Sci-Fi Games With Dyson Spheres & Other Mind-Blowing Megastructures
If humanity survives climate change and internal conflict, expands into outer space, and colonizes planets and star systems beyond Earth, it may one day seek to fuel its stellar civilization with a Dyson Sphere - a massive shell made to siphon off all the energy from a star. The creation of a Dyson Sphere would be an astonishing feat of engineering for an intelligent species; accordingly, the following video games, ranging from action-RPGs like Mass Effect 2 to grand strategy games like Dyson Sphere Program, present the construction of Dyson Spheres and similar megastructures as the ultimate challenge for their spacefaring civilizations.
The Dyson Sphere concept was first scientifically articulated by Freeman Dyson (not related to the Dyson fan and vacuum company). Dyson was a nuclear physicist and mathematician famous for his participation in Project Orion, an initiative to design spacecraft propelled by the ejection and detonation of nuclear bombs. Projecting the increasing energy requirements of civilizations hundreds of years into the future, Dyson argued that sufficiently advanced, space-faring societies would fulfill their need for energy by surrounding a star with dense swarms of solar power-collecting satellites. Science fiction writers simplified Dyson's concept into the modern pop-culture conception of a Dyson Sphere: a massive, solid shell surrounding and encapsulating a star.
The concept of the Dyson Sphere has appeared in many literary works, TV shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, and video games like Halo, generally in the form of mysterious ruins left behind by ancient, powerful, and long-vanished civilizations. The video games below, in contrast, present Dyson Spheres and other variants of megastructure as feats of engineering player characters and their factions potentially could achieve with persistence and research.
The early access game Dyson Sphere Program is a space management simulator under development by Youthcat Studio. True to its name, players of Dyson Sphere Program take on the role of a space engineer in charge of building a massive Dyson Sphere facility to harvest energy from the sun and other stars, fulfilling humanity's future energy needs. Starting out with a small workshop and a mech suit, players will harvest resources from different worlds, establish supply convoys, and assemble massive orbital facilities, eventually creating an energy collection system that could span an entire galaxy.
Combining classic 4X space strategy gameplay with clever writing and narrative events, Stellaris is a game about building expansive interstellar empires in a galaxy filled with rival polities, inscrutable elder civilizations, and terrifying cosmic extinction events waiting to be unleashed by the foolish inquirer. Players will frequently discover ruined Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, and other megastructures as their empires expand and explore the procedurally generated galaxy. If their faction survives along enough and unlocks the requisite tech trees, they can build their own megastructures to boost energy production, increase living space, or simply flaunt their power to rival star factions.
A ways into the Mass Effect 2 campaign, Shepherd can encounter and recruit a new companion called Legion, a conglomeration of sentient minds from the Geth, a synthetic race of machines who rebelled against their Quarian creators. During conversations with Legion, Shepherd can ask them about the goals and motivations of the Geth; eventually, Legion will reveal the Geth are constructing a Dyson Sphere in their home system, a gigantic computer every single Geth mind can call home. The destruction of this megastructure by a Quarian Flotilla in Mass Effect 3 triggers a climactic confrontation between the Quarians and Geth, ending either in a lasting truce or the extermination of one side, depending on player choices.
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