Worth buying?

I suggest buying it simply because it's fun to play for at least 100 hours, and that alone is more than many other games. If you get bored, just let it sit in your library until it updates.
When it updates, play it for 50 more hours. (Unless you have a life.)

 

Well as it stands should have bought it early. When it first released there was allot of hype and had actual players. Now they tried to coast on that and most players have left for other games. Most likely the game will be dead in a few more months before it is complete. It can be seen in the forums its always the same group posting and few if any new guys. As of now wait till it released and goes on sale in steam if you just want a basic building game. Other than that its not going anywhere as a server based game like minecraft did. As it stands there is less than 500 servers and most are closing fast now.

 

It's a matter of personal preference. On the PC, you have mods and much more diverse server setups on the way. Things like block protection and factions will probably be available in the future, server-side mod-to-client setup that will eventually allow us to put mods on servers and send them to users automatically when they connect and much more. None of this is possible on consoles. It never will be. PC versions of games are much more flexible than their console counterparts which are usually weighed down by the port. One of the main things devs focus on with console games is locking the files down so people cannot ever get passed the checksums and customize content because you can corrupt the system and end up screwed (can't really open up files and browse on a console to see what's wrong) and because it can cause extreme imbalances during online play.

That being said, there is a charm that comes with playing them on the couch with a controller. You can sit in a relaxed state, just hang out with maybe 1 or 2 friends. Terraria and Minecraft have some special air about them on the Xbox 360 that I feel Starbound will share. Just don't expect the game to be as versatile on console as it is on PC. Being able to play it on the vita will probably be really cool but I can imagine it will be extremely watered down on that system.

 

I would suggest no at this current stage of beta. Wait for more content to be released, as you can always get it later on in a better stage of beta if it seems like everything is legit and on the level. Some games get better with age like a fine wine, and some games reek with mold over time and development. It can go either way.

 

I would say Planet Explorers suffers from the exact same issues, just in3D.

I say that having played Planet Explores for 3-4 months.

 

If you want to support Chucklefish sooner than later... go ahead, but honestly that is the only reason to buy as of right now. The game has no plot, story, rhyme, or reason. There are a crap ton of planets to explore and build on, but you can do that in Terraria or several other games. The monster skill diversity is bland, there are no oceans, the weapons and tech are not balanced, and the loot is boring.

Everyone saying, "buy now to get a cheaper price" isn't really thinking, because the rate at which the development is going, Starbound will be lucky to see a release in late 2015. No developer in their right mind could justify a 2 year beta and then jack up the price because by that time the hype and glory is dead...

 

I believe Mojang did exactly that..

 

Honestly, nope.

 

Definitively not worth buying at this time.

CF claims that the game is in beta state and while alpha/beta stages aren`t really strictly defined in IT, most people would consider the state SB really is in as alpha.
There are still several bugs in the game which haven`t been adressed for many updates and that`s no wonder as there doesn`t seem to be any kind of professional bug management. Reporting bugs via a forum thread may be viable for your tetris/breakout clone IT-course project but here it raises strong doubts in me about the SB project management.

Finally, CF has already made a healthy amount of money with SB, so I`d say spare your money.

 

As a person that didn't give starbound so much as a look see until December, with a hefty dose of dissatisfaction with MMOs...I suggest buying it. I definitely have been getting my 15$ worth and then some with this game.

 

My husband knew how much I was playing Terraria on my tablet, and got me Starbound as a Christmas gift. At that point, I hadn't even HEARD of Starbound. Being Early Access, and having other games, I don't think I even touched it until...February? March, maybe. But I have poured hours into it, with and without mods.

I've enjoyed it very much for what it is: a first draft. I'm looking forward to seeing the polishing and the revisions, because I think the core idea is very interesting.

If you like seeing how things change during a game's development cycle, it's worth $15. If you are impatient and want a full game RIGHT NOW, it's not worth it. If you have a computer that's near the specs of the one in the 97 percent CPU usage thread, I would wait until they hit a phase where they've done optimization and the FPS lag issues are being dealt with.

All in all, it's a very good game that I see going interesting places. But they're not there yet, and if you don't find pleasure in the journey, you're going to get frustrated and bitter.

 

This statement is adorable, and completely wrong.

It has more active players and forum-goers now then before the pre-order button came live, most of us I'd imagine are still around and lurking, we just don't post nearly as much as we used to, the game it out now, and we're waiting to see how Chucklefish handles it. I don't believe CF is coasting off their old players at all, once done with their international move they will go back to updating etc, will they advertise it? Of course not, it's an Early Access game, that'd be foolish. Right now it's got more content by leaps and bounds then Minecraft did around this same time of release.

To note, Minecraft didn't start off as a game as you labeled it "server based game" there weren't many servers, because multiplayer was bugged out, there was no survival aspect in multiplayer, for the longest it was just creative mode, when "survival" came out nothing could die, and hostile enemies didn't spawn, it took them months to make it so you could actually do a real survival server. Add to that, all of Minecraft's vanilla content can still be cleared in 2-3 days solo, or 1-2 days with a couple other people and it's pretty sad when you think of just how much Mojang has made off of it. Minecraft is only alive because of the mods from a gameplay perspective, other then that it's just a decent building game in creative. (Even that is better with mods, like redpower, or wedges, etc)



More OT: I pre-ordered it, I played it for maybe 60-70 hours so far, and now I'm waiting for another update or two, before I go back to it, as the current content is far to easy and the game itself is far to easy. That said, it depends on what type of player you are, if you enjoy exploring, and building, get it now, it still has a great deal of freedom in it, if you want story, character advancement, there's not much of that on the surface level right now, you have to dig for most of it so to speak. (Pun not intended) I'd seriously suggest finding a few friends who have it, and starting up a server together, for me personally the game isn't nearly as much fun solo as it is, with a group of trusted friends.

 

I've only played the demo so I can't really say. It did give me the blue screen of death the other day though.
But, I've kinda made it a rule not to buy early access games anymore. Starbound was kind of the last nail in the coffin, so to speak. I still have faith in Chucklefish to deliver a really good game. I just don't know when that's ever going to happen.

 

No.

The release date has been pushed back so many times now that this game has virtually no release date. The development is lazy slow, with the majority of the dev team being consisted of artists rather than coders. This game, as well as a few others, is the prime example of what farce the concept of open betas and early releases is.

If you really care about this game and want to buy it, buy other games first. Play them and wait till Starbound gets officially released, which could be anywhere in time. At this current state, it wouldn't take much till you want your $15 back.

 

Don't forget Indy Stone, Project Zomboid went from 5 dollar to 15 when it went live on Steam.

on second note, if you're like me and very unsatisfied at the state of the AAA industry, then yeah sure. Just don't expect a second Terraria, there is a lot of content but not THAT much, jet.

 

The point in investing in a beta isn't to play the game purely for your own enjoyment, it's to help test it and to get a feel for what's to come. The testing being the biggest reason. People forget that part and assume 'beta' means nothing and it's actually a demo for them to enjoy at their leisure, then go on the forums and moan about it like the self-entitled babies they are. The game is not finished and it's being developed by people, not machines, and a small group of them at that. A small INDIE group of devs. To buy into an indie beta, play it then get pissed off because it isn't working out for you is to miss the point entirely. This isn't a demo.

 

As far as how people react to not getting the game they thought they were getting, I feel like I can relate it to retail (doesn't everything relate to retail?) There are those that buy a carton of eggs with cracks in some of the eggs. Some won't return them because it doesn't bother them. Some won't return them because they don't want to bother the employees (for better or worse, that's probably where I fall). Then there's people who come back and ask for another dozen eggs possibly in the form of a rain check. Then finally there's the people who bring back the eggs, seemingly wait until there's 12 people behind them and cuss out the cashier because the eggs being broken - they'll refuse to come back to the store but then by back when there's a new sale. The last ones can be the most effective at making sure the eggs are never cracked again...until they start to go that route with everything every time they purchase something. Then they're just a thorn in someone's side that, as far as feedback is concerned, starts to be ignored.

Moral of the story, I hate retail.

 

Eggs are not a game. This game is not retail. Your points (if there were any) are not valid. Consider that at a store, you have to wait on other people in front of you. That is not an inconvenience people suffer here with this game. None of that makes any sense in relation to why people are complaining about an unfinished indie game not being up to their extremely unreasonable standards.

 

Yea, no need to dissect the analogy . Luckily, it wasn't meant to be perfect. I know of none, actually.

It's simply not worth explaining to you the relatable parts - When everything has been talked about to death (especially this), you start finding new ways to talk about it. Not to mention, calling people "entitled" is just as bad as calling people "fanboys" and is even more unnecessary than my analogy.

 

I feel the testing has been long gone.

For the past few months they added fluff. Sure, might be a bug with an ammo type or something, but, really? You call that testing? The REAL testing is when they implement the game changers. At the moment, they're not here yet.

I really hope the beta craze dies soon. It's not the bugs that matter most, it's the way the devs handle them and fix them in a neatly and timely manner. People spout on the forums "lul it's beta you have to test it so the game gets better", but, I don't have an interest to merely launch the game, seeing how I know I'll see the same things over and over again. despite having so much opportunity. At it's current state, Starbound is like a house with a pimped out interior, but with a termite infested, crumbling frame and foundation.

But still, I like the game. I like how the devs manage bugs, flaws, and issues. But this thread is labeled "Worth buying", implying NOW, at it's CURRENT state, which I described above.