Loaded with awkward 'features' that make gameplay unbearable such as the stale, randomly generated enemies that all manage to feel and act about the same way have ruined this experience. Speaking from playing this game and watching its development from its early days up until now, I can tell you that the more finished this game gets, the more vile it becomes. Possibly because the charm has all worn off, or maybe because the development team keeps making the -dumbest- decisions. Now, I don't really know the dev team so I don't know what their vision is, but trying to patch up this game by having forced mission sequences when the core of the game is about exploration, building, and player-driven advancement is more than a little wrong. Instead of finding new, awesome, and cool things on planets, you find that every single place you go to is exactly the same with a different coat of paint. It's the same -everywhere-. The hazards feel like background noise, the enemies all look and feel the same, the combat is dull, and no matter what you do or what you run into, it's always -disappointing- in the end. That's what this game is summed up in one word: Disappointment.

How a game that started out with such crass graphics and such a small development team as Terraria could far surpass this particular endeavour in every way, that started with a -modest- goal, and as more or less a 2D minecraft clone is beyond baffling. Terraria doesn't boast multiple worlds, and the only thing that's randomly generated is the terrain, but I'd still rather waste my time in the world of Terraria than this game. Why? Because when you explore you find things that -matter-. It feels like you're in control. Everything -- even building -- has a point to it. So basically, Starbound managed to completely ruin itself by being the exact opposite of Terraria. You're not in control of anything, everything is pointed out to you, exploration renders nothing satisfying, and there's so much randomly generated content that it all blends together into one static mess.

Understandably, this game is early access which means that the developers are constantly working on fixing it, and at some point in the future, say, maybe 2020, they might have all of the bugs and quirks in this game fixed, but until then, it's not going to be fun for anyone.

If you like disappointment, this is the game for you. Otherwise, just leave it alone, buy and/or play Terraria, and save yourself the grief.

Post August '15 Update Edit: This review might've been written with more venom than what was intended, but I stick to my guns on this: You're better off playing Terraria or Minecraft. The update I've noticed has added a lot of features that seemed interesting, but ended up, again, not adding much to the actual meat of the game. You can dress a mess up however you want and even throw some neon lights on there to attract the rave kids, but at the end of the day, it's still a mess.

Loaded with awkward 'features' that make gameplay unbearable such as the stale, randomly generated enemies that all manage to feel and act about the same way have ruined this experience. Speaking from playing this game and watching its development from its early days up until now, I can tell you that the more finished this game gets, the more vile it becomes. Possibly because the charm has all worn off, or maybe because the development team keeps making the -dumbest- decisions. Now, I don't really know the dev team so I don't know what their vision is, but trying to patch up this game by having forced mission sequences when the core of the game is about exploration, building, and player-driven advancement is more than a little wrong. Instead of finding new, awesome, and cool things on planets, you find that every single place you go to is exactly the same with a different coat of paint. It's the same -everywhere-. The hazards feel like background noise, the enemies all look and feel the same, the combat is dull, and no matter what you do or what you run into, it's always -disappointing- in the end. That's what this game is summed up in one word: Disappointment. How a game that started out with such crass graphics and such a small development team as Terraria could far surpass this particular endeavour in every way, that started with a -modest- goal, and as more or less a 2D minecraft clone is beyond baffling. Terraria doesn't boast multiple worlds, and the only thing that's randomly generated is the terrain, but I'd still rather waste my time in the world of Terraria than this game. Why? Because when you explore you find things that -matter-. It feels like you're in control. Everything -- even building -- has a point to it. So basically, Starbound managed to completely ruin itself by being the exact opposite of Terraria. You're not in control of anything, everything is pointed out to you, exploration renders nothing satisfying, and there's so much randomly generated content that it all blends together into one static mess. Understandably, this game is early access which means that the developers are constantly working on fixing it, and at some point in the future, say, maybe 2020, they might have all of the bugs and quirks in this game fixed, but until then, it's not going to be fun for anyone. If you like disappointment, this is the game for you. Otherwise, just leave it alone, buy and/or play Terraria, and save yourself the grief. Post August '15 Update Edit: This review might've been written with more venom than what was intended, but I stick to my guns on this: You're better off playing Terraria or Minecraft. The update I've noticed has added a lot of features that seemed interesting, but ended up, again, not adding much to the actual meat of the game. You can dress a mess up however you want and even throw some neon lights on there to attract the rave kids, but at the end of the day, it's still a mess.