Terraria was one of my all-time favourite games (of the last few years) and now we've got Starbound - made by a team which includes one of Terraria's devs. Firstly, this game has a brilliant title. It says so much - adventure awaits, in the stars! I love it.

Terraria was sometimes compared to 2D Minecraft. It has similar mechanics, but really it was mostly about digging down, making gear and fighting tough monsters with friends. Starbound is the next step for the series and is currently in BETA, so please take all criticism with that in mind. I am enjoying it so far, the core of this game is so fun... tinkering away with friends nearby. It's blissful busywork.

Visually it's not very different. There are a few nice lighting and weather effects. But it's the space setting and day-night cycle that sets the mood and mixes things up. That and an unexpectedly-beautiful, gentle soundtrack. The core of why such a simple-looking game is so much fun, is discovery and community. It's in early access, so connecting to a friend is pretty tricky right now (you need to port forward and add the server executable to windows firewall) and the game is pretty crash heavy if you try to Alt+Tab. But it's safe to assume that'll all get fixed and smoothed out.

I forgot how much fun it is discovering all the little ins and outs of worlds like this: talking about first encounters with monsters and sharing the random things you find throughout the world. You have your own space ship now, which you use to travel between planets. But, more importantly, it's a hideout to stash your treasures and collectables. Mostly though, if you have friends like mine, you'll be spending much of your time clearing out troll rock. It's a troll ship.

The races you can play as are fantastic - I just love having an exposed brain. But the rest of the creature design doesn't gel as well for me. It's a bit too Pokemon, and the enemies don't feel like they belong to their world so much. They certainly are creepy though. I think Sci-Fi seems easy sometimes, because the possibilities are endless. But that actually makes designing a cohesive and consistent universe quite difficult.

I like that you have a goal up front - to build a beacon. And the quest system acts as a basic tutorial. Each world is different and right now it's very hard to move from a level 10 world with the gear available. I have the best gear I can find/create (the OP winter gear) but I get one shotted in a level 17 world. This along with a few other issues are being addressed in the next patch. Balance is coming.

Pickaxes are still your best digging tool but you can manipulate items and rock much easier now. You can dig and place blocks even if there is a wall in front of you. Very handy for those random caves that appear below you as you dig down.

There have also been many wonderful user interface tweaks since Terraria which just make managing inventory and crafting much easier. I especially liked that you can just open your crafting menu with one button and then type what you want to make. There's no need to flick through menus trying to find simple things you make a lot such as bandages or wooden planks.

Digs get out of hand very quickly. Running out of torches, deep in the core of an alien planet with enemies growling around you, while gravel or sand traps you in and starts to suffocate you, is a fairly common occurrence. And you do feel very alone down there - knowing how far up you have to go to get back. The punishment for death right now is not such a big deal - you only loose 'pixels' which is currency and used in crafting. I like that you can keep a bed with you at all times, and just whip it out for some quick health regen.

Water is also more punishing. You can't simply make a pocket above you- it'll fill up like it should. Another layer of stress is at night, things get cold and scary so if you're not under cover you'll eventually die (I assume - it's pretty easy to get under cover). This, along with a hunger mechanic shows how the devs have thought hard about how to put in a few more survival elements here and there, but more as a distraction rather than making it a survival game.

Space is such a lovely setting - and I just want to explore and dig more and more with each session. Starbound feels very polished for early access, with a nice amount of new tweaks and mechanics to pull me in. And it's good to see that with each crash, my character seems to remain pretty much saved without losing anything. I see this game swallowing my time and never letting me go... until I have made all the gear... and found all the weapons... as I play my "keytar"... amongst the stars.