

You'll begin the game with a small matter gun that can pull apart objects and make them into manageable chunks. Most charming about Starbound is that while it allows people to just let their creativity flow and build whatever they can, there's also a great sense of progression to the game.

".a great job easing newer players into the rules and logic of the game." It's sort of amazing just how much you can create here and while you'll start with smaller inventions like anvils and hammers (because, if you're going to make a building sim, it's law to have a hammer), eventually you can make things like entire ships and even giant mech suits. Much of the game is spent exploring alien planets and looking for materials to help you survive. You'll start the game as a player of your creation as you've crash-landed on an unknown alien planet with little to no supplies. It's perhaps easiest to think of Starbound as Terraria and Minecraft meets classic sci-fi tales like Buck Rodgers and Star Wars.

It's the type of game that makes you remember why you started playing games in the first place. Now don't get me wrong, the sci-fi sandbox, exploration title is far from perfect, and it's got some definite kinks to work out before it's wide release - this is a game full of ambition, one that allows you to let your imagination run wild. A game you never expected to dominate your time like the AAA releases that have dominated the last ten months. It happens nearly every year - just when I'm about to sit down and write my annual Game of the Year piece - a sleeper comes out of nowhere. It combines the building aspects of mega-hits like Minecraft and Terraria with an incredible sense of exploration that I haven't seen in quite some time. There are clusters upon clusters of planets for you to explore and they're all randomly generated, which means that you'll never run out of new planets or things to find. Starbound plays most like Minecraft and Terraria meets Buck Rodgers - you'll explore new planets and craft new objects on weapons to help you on your journey. While it comes off as an 8-bit throwback, the game's visuals come alive when you create something amazing.
