests are generated based on NPC factions' evolving needs and your success or failure shape overall who gets to live, die, become powerful, become friends or enemies. There is even a meta-game in that relations and power levels carry over somewhat between sectors in the same galaxy. Factions that start out as sub-races or rebel…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Soldak Games is a company that seems to operate on the assumption that Diablo would have been the greatest game of all time if only it had some sort of political component added to it. Having sampled a number of their products, I can tell you they've only gotten it right with Drox Operative. They're a small company so the production values aren't great, but if you can look past that here's a pinata popper with a space theme that you might want to give a chance. The real draw here is you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →OH GEE, DID THEY DROP THE BALL ON THIS ONE. So basically, the game has a ton of cool features: fly a ship around and interact with a "Sector" (more on that later), that lives/breathes/dies on its own, and where you are a sort of "special agent" working for a group called the DROX (basically, like the Illuminati in space), who only care about making money, and having control over everyone else in some sort of NWO bull shack scheme; but ulimately, as long as it profits them. So where does the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a great game with a lot going on. As you will know from other reviews, it is a diablo-like ARPG in space with lots of loot and side quests, while the AI factions play a massive 4X wargame in the background. On each map you will have an objective to help one faction win, or to change the balance of power in some way. It is really fun steering the direction of the larger wars and alliances through the actions of your little ship. But in all honesty I am writing this review in 2023…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty good Diablo 2-like and a nice change of pace from running around a wasted countryside. The ships can be customized with a range of weapons and utility power-ups to make builds ranging from a fleet carrier to a suicide bomber instead of buying skills from a tree. Any alien species can use almost any item and the races differ in equipment slots and stat bonuses. With all the hidden unlockable species this probably has more classes than any game in this genre. But as with the rest of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is such a breath of fresh air and criminally overlooked. I just found out about it by chance aswell, but boy am I glad I did! It's a space ARPG within a randomly generated galaxy where AI factions play a 4X game. You can help the different factions, spy on them, sabotage, steal their stuff, try to form alliances or wage war - or just ignore them and go hunt monsters, get loot, improve your ship, trade stuff and become rich. And once this sector is done, for better or for worse, you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will agree with the word that keeps being used in reference to this game... a "gem". What a breath of fresh air through the pollution of crap games that somehow continuously show up on Steam. You have to play the game to realize why this has a 19.99 pricetag. Then you will realize why its worth every penny. On top of that, the one DLC they have is stuffed with content and again, worth every penny. Get it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Drox Operative is an excellent and unique ARPG, well worth your money. The Good: -Unique character development -Extensive variety of builds and ships, you can do pretty much anything you can come up with, and succeed. -Random area generation, each playthrough is different. -Built in mechanics to encourage you to play each round differently, without penalizing you for playing the way you want to play. (For example, the Drox guild will issue you a quest to save one race, destroy another, protect…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Years ago, I had a mixed impression of a previous Soldak game, Depths of Peril because they tried to mix their Diablo-style ARPG formula with what was functionally a 4X game's diplomacy system in a way that clashed and detracted from the game overall. I would be in a dungeon wanting to finish that dungeon, but nope, one of the factions back home declared war and the game is over now. Drox Operative keeps the 4X diplomacy and has a lot of the elements of their previous Diablo-like ARPG ported…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tbh I would rather a desktop and build that myself. If I wanted a laptop I would most likely be looking for very low specs and cheap, so second hand. Got a laptop with a 2011 pentium CPU somewhere and it works perfectly fine on Linux, even got a few games on it. Drox Operative 2 runs at 60FPS, kinda makes me wish we had more 2D games these days as they can run on pretty much anything.
unlabelledView post →X4: Foundations. Just started a new playthrough with the Kingdom End DLC. Its the closest to Eve online, except being offline, singleplayer, pausable and moddable. It supports many playstyles and can also be played semi afk, which i like. At times it can be incredibly frustrating because the UI is complex and the AI of your fleet members can be very stupid. Still i enjoy just doing my thing, playing for a bit, save and continue later. Not a lot of games support this. Others that do for me…
unlabelledView post →It's a game where the AI plays a 4x game in the background while you do things to either assist or impede the AI efforts
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Even though my highest level ship is only about level 12, I've played a couple different new games and maybe 20 to 25 hours total on higher difficulty settings. I have to say it's a very fun and challenging game. It has a lot of what I want: 1) Background simulation (sort of like Space Rangers HD or X-series or Helium Rain) 2) Freeform character development (in the form of ship equipment choices and stats) 3) Lots of difficulty options for a tailored, more challenging experience 4) Freeform…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ships don't have momentum. As soon as you stop moving, the ship stops for you. Your primary weapon is a beam weapon that auto-aims, no skill needed. It has a great opportunity to be a real shooter intermixed with all the RPG stuff, but it falls way short of it. The game does not guide you well enough in the beginning. Quests come and go, you fail them a lot, and you don't know why and it doesn't even seem to matter. A lot of the trash ships are just too easy, one-hit kills, which would be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've had this game in my account for a while, and it was recommended in the recent spring cleaning event, so I gave it a try. I found most of the gameplay quite intuitive. The help pop up screens were quite helpful at the start. And the combat felt quite fun and satisfying. The concept of setting a Space Rangers like game inside an AI played 4X is a good idea. I loved in old Pirates! on C64 how cities would change hands and the nations would do their thing that you tried to exploit. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Note: Base game, no DLC. If that changes much for $10, I cannot say, but just a warning in case it does. Soldak Entertainment is a bit of an interesting thing in my case, as I've had quite the past with them back about a decade or so ago and from onwards. I used to play their games quite a bit, at least the demo versions of such game. Entertained myself with Depths of Peril quite a bit, spending time levelling characters up to the maximum level they'd permit in their trial before moving…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played the heck out of this years ago when it first came out, and now am re-playing once again. Amazing game, worth every penny!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →✓ Diablo II in space ✓ Many neat features ✓ Intricate game mechanics ✓ Vast and dynamic playground, randomly generated ✓ GNU/Linux support! ✘ No DRM-free build? ✘ Sound effects and soundtracks are below average.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is not a typical Action RPG. Yes, you go around collecting loot, killing things and completing quests, but that is where the similarities to ARPGs start to peter out. The massive variants of loot, for the most part, are good only for selling. Your ship doesn't have the inventory space or the level required when you start out, so monetise them. The in-game currency is VERY useful to achieve your aims of domination in every sector - money talks. Just like in real life, money gives the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So...I will make this short. This game is a cross-over between an x4 space sim and escape velocity, which are my favorite games...and this has it both. Awesome! Basically you are a freelancer in a x4 space rts, not controlling any empire but influencing all of them while making a profit. Great fun, great replayability, this is a really deep game - the price is well deserved. Also, buy the DLC right away, it adds a lot of content and makes the game even better :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely wonderful indie gem. SciFi rpgs are all too rare in a field glutted with fantasy settings and Drox Operative is a foray into a living breathing world where you can affect literally everything all while spacefaring and questing through a procedurally-generated sector one level at a time. Highly recommended.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played this game many years ago. The grind and power creeping are still addicting.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't especially want to enter any text here tonight, thanks
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm horrible at 4X games. Can't stand them, too much going on. The perfect 4X game for me would be one where I don't have to care about all the colonizing, resource gathering, researching, army building etc.... Enter Drox Operative. It's like a 4X game where you don't have to care about everything that's going on! All the strategy and whatnot is played by AI and you're on the outside looking in: Help some races, screw some over, try to make everyone get along or sew chaos and watch everything…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Shockingly robust 4X Space Politics drenched atop a co-op ARPG; It's Diablo in space with actual civilizations at stake.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I thoroughly enjoyed SPAZ (Space Pirates and Zombies) and hoped that this game would offer something similar. It did not. The game starts you out with a slow, poorly handling ship and proceeds to throw dozens of confusing menus at you. Eventually, I divined that the only way to earn significant amounts of money was to accomplish quests, but those quests are in a different system. No problem, I'll just take the warp gate ther-wait, I can't use the warp gate to get to any of the other systems…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has some cool ideas but some things kill it for me. First of all, while the game itself is easy to play, the learning curve is steep. I read some player guides for help and I STILL didn't really feel comf ortable playing. And the the most important reason: You start out with practically NO CASH and you are told missions raise cash, fine. You get some missions and find most of them are in another sector and the ONLY way to get to the missions is to pay to use it (in game currency)…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Take a 4x game. Play an NPC in that game helping any faction you like. Have a customizable ship with random equipment like Diablo. Level up. Thats this game. Oh and multiplayer. Check out the demo. Its a good game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very interesting premise where you are a mercenary and the AI empires are pretty much playing a 4X game around you, however there are some very big shortcomings. While the AI have not met other AI, they flourish. However once they meet, they will start sabotaging each other like crazy which gives planets everything from mutation plagues to mass insanity. At this stage every empire declines into its inevitable destruction. You can try stop it (Which feels more like handholding or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's some fun to be had with this game, the design is interesting. However, the gameplay becomes really, really repetative. So you're going to hit a point where the game just ceases to be interesting. Also, bounty hunters are way OP. Overall: 2/5
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the same company made depths of peril, this is depths of peril in s p a c e. there is no party for the player but there more faction things to do and the space setting allows more item mechanics like cloaking devices and fighter ship summons in so you don't feel lonely.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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