Starbound is a dangerous game. I'm not just talking about the procedurally generated planets, full of acid pools and strange, aggressive monsters. I'm talking about your life. BecauseStarbound is the kind of game that will either bore you to death in fifteen minutes or, if you're like me, completely devour all of your free time. Within 24 hours of purchasing Starbound on Steam I had played 16 hours. So I played Starbound, slept, and then played Starbound some more. Hygiene took a backseat to a day full of exploration and crafting and getting to know the ins and outs of this open world, Terraria-in-space masterpiece from Chucklefish. And although I love the game I discovered that the more I played the more I wondered what the hell was going on.
Starbound is a game for explorers. If you're the type of gamer who can't wait for a new open-world RPG so you can explore every corner of the map on foot, then Starbound is for you. Graphically, it looks old-school. 16-bit style graphics are the name of the game, but Starbound is about depth. Literally. Like its spiritual predecessors Minecraft and Terraria, Starbound allows players to dig for resources and craft a huge amount of items. Weapons, furniture, structures, etc. You can turn dirt into packed dirt or sand into glass or ore into ingots. There are no real quests or goals (except one, more on that in a second) so you spend your time just trying to find resources to make cool stuff like armor. It's fun. And the learning curve is gentle. It doesn't take long to realize that you need to make torches to light your mine shafts so you need to chop some wood. Don't have an axe? Then find the stuff to make one.
While you're out looking for all the stuff you need you'll invariably come across some monsters. A brief tutorial gets you set up with a hunting bow, and you'll spawn with a basic sword so you're not entirely defenseless. But you're not some invincible hero either. It takes a few deaths to get the hang of it, but once you doStarbound becomes thrilling in a way few other games are. Unlike Terraria and Minecraft which are set in static environments,Starbound gives you access to whole galaxies of planets. Everything from harsh, snowy moons to lush tropical planets are there for you to explore, each with its own randomly generated resources and terrain and creatures. Tired of a planet? Just hop in your spaceship and find another one. The only limit is fuel, but that's readily available on any planet in the form of coal. Or, brilliantly, wood can be turned into coal so you're never truly stranded anywhere.
But even though Starbound keeps you moving, it's hard to shake the feeling of just standing still. The game is still incomplete, but playable through Steam's Early Access program. It's a lot of fun, but there is a lingering sense of "what now" that comes once you start to acquire resources. When I started I was on a non-stop search for copper so I could make armor. Once I made that, along with a few other trinkets, I got bummed out. I haven't found any of the 1300 or so blueprints Starbound scatters throughout the game that teach you to craft new items. The only goal the game gives you is to craft a distress beacon, but doing so summons an extremely difficult boss fight. So it's a bad idea to do it early. More distressing is that I couldn't even do it if I wanted to. I don't have the plans and, as far as I can tell, I have no idea where to find them. I enjoy exploring planet after planet but I wish the game delivered just a little bit more purpose.
It most likely will. As I said the game is in Early Access which means more content is coming. Whether that's a grand story or a more accessible crafting system remains to be seen. But I know that I have a lot to learn about Starbound, that some of the answers might be right under my nose. And I know that I'm going to have a great time looking for them.
Now if I could only find the time to shower ...
