And, just like Terraria, or Minecraft before it, it’s more fun with friends. Just like Terraria, you can play Starbound alone or with friends.
There’s just so much more to do in this game, and so many more game systems to play with.
In Starbound, you can explore planets, build vehicles, upgrade your ship, make villages, the list goes on. Terraria limited you to a single planet, and while there was a bit of progression, with a dungeon, a “hard-mode” and multiple bosses, it’s nothing like what Starbound has. Where Starbound completely trumps Terraria, and becomes worthy of the “spiritual successor” tag is in scope. Where Starbound completely trumps Terraria, and becomes worthy of the “spiritual successor” tag is in scope It’s a fun way to break up the cycle of dig-discover-build, and offers more of a traditional 2D side scroller experience as well as a sense of accomplishment. Missions essentially give you a chance to test out all that snazzy gear you have acquired by dumping you into a pre-built, unalterable level that you must fight your way through, culminating in a boss fight. You can simply pick a planet and explore, or you can try and complete quests and “missions”. Getting to this world and being shown some clear goals to work towards was what really gave me purpose in the game, and where I got completely hooked.įrom here, the world, or rather the galaxy, is your oyster. The hub world gives you a place to upgrade your items and abilities, purchase vehicles and supplies, and of course seek out new quests. This is when the game really starts takes off. After a brief introductory quest, where you are christened as one of the ancient, noble “protectors”, and the Earth is destroyed, you’ll find yourself dumped on a random planet, in search of materials to fix your ship and aid you on your mission to bring peace and order to the galaxy (or something like that).Įventually, the game will send you to a kind of “hub world” space station, where you’ll get a bunch of new quests. If you played any of the Early Access builds of the game, the first thing you will notice is that the game now actually has a story. The final retail build has come a long way, and addressed almost all of these issues. Most notably, it was missing that sense of progression that Terraria nailed so well. It was essentially a bare-bones build of the game, containing a few of the core systems, and not really anything else. When the first Early Access build of Starbound hit in 2013, it was a mess.
The game had a fairly rocky “early access” journey but after spending some time with the final build, but it looks like it has finally become the game we were promised all those years ago.
Announced all the way back in 2012 as a “spiritual successor” to smash-hit “ Minecraft-but-2D” builder Terraria, it excited fans of the collect-explore-build genre by promising us a Terraria-like experience crossed with the freedom to explore a procedurally generated galaxy.