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.
