Starbound Critic Reviews

Starbound is a game that, after a few hours of play, starts to seem like an instant classic you’ll be revisiting from time to time over the next unknown period of years.

The infinite cosmos is captured in an infinitely inventive game that effortlessly blends genres.

Starbound excels as a crafting and exploration game, as a 2D platformer with varied and engaging combat, and as a Zelda-esque story RPG with a detailed world and memorable alien cultures to interact with. The sheer volume of different kinds of locations to discover, items to craft and build great structures with, and flashy ways to vanquish aliens prevent any part of the experience from getting boring quickly.

Starbound is very similar to Terraria, but bigger, more varied, more engaging. Recommended for sandbox genre lovers, thanks to a series of missions and a plot, that is the backdrop to the exploration of the galaxy, is also referred to those who have never enjoyed the games similar to Minecraft.

Starbound is a profound and economic alternative to No Man's Sky. Despite its technical section, behind the title hides a deep and harmonious universe worthy of being explored.

Starbound is a satisfying space sandbox that rarely disappoints, with occasional minor bugs or mandatory missions offering minor quibbles with unbridled, endless exploration. This ambitious indie project has something for everyone buried within its retrograde graphical framework.

Progression can be slow at times, while still feeling too brief in the grand scope of the game, and the combat can be a bit of a yes/no gear check, but critically, none of this mars the experience, nor can it ever upset the beauty of the game’s randomly generated worlds, the vibrant colour palettes, the stunning parallax, and the overall “feel” of the game.

The price to fun ratio is amazing, but Starbound’s biggest advantage is the freedom it offers. I took a long break from Elite Dangerous to play this indie gem – it’s that good!

A charming space sandbox that will keep you busy and entertained for hours.

The old formula of mining, crafting and building has been revamped in this cheerful, rich and diverse space sandbox.

Starbound is an amazing effort, a very solid game with something for everyone. Considering there's an indie team behind it, you can't really ask for more.

Starbound is one of the very few games that gets both "open world" and "sandbox" done right. The amount of activities available is astounding and the best part is you can avoid them all, if you wish to do just that.

If Starbound has one major downside it’s that there is no pause button. A pithy consideration, I know, but it means if you’re exploring a cavern found deep within the recesses of a new planet, you cannot pause to take a much-needed bathroom break. And since enemies can spawn at any time, you can’t walk away from your computer in confidence, either. But the lack of a pause button almost feels apt: in Starbound, there can be no pause button, no way to suspend you from this childhood fantasy.

It's a bit rough around the edges, and the first few hours are a slog, but Starbound is a deep and vast constructor with a killer soundtrack.

Still a little unpolished in places, but with its huge variety of locations and gameplay elements this already stands toe-to-toe with both Terraria and Minecraft.

Starbound is a must-buy for the PC players due to the huge amount of hours of entertainment that this game can give. An enormous universe, a great variety of tools and a game full of possibilities.

Starbound offers way more than just a colorful and cute outside. Its inside is a deep platformer that makes you start a colony on a planet filled with alpaca's, or something like that. And it is awesome.

Starbound offers a lot of freedom, diversity and a love for details. An amazingly good game if you love 2D pixel worlds.

Starbound is not as polished and debugged as other games, and sometimes it may seem repetitive. But compared to more "modern" sci-fi games its explorative, almost melancholic spirit and emphasis on building catches your heart. Spare a few hundred hours of your time, the ultimate boundary once again calls for the survey.

Starbound is coming into a genre that most people either love or hate. I really wonder if there is room in someone’s schedule for yet another crafting game. Starbound is certainly a good one of those, but it doesn’t really stand out among the many challengers.