Starbound

[Cerebus]

One slight thing that bothers me, though, is the way you proceed further in crafting. The universe separated in multiple sectors. You start on Alpha. All planets are "challenge level 1". Then, you hit Beta. All planets are level 2. Etc. To proceed to new sectors, you need to fight a boss.
Now, all this seem sort of cool and reasonable. But the problem is you are limited in what you can craft in lower sector. If you wish to remain on the first sector forever, you can. But you'll only be able to craft certain stuff. For example, steel stuff cannot be crafted until the first boss is defeated.

Of course, the game is still in Beta. From what I've read, previous patches had sectors with more than one level difficulty, which I think was better. I think they plan on doing something similar as the game progress. And the game will just keep changing.

If you don't like wipes and such, don't play now. But it's actually pretty interesting to see the game develops over time.

And while the price tag is kinda high compared to Terraria, it's done to help the devs. They have this kickstarter-like thing, where you can donate more and receive a bit more, although some of the donation stuff were probably reserved for rich people and stuff. They even had a threshold with goals, with the last one being another playable race called Novakids. It's been reached some time ago, not sure when. It seems like there's no more threshold goal, though.

Anyway, yeah, it's pretty cool, but it's still in development. If you plan on spending $15 on this game, I'd say you might as well do it now. You'll be able to check and try the game's progress every once in a while. Just do expect wipes. If you'd rather wait until the price drops, then... well I doubt they'll put it on sale until it's complete, so yeah, just wait.

[SaiKar]

So I got gifted this as part of my insane web of awesome Steam friends just firing things left and right. Something something true meaning of Christmas.

Alright lets try this thang out.

[SaiKar]

Okay I'm convinced I'm playing a different game than you, because this is brutal and frusterating and not at all fun. Enemies destroy me nearly instantly. And apparently I have to use these pixels to even upgrade my gear, which is great because I seem to lose a bunch of them every time I die. I can't upgrade from copper because I can't get the pixels and nothing seems to drop them.

I guess I can't complain much cuz, ya know, free gift. But still, horribly designed. It's like they took all the frustrating parts of Terraria and decided they weren't quite frustrating enough.

[Cerebus]

Keep in mind, it's still in development. This last patch caused a few issues. For example, no dungeons nor village spawn at the moment, the Holiday Spirit drop rate is way too high, etc.

Enemies do hurt you a lot, that's true. Currently, it's like they gave them huge damage since their AI is crap. I assume once they're actually sort of smart, they can reduce the damage. I hope.

Back to Holiday Spirit, enemies are supposed to often drop pixels once they die. Currently, they seem to have messed up something as most enemies drop either Holiday Spirit or nothing. Dungeons could also be a source of pixels, but they're currently non-existent. Later, it becomes quite easy to obtain pixels as you can turn ores/bars into pixels with the Refinery.

Funnily enough, people complain that the game is too easy. And I must say, I quite agree with them to some degree. Once you get the hang of combat, it becomes easier, albeit still annoying some times. However, some people just want the game to be as punishing as possible. Masochists, you may say.

The game will keep getting patches that will fix stuff and bring more balance.

[SaiKar]

Dammit, early access. I really should have learned my lesson, but everyone said this one was good

[Prpl_Mage]

How is the game now? And will it ever be released?

Also, Planet Explorers? Looks like it's kinda in the same genre as all of these. Planets, exploring, crafting.

Speaking of which, 2 gift coupons arrived to my steam for Pixl piracy, a game that looks pretty much like FTL but with pirates.

[Apex]

I plan on getting back into Starbound when two things happen:
1. It leaves beta, and is sophisticated as Terraria.
2. When I have friends who get back into it as well.

It was fun, but ultimately not as deep as Terreria, which it's in beta, so it's not surprising. I have high expectations for this one once it's complete though, the beta is fun after all.