Strange Adventures in Infinite Space

Strange Adventures In Infinite Space is a freeware game made by Digital Eel Games.

In the game, you control a Featureless Protagonist spaceship captain hired out by a shady "businessman" to explore a region of space known as Sector Prime on a ten-year charter. Along the way, you explore new solar systems, discover exciting new technologies, and find new alien races to talk to (or kill). At the end of the ten-year period, you are expected to return home with loot and tales from your strange adventure in infinite space.

...And that's it, really. The game takes about 5-15 minutes to complete, but it's strangely compelling nevertheless.

It has spawned a sequel of sorts (Although it is more of an Enhanced Remake) called Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. This installment is not freeware, but contains the stuff the original had, and a lot more, including Game Mod support.

Not to be confused with the recently released Infinite Space Sci-Fi RPG by Sega.

Strange Adventures is available here. Weird Worlds can be bought from Digital Eel's webpage and, since May 3rd, 2012, from Desura too.

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 * Apocalypse How: Several. Stars can go nova, destroying all the planets in the system (and your ship, if you get caught in the blast). One alien artifact . Finally, one alien race  unless you manage to defeat them.
 * Blue and Orange Morality: The Tan Ru are stated to be oblivious to all organic life. The Tchorak are Silicon Based Lifeforms that see organic life as disgusting and deserving destruction, but consider a fish made of crystal the most beautiful thing ever, and anyone who possesses it as someone wise enough to be worth sparing.
 * Charm Person: The Mantle of Babulon is recognized by most alien species, even the ones that normally hate you unconditionally, as a sign of power and authority. If you wear it, only the the Tan Ru and the Yellow Kawangi (And in Weird Worlds, the Tchorak) will still be your enemies, and that's only because they are all HURR DURR DESTROY ALL LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, and thus don't know anything about messianic archetypes. A similar effect is possible with the Tchorak, however, if you have the crystal fish item. The Kawangi and the Tan Ru? Yeah, set guns to full power.
 * Exclusively Evil: The Urluquai.
 * Faster-Than-Light Travel: Of course. Different engines allow your ship to travel at different speeds. Maximum speed for you is 20 times the speed of light, but some alien species seem to have the technology to spontaneously warp to places on a whim.
 * Ghost Ship: Space hulks can be found drifting around some planets. Board them and loot them if you want, but beware of automatic weapons systems.
 * Primordius' entire fleet is made out of literal ghost ships.
 * Late to the Party: Many events give off this feeling.
 * The Underdelve
 * The Epsilon Research base
 * "The Lesser Swarm"
 * The three abandoned Star Ships found in the game all give off this vibe. Damocles is given some backstory, though.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: The Multi-missile weapon does this. Effective against all kinds of enemies.
 * Mechanical Lifeforms: The Tan Ru might be this. They are described as a race of sentient machines who are "oblivious to organic life." They attack on sight.
 * Multiple Endings: What happens to you in the aftermath of your voyage depends on your score at the end. Interestingly enough, you can get an overwhelmingly high negative score (and a bad aftermath) by arriving home late even if you literally saved the galaxy.
 * "No Warping" Zone: Nebulae limit cruising speed to the speed of light, except with certain engines.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: The Yellow Kawangi are a race said to "wreak wanton destruction on a galactic scale." They aren't kidding;.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Garthans. Aggressive and dangerous, whether they're on your side or not.
 * Proud Merchant Race: The Klackar. Invaluable allies in trade, since they trade items with you on 1:1 basis, no matter the value of the item you give them. Although, technically, you can summon them in the middle of a battle, and they will fight, they loathe fighting, and so are not good at it, getting killed easily.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In any game where, the ending becomes this if you . All that hard work for nothing!
 * The sequel, Weird Worlds, adds
 * Space Pirates: Can be hired to join your flotilla.
 * Space Whale: They appear in a random event.
 * Stealth in Space: The Plasma Coil Cloaker.
 * Shout-Out: The Purple People Eater. Its description even lists it as being one-eyed, one-horned, and winged (i.e. "flying").
 * A Black Monolith.
 * A time capsule with a note inside reading ""So Long, and thanks for all the fish." On the same note, one possible sabotage event is the unexplained disappearance of all your towels.
 * Wave Motion Gun: The Particle Vortex gun makes every other weapon in the game look like a toy. Works well on fighters and corvettes.
 * Every gun other than the Infamous Nova Cannon.
 * We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill: The battle cry of the Urluquai. They seem pleasant right up until they start shooting.
 * Title Drop: Every ending features the words "Thus ends your strange adventure in infinite space."
 * 2-D Space: Played dead straight.
 * A Villain Named Zrg: The Zorg are an alien race in both games. They aren't exactly villains, though. Just... alien.