Fuel up your spaceships and don your best spacesuit, for we are Starbound!

Let's talk about sandbox games, and no i'm not talking about games you play in a sand pit. I am, of course, talking about games that allow the player to choose how they wish to play it. This is usually done with an open world setting which is randomly generated and the game is generally somewhat lacking in any 'real' linear (or even non-liner) story line. However, even the most minimal gameplay isn't required when the constant need to explore an unknown world and advance your weapons, your base and your way of life is forever growing and urging you to continue into the depths of the unknown. Now, most people know Minecraft to be the 'head honcho' of these games, but i'm here to tell you they are wrong, as they obviously haven't played Starbound.

Described using layman's terms, Starbound is basically Terraria in space (with some differences here and there). The similarities are quite obvious - the 2D view, the mining and crafting mechanics and the endless exploration that is on offer - and this is most likely due to the fact that one of the developers of Starbound (@Tiyuri) hails from the main development team of Terraria. However, it's not the similarities to the stand-out game that was Terraria that make Starbound the game it is, but rather the spectacular differences - both great and small.

A Pickaxe is Still Your Best Friend.

You start the game with a device known as a 'Matter Manipulator' which does exactly as it states. It "manipulates anything that matters" and whilst this may sound hi-tech it is actually very painful to use, as it is just so slow! So you'll definitely want to replace this with a pickaxe, axe, hoe etc. as soon as you can because it improves the game in so many ways.

A pickaxe in Starbound also digs nine (3 X 3) squares now, instead of just one at a time and this makes mining and exploring much faster, especially when you are playing online with friends. There is no hammer used in Starbound like there was in Terraria, instead the left and right mouse buttons are used when using the pickaxe (or matter manipulator). Holding down the left mouse button does the same thing as in Terraria - it mines away the foreground - and holding down the right mouse button now mines away the background which is much quicker and easier than swapping to a hammer to get rid of that pesky background (which often resulted in accidentally destroying furniture in the process). Here's a handy tip! Mining away the background underground whilst you are still somewhat close to the surface will allow light to break through and light up the area you are in!

All Things Great..

As the name would suggest, Starbound is set in the vast unknown that is commonly referred to as space and this factor alone makes this game incredibly fun and epic to play. There is just something about a space setting that suits an open world, exploration game. Just like Terraria you create your own character but you will have a much harder choice than just male or female. Starbound has six playable races at the moment, with one more meant to be coming out at a later stage.

The races are Human, Apex, Avian, Floran, Glitch and Hylotal and they are all amazingly unique. You can choose such things as hair colour, beak style, beard style, personality and a number of different options that allow you to create such unique and interesting characters who you will no doubt become instantly attached to. Although these options allow you to create completely unique looking characters, they don't have any impact on the actual gameplay in anyway, so there is nothing to stress about when creating a character. Each race has it's own spaceship that is tailored to their species (for instance, the Floran ship is covered in vines) and as you progress further through the game you can upgrade your spaceship to give you much more space. Your ship acts as a base during the game but is mostly used as somewhere to stash all your goodies.

Starbound takes open world gaming to an entirely new level because of the infinite nature of space. The game is literally endless with it being possible to search every planet within every solar system, within every sector of every galaxy and so on. The way this is done is by having procedurally generated planets and enemies that will continue to generate the more you explore the depths of outer space. Space travel is very simple and is one of the most flawless aspects for this game, also considering that it is still in early Beta. Seeing planets in the distance really gives a feeling of depth and enormity to the game. Going from one planet to another within the same sector really gives a sense of travelling as you can often see the planet you have just come from in the distance. Another great aspects is that planets are actually round like they should be, which means that if you go left and continue going left you will eventually get back to where you started (tiny perfect details like this help to keep my inner OCD in check). Space is just an incredible setting and Starbound is one of the few games that I have played that has actually portrayed it beautifully and enjoyable.

Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) in Starbound are very well designed and act as real players in many ways. They plant farms, attack different races that differ from their own and - my personal favourite - they will ask you to holster your weapons if you enter their village and then continue to thank you ever so kindly when you do so (or attack you if you ignore them). Having such realistic NPCs helps give the game a feeling of realism which is actually nice amidst all the craziness that is in space. The game also features some great character animations such as jumping, swimming, using your weapons and so on and it's the little details that make or break a game so it's nice to see that the developers have taken their time and included these animations.

As I said earlier, the building, crafting and mining mechanics are very similar to Terraria and they are still very simple and easy to pick up and understand even if you are a beginner. Crafting stations in Starbound have the ability to search for items instead of scrolling through long lists to find something as simple as a torch.

Speaking of torch's, the lighting and weather effects in Starbound are simply superb. The game has directional lighting which is a nice touch and makes using the torch somewhat frustratingly enjoyable because it only allows you to see what your character would be able to see, which is yet another clever inclusion in the game. The light from torches and lanterns bouncing and reflecting off the pure white snow is a beautiful sight, even if you're character is freezing to death, it's worth it to witness such simple and beautiful game design.

A big difference with Starbound and any other game like it is the inclusion of quests. Right now there is only one fairly simple quests which is to create a beacon, but I imagine this is only due to the game being in Beta and there will be more challenging quests once the full game is released. It's nice to have a goal straight from the word GO as it also acts as a basic tutorial.

So I think that pretty much sums up all of the greatness that is Starbound. Oh that's right, I almost forgot, there are FULLY PLAYABLE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS that can be found in chests in the game and any song can be downloaded and put into the game. If that's not the coolest thing you've ever seen in a game then I don't know what to tell you..

And of Course the Bad..

Just kidding, there's nothing bad about Starbound! Well, I suppose there's a couple of things.

Most of the negatives are only to do with the fact that the game is still in early Beta so anything I could complain about such as glitches, monsters that are OP, and constant crashes, are constantly being fixed and these are only occurring because it's still in Beta. At this Beta stage however I would say that there isn't really enough craftable items/building materials and there is too much of an emphasis on the 3D printing but this is just my personal opinion. Although once again there may be content still to be added to the game so I can't say this with too much negativity. Pixels, which is the currency in Starbound, are also sometimes hard to obtain and keep. Once you really start advancing with technologies through the game you need pixels to build necessities and dying causes you to lose many pixels. But still, this is only a tiny complaint.

But that is literally all that is bad about this game, and considering it is in early Beta, well, let's just say it's the best damn Beta i'v ever played. It is clear that the developers of Starbound really care about their game and trying to make it everything they can and they are really listening to the public.

A Few Other Noteworthy Points..

Not that i'm into it but there is plenty of dedicated modded servers and even the developers encourage the modding and assist with some aspects of it. I think this is really cool because the developers are really allowing Starbound to become 'the people's game'. Multiplayer is also a bit different - it involves port forwarding and a lot of fiddly stuff so it would be good if this could be simplified.

It's games like Starbound that remind me how simple games can be yet still contain hours and hours of fun. Discovering all the small details that make this game what it is, such as finding an underground forest temple or encountering and defeating your first boss, is like opening your presents on Christmas morning; even when you know what you're getting it's still one of the most exciting feelings.