Starbound Xbox Review – Star Trekkin Across The Universe

Starbound a crafting and exploration adventure game developed and published by Chucklefish is now available on Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X.

Starbound, a game that I had loved on PC for many years has now hit the Microsoft Store for Xbox One and Series S/X does it hold up to the original experience on PC? Let’s find out. On a lovely day, while celebrating, it seems nothing can go wrong it’s a fantastic day, and the start of the rest of your life lies ahead until it all comes to a horrific end. Your home planet has been invaded with no one left the only option is to take a ship and run. With no home or clue about what to do, the world is yours to do as you will. Starbound gives the player a choice, will you follow the storyline and save the universe from the ones that destroyed your home? Or will you forge your own story and become an explorer? A farmer? Or a treasure hunter? For those who want to become a landlord or build their own towns and villages, it’s all completely possible. The choice is ultimately yours and I loved the freedom that Starbound gives you in making your decisions. Starbound’s story is pretty engaging and gives you an overall guided goal it’s worth playing to understand the Starbound universe more but that doesn’t mean you can’t explore different planets on the side that for me is the selling point, exploration.

Starbound offers a bunch of different ways to tackle the game I myself explored a lot of the planets and enjoyed finding different points of interest and stealing furniture parts for my ship and house on my home planet. I really enjoy exploring the different POIs that Starbound has to offer it always feels like there’s a story behind them, whether it is a prison that the prisoners have overrun or a deserted base that the military used to control it’s all rewarding when exploring these things. Starbound is a bit like Terraria in space so much to see and do and so many decisions to make. Starbound is a procedurally generated universe that offers a lot of different biomes, each coming with different traits, from monster variety, weather, gravity and more it makes seeking out a new home planet quite interesting. In these different biomes, you’ll also find lots of different weapons, armour and items which help you get stronger as some of the enemies can get frustratingly tough as you progress. Crafting and learning new recipes is really rewarding in Starbound and helps progress your journey forward into more dangerous planets. For players who want to take on some side missions there are quite a few but sadly mostly consist of tutorials and fetch quests I feel that Starbound could have much more depth in its side missions. While the experience is great for the most part, it also feels like after a while you run into the same kind of repetitive loop and nothing quite feels like new anymore it’s a shame development seems to have ceased adding new content because Starbound is capable of so much more. Luckily if you are a PC gamer, the modding community have your back there are a ton of mods that add so much more to an already good game sadly though no mods on Xbox, it would be good if Chucklefish could add them in as it does add so much more.

I love the aesthetics of Starbound it is a wonderful 2D game full of different variety in its design from the desolate-looking prison planets, to the lush forests. There is so much to see and do and the pixel art style serves it all well. In a game that focuses so much on exploration, Chucklefish did a good job on the overall design of everything and it shows in the planet and POI design. On the journey, you’ll find different humanoid-like species who are all dressed in certain ways depending on the theme, and the animals both peaceful and violent each have some quirky designs to bring life to all the different planets. You can design and craft some really unique things and seeing what the PC community has built is quite inspiring. Starbound gives you the freedom to create what you want and I customised my own spaceship into the perfect entertainment pad. I also built a little town on a planet moved a bunch of people in and made it look all Tudor-like.

Verdict

Starbound on PC and Xbox is a fun experience for a low price, the game converts well over to the console and plays well too. I didn’t run into any issues on my playthroughs and enjoyed it all over again on the big TV screen. I’d say my only complaint for Starbound is that there is a community that craves more, releasing it on Xbox was a great move and it has brought a little hope that Chucklefish decides to revisit it all and add some new content. Starbound is a game full of such greatness but needs some more love to push it up to a 10/10 game. Mods on the PC version are really good at enhancing the experience to what people want the game to be but sadly on Xbox, that isn’t possible right now. While Starbound is a solid experience, it would be incredible for Chucklefish to look back and continue the Starbound legacy. I had a great time, I seriously recommend a playthrough if you haven’t yet and for only £11.99 on the Microsoft Store, now is the perfect time.