Starbound Reviews

Starbound is ranked in the 95th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
T.J. Hafer
Top Critic
9.1 / 10.0
Jul 28, 2016

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.

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84 / 100
Jul 27, 2016

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

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8.5 / 10.0
Aug 3, 2016

If you’re a fan of games like Minecraft and Terraria, Starbound is not to be missed. It can keep you enchanted for hours, whether you’re playing solo or on a server with friends

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Unscored
Aug 4, 2016

Starbound is full of whimsy, surprise, and strange little interactions. It’s a universe unto itself, just begging to be explored.

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Unscored
Jul 21, 2016

I find it difficult to picture the person who wouldn’t enjoy Starbound. Parts, sure, but the whole is this sincere, incredibly ambitious sandbox that’s as full of charm, and space-faring pirate penguins, as it is stuff to build and places to explore. And whatever you do, if you decide to add this digital galaxy to your collection, make sure to blackmail some friends into picking it up.

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Metro GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Aug 5, 2016

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.

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8 / 10.0
Aug 7, 2016

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

Review in Spanish | Read full review

8.2 / 10.0
Oct 23, 2016

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.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Jul 22, 2016

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.

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8.5 / 10.0
Aug 10, 2016

In its feature-complete state, Starbound feels like a much tighter experience than it had in the past, and rather uniquely for the "Terraria, but…" genre, it actually has its own story that takes players across parts of its randomly generated galaxy and introduces them to the various playable races along the way.

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10 / 10
Sep 8, 2016

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.

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Sep 16, 2016

Explore the farthest reaches of space to discover new planets and fight unique creatures while trying to find the perfect place to call home.

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80 / 100
Sep 2, 2016

Starbound likes to subvert expectations at every turn. With another player in co-op, Starbound’s combat moves firmly in the direction of ridiculousness, especially as you’re barking orders at each other about the need to avoid, of all things, damned penguins driving huge tanks, as if it were a weird game of Pretend.

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8.5 / 10.0
Jul 30, 2016

The game has come a long way since it's days in Early Access, and while some may dismiss it as just another Terraria clone, Starbound is something roguelikes should aspire to be.

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4.5 / 5.0
Aug 24, 2016

Starbound is the kind of game you’d expect to be a cluttered mess, but all of the pieces work in tandem to create a dynamic experience with many interesting features and solid fundamentals.

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2 / 5.0
Jul 1, 2018

It tries to be a little of everything and succeeds but it doesn’t really do anything that well, and because of that, it’s not a game I can recommend. Everything takes too long to do.

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