Starbound

I absolutely loved, and still love from time to time, this game. Development stopped many years ago, and having no further updates & no Starbound 2 announcement hurts me almost physically even today. Perhaps one day someone would make a perfect spiritual successor of this game, maybe even better than the current iteration. But since now, I have yet to see a game so wonderful. Similar games? Yes, there are plenty out there. But how many of them would check the same boxes as Starbound? None of them. And so I'm here, delivering my message to the crackling electrical void of the Cyber, knowing that it would age bad like rotten milk; still, a man can dream, aye? Farewell, Starbound, and thanks for having existed, for some time at least - may the Precursors have mercy of us beneath this starry sky.

Just go play Terraria. The developer/publisher is a massive piece of ♥♥♥♥ (so bad that ConcernedApe bought the rights to his own game back so he wouldn't be kicked off of his own IP) and the game is not good, it's not what was promised, the developer abandoned it in an unfinished state, it was developed using exploited free labor, and the game is almost nothing like what this page presents. Go spend your money on something better.

[h1][b] TLDR: A vast but ultimately shallow vanilla experience that grows stale fast, with the modding community's deep additions doing most of the heavy lifting to make it worth recommending. [/b] [/h1] [h1]PROS: [/h1] ➕Steam Workshop integration ➕Extensive modding community ➕Infinite planets/game world size [h1]CONS: [/h1] ➖No UI scaling option ➖No more content updates after 2019 (?) ➖Gameplay loop can get repetitive ➖Planets can be boring and too similar as you explore ➖Requires mods to add fun game systems - Vanilla can feel boring and often unfinished at times I spent about 50 hours in this game initially, then spent my remaining time checking out the mods. There are some excellent mods on the Workshop that will really add some replay value, namely Frackin’ Universe and RPG Growth. [h1] [b] Content (Game world/Narrative) – [6/10] [/b] [/h1] The game world is vast, but often meaningless. You do have infinite planets to explore, but beyond the different biomes, they don’t have much going on. Once you explore a few planets completely, you’ve seen all there is. The narrative isn’t anything special and revolves around you building up your spaceship and flying to different planets. [h1][b] Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) – [7/10] [/b] [/h1] The gameplay loop consists of exploration and gathering, mixed with survival. It’s very similar to Terraria, with No Man’s Sky mixed in. You gather materials, and craft better gear, like Terraria, and then you explore a massive number of (mostly empty) planets over and over, like NMS. What really boosts the gameplay value here are the mods. They add a lot of depth to an otherwise decent experience. I would probably rate vanilla a 6. I’d say the game is normal difficulty. The combat seems less intricate than Terraria, but some of the survival aspects can make the game harder. In the beginning, it can be tough to get your food up and going, for example. [h1] [b] Graphics (Quality/Technical) – [5/10] [/b] [/h1] A small step up from Terraria’s graphics. I’d say this is around PS2-era fidelity. Pretty simple. Runs fine, 60 FPS. I noticed no issues. 1440p @ 240hz | installed on SSD [h1] [b] Audio – [8/10] [/b] [/h1] Very good. I loved the planet side music. Probably the one area it triumphs over Terraria in. [h1] [b] Replay Factor (Longevity) – [7/10] [/b] [/h1] It has the replay diversity of an ocean, with the depth of a puddle, without mods. That is to say that the gameplay loop will grow stale quickly as you explore the same things over and over, but mods add a ton of new things. [h1] [b] Final Verdict – [6/10] [/b] [/h1] Starbound is a bit of an odd game. I found myself getting bored with it much quicker than Terraria, as the gameplay loop gets stale quickly after you discover some of the furthest long materials. However, what really added some much-needed systems to the game was mods. The vanilla experience leaves a lot to be desired as it can feel unfinished at times. The gameplay loop can get repetitive, and it simply lacks engaging systems or meaningful progression that has depth. Once you explore some planets and get resources….there just doesn’t seem to be much worth doing. Mods greatly change that. Both Frackin’ Universe and RPG Growth add some much-needed systems for the player to engage in. Things like an entire research tree with multiple forms of currency and tons of races with their own racial stats and abilities, and RPG classes like a Knight or Ninja, is what these mods add, respectively. And while these mods are wonderful and add in needed content, it’s slightly worrisome to me to recommend the game when the mods seem to be carrying it. I believe a game should be able to stand on its own, but I do also want players to experience the great things mod devs have done. If I had to rate the Starbound Vanilla experience, I would probably put it at a 5, classifying it as average. It has some good aspects, but other games, like Terraria, outclass it. Due to the needed mechanics that mods add, I would rate it a 6. As such, I would still recommend if you play it to spend some time in the vanilla game, but when you start getting bored, consider that the tutorial finished and try out some mods. [h1] [b] Recommend? (Price) [Y/N] [/b] [/h1] [h1]Yes[/h1] I’d say full price of $15 is still a good deal considering the amount of content available, but due to its age, lack of “Completeness”, and overdependence on mods, I’d suggest getting it on sale. You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR

The base game is fine. Like it's genuinely just fine. It does what it says, you explore planets, you build stuff, you follow a story that exists and has a beginning and an end and some genuinely interesting lore tucked into it if you actually pay attention, and the different races have way more personality than they probably needed to which I appreciated a lot. The Floran alone are worth acknowledging, like whoever wrote their dialogue was having a great time and it shows. But as a complete experience straight out of the box Starbound sits somewhere between pretty good and almost great and never quite closes that gap on its own, and I think a lot of people who bounced off it felt that without being able to fully articulate why. The atmosphere is lovely, the pixel art is some of the best in the genre, the music is genuinely incredible and I will not hear otherwise, but something in the core loop feels like it needed one more year in development and didn't quite get it. And then you install Frackin Universe and something completely different happens. Frackin Universe is one of those mods that stops feeling like a mod pretty quickly and starts feeling like what the game was always supposed to be, like someone looked at everything Starbound was reaching toward and just finished the sentence for it. The research system alone adds this entire layer of progression that the base game is desperately missing, where suddenly there's always something to work toward, always a reason to go to a specific planet type or track down a specific resource, always a next step that makes the previous one feel meaningful in retrospect. The biomes get genuinely weird and hostile in ways that make exploration feel like it actually has stakes. The tech trees go so deep that you can sink hours into just understanding what's available to you before you even start properly pursuing it. The crafting stops being a means to an end and becomes this whole thing unto itself where you're building infrastructure and managing systems and feeling like you're actually constructing something rather than just progressing through menus. I completed this game fully modded and I don't think I could go back to the base game now, not because the base game is bad but because the mod ruined me for it in the best possible way. If you played vanilla Starbound and felt like something was missing you weren't imagining it, the something that was missing was Frackin Universe, just install it, you'll understand within the first two hours and you'll still be playing three weeks later wondering where the time went. 9/10, definitely use mods

The story of this game is quite dramatic. Unfortunately littered with a terrible company and lots of teenagers exploited labor, for a final product that ultimately disappoints more than anything. One of the few times were the Early Access was better than the final release. Trying to sell a Vinyl after having abandoned the game and not having addressed any of this is quite pathetic.

Game is basically abandoned by the developers after having got their money, 13+ years of a game that had potential to be next Terraria, only to massacred during its development and left to rot, only reason this game is still alive and thriving is because of the dedicated Modders. Now after that long time the devs come back with a Anniversary Vynil that is just a spit in the face to their last fans that still dwell on this game, trying to make a quick checkout as their funds run low.

Shameless devs, for the 10th anniversary and for any signs of life since 2 years, we get a vinyl record. No update, no nothing, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ vinyl record... It's insulting. The game is good, but it has so much untapped potential and could've been really really great if the devs cared at least a tiny bit about it. Only reason it's alive is because of the modding community (which props to them for carrying it this far).

The first update in 7 years is to their merch store.