In recent years, computer games in the "sandbox" genre have gained great popularity. In these projects, most often there is no storyline, there is no specific ending that you need to strive for. There is simply a vast game world with which you can interact on an unprecedented scale, and your main task is simply to survive. Minecraft became one of the first projects in this direction - it set the fashion for sandboxes. And if he was the leader among three-dimensional games, then in the two-dimensional universe, the best game in this genre was Terraria. The principle of the project remained the same, but only the view was not from the first person, but from the side. Naturally, in the following years a large number of such projects came out. Among them is Starbound, an overview of which you will see in this article. This is a copy of "Terraria", but in this case you have to live not in a fantasy world, but in a fantasy world - go to a distant planet where dangerous creatures and huge opportunities for research and colonization await you. Is the Starbound project really that good? The review will answer all your questions.
Game version
Officially, the game itself was published relatively recently, only a couple of months have passed since its release. However, this does not mean that previously you could not play Starbound. Versions of the alpha and beta of this project were available earlier - and it was this aspect that caused serious indignation among gamers. No, many developers (especially those who do not have a large budget and widely known) release their games in beta mode so that gamers can try out the game process and tell them what they like about it and what not. As a result, developers get the opportunity to fix all the shortcomings so that the final project turns out to be of the highest quality. But in the case of this game, beta testing lasted quite a while, Starbound had versions of a very different kind and character, that is, new objects, creatures, locations and so on were added to the game. And when the time came for the release, practically nothing changed. That is, in fact, the developers did not spend much work on their creation, as they added everything they wanted already during the testing period. Of course, the players wanted more impressive work to be done on the project, but nothing can be fixed here - the developers made their decision. And now you can only study the review to decide whether you want to try out this sandbox or not.
Introduction
When you find yourself in the game world of this project, it may seem to you that you accidentally launched Terraria. And this is not surprising - there are too many similarities between these two projects, and the reason for this lies in the fact that the main developer of the game Starbound, an overview of which you are reading now, participated in the creation of "Terraria". Thus, he learned a lot from the original project and transferred it to his game. But at the same time, of course, he greatly modernized it - made a completely different setting, added a central idea that was not in Terraria. This game has a semblance of plot, the possibility of interstellar flights and much more - there are plenty of unique chips in the project. But there is one big minus - in fact, they are minor additions, without which you can spend time in the game in the same way as you take it off. They simply are not needed: they are present in the game, but they are not correctly entered into the game world, which is why they become useless, turning at first glance an independent and unique Starbound game into a complete analogue of “Terraria”. The review will further examine this issue in more detail so that you can specifically imagine what is at stake.
Setting and plot
Well, it’s worth starting with the main thing - if you don’t know English, then you will need crack to play Starbound. The fact is that in the forefathers of the genre, Minecraft and Terraria, you especially did not need to understand what the text on the screen reads. Empirically, you selected components to create reliable shelters, powerful weapons, and so on. As for this project, there are much more details that will have to be considered. Firstly, the setting of the original games was unclear - something fantasy without any specific description of the game world or other details and elements. In the case of Starbound, the setting is outlined quite specifically - this is the Universe, which you have to travel on a spaceship. Here you can already mention the plot, which distinguishes this project from the previous "sandboxes" to a greater extent. In the story, you are a cadet of a military academy, but on the day when you graduate and become a full-fledged soldier, aliens attack your planet. You manage to hide on a starship before the planet erases by aliens into dust - and now you have to wander around different galaxies, colonize and explore different planets, gaining experience and preparing for the final battle with the aliens that deprived you of your home. As you can see, the storyline has no incredible twists, it is not unique and does not give you any incredible opportunities. Simply put, in the game it is “for show”, but you’d better have a crack for Starbound, since you will need to analyze a lot of data in order to successfully advance along this straightforward storyline.
Quests
Another distinguishing feature of this project is the quest quests that you get during the story from various characters in Starbound. Cheats help to pass them, but at the same time you yourself can easily cope with them - you can’t say that they are difficult. Rather, they can be called boring and monotonous - very often you will come across the same quests, the purpose of which will be to bring some object or kill any creature. It would seem that these tasks should help the player deal with the game world, which was a serious problem in Minecraft and Terraria - there, fate threw you into the very center of the world and suggested that you survive on your own without a single hint. And you survived - or went to the Internet in search of some information that would help you. It is also assumed here that quests will introduce you step by step to the game world - and they cope with this task simply disgusting. Of course, with the help of some, you can begin to understand the gameplay a little better, but in most cases the quests only confuse you and confuse you, so you have to use cheats in Starbound to move on.
Combat system
In Starbound 1.0, the combat system was identical to the one that Terraria had - it was far from being the most responsive, but thanks to freedom of action, you could use the whole world around you as your weapon. But in the new versions, the developers decided to add bosses and some special levels in which your capabilities were limited. As a result, the project periodically turns into a platformer, and the platformer is far from the highest quality. Why this was done, no one can answer, but the quality of the game because of this is sharply reduced.
Nothing new
Another huge problem with this game is that it offers almost nothing new. As mentioned earlier, all innovations are either invisible and meaningless, or only bring harm to the game. In general, the same "Terraria" remains, only in a new wrapper. And this may surprise and amaze you if you have never played Terraria. But since true lovers of sandboxes in most cases have dozens or even hundreds of game hours in this classic game, they cannot be surprised in this way. As a result, you can be attracted to the Starbound game on the network and some plot tasks that allow you to get to know more about different planets and races. But all these entertainments are one-time, and the project gets bored very quickly.
Creative mode
However, it cannot be said that the Starbound game is just bad - its appearance is pleasing, and the abundance of everything new, even if it’s one-time, is amazing. You will enjoy traveling around different planets, from exploring new types of aliens and communicating with them, as well as from the options for equipping your ship, housing on the planets, and so on - there are many more options in this aspect than in Terraria.
pros
Well, it's time to take stock. The advantages of this game include its bright and impressive appearance, as well as the abundance of various activities available to you - from quests to exploring unfamiliar alien civilizations. And all this under a wonderful soundtrack that perfectly complements what is happening on the screen.
Minuses
As for the shortcomings, there are quite a few of them. The largest of them are the following: an abundance of unique elements that turn out to be completely useless and unnecessary; the storyline, which is very boring - it just screams about what is made for show; incredible similarity with the "Terraria".