Starbound

bad, bad, bad. why is everything so greasy that you feel like sliding on ice all the time (moving in caverns is really just one big annoying fall-damage-from-sliding hell)? why 99% of enemies just walk to your spot and hump you to death just by being on same spot as you (so lame and '80)? why do I take fall damage from stupidly small heights? why there is no map in this kind of game? why can I put item in slot BUT can not take it from there directly and have to hunt it in inventory? why placing the torches have to be done in complete darkness 'cause torch does not emit light until placed? why that idiotic down-climbing controls? so many WHYs, so many PLAIN WRONG game design decisions and developer who seems to know best what is good and ignores players wishes. can not recommend in this state

I remember enjoying Starbound. It's just hard to remember why. Starbound is *serviceable*. The music is great. The controls are not, sort of floaty and slippery at the same time. The story is aggressively bland. It's fun and easy to make a great-looking base, there's just not much to do inside it. Stutter and tear on some machines, but a pretty cute "soft" aesthetic. Lots of pros and cons that balance out to an overall "eh". I don't think it's the passage of time, either. Sure there's a lot more games in the vein now (I wonder if the Terraria comparisons are in part because that's about the only thing we could compare it to at the time), but I can still go back to something like Halo CE and say "yeah, this slaps". Not so much with Starbound. Now, a *modded* copy of Starbound is a good time. Maybe there's some irony in that, given the controversy surrounding the publisher's treatment of unpaid interns. But thanks to modders, Starbound lives on as a janky gem, especially when played with friends. Gotta give it a star for that. With the recent announcement that, after half a decade of radio silence, Starbound is coming to Xbox (where presumably it won't be moddable), I had to drop by to see how ol' Starbound was doing. Yep, still forgettable on its own. Yep, still a good time with mods. Good enough to recommend you drop $15 on it? Eh.

If you are into this 2D sandbox genre but haven't played this game - good for you! Now it is polished and has lots of mods. If you are new to the genre - same applies. And basically - you don't need to look gurther - this game has everything Terraria and JunkJack has and even more in terms of mechanics (although personally i like JunkJack's artstyle a bit more). This game has a strong platformer vibe in it and frankly - i usually dont like twitch gameplay (especially platformers) - but these elements are blended so well here that it adds to the gameplay and makes some trips really dangerous. Overall - HIGHLY recommended as for fans of the genre so for newcomers. This game really shines

The game is absolutely amazing, I've had that opinion since the betas of it, but the story is pretty short. For a gamer like me, I can easily finish the story in a few hours or less, it might take more time for first time players. After the story, you can do whatever from building megabases to helping npcs, there are new quests from the latest update which adds bounty hunting which is cool. Just like Minecraft or Terraria, after the end, you are left with yourself without a set goal. Starbound is more sci-fi sided than fantasy like Terraria, that got me really into it. The game is only English but there are mods for basically everything including languages, that's the reason I have almost a 1000 hours on the game, the story is short but with mods, you can extend the story or add a new one. There are also multiplayer servers that you can try, some are not modded and some are. It's kinda hard to get a friend that plays Call of Duty to play this game with you tho. Anyways, amazing game that I always come back to once every 2-3 years, I never forget about it and it's really the only game I keep installed when doing a clean up of my drive.

Starbound 1.0 officially released on July 22, 2016 and this review will focus on the game as it currently stands. Starbound is a 2D platformer where players are set loose upon a ship into a galaxy filled with worlds, moons, and asteroids for them to explore. Starbound is reminiscent of Terraria in terms of gameplay, but with a style that is clearly sci-fi inspired. From choice of player avatar races (which affect their ship style) players will be able to gather everything from dirt to rare ores in order to craft better gear and weapoins to progress through the open world or the game's main storyline. The story is optional and players who want to simply enjoy the open world aspect can do so without issue - though they will be prevented from fighting story progression bosses until they complete those story missions. The Interface does have a sci-fi feel to it but feels cumbersome with basic features such as quick stacking into containers missing from the game. Mods can take care of this but I believe such features should exist in-game at its core. This lack of base feature also extends to other in-game mechanics, such as farming, tool improvements, and followers. Gameplay wise, the combat is much improved, allowing for multiple combat styles and quickly changing between them. Unique creatures populating worlds will provide a greater challenge than the proceduraly generated ones which feel quite plain in comparison. There are only 6 tiers of armour available to the player, which feels a bit limiting considering there are 15+ different types of ore, and only a handful are used across 5 levels of stars. Some materials can't even be refined or crafted into anything else. Craftable weapons are also quite limited, leaving the player to search for unique versions that are more suited to their play style. Though enjoyable, I recommend Starbound to anyone interested in this style of game, but offer a warning that some features seem incomplete and unintuitive.