Worth the purchase?

Hello everyone, this is my first post here, in fact, I joined the forums just to ask this question. I've been following Starbound casually since it was announced. I've debated buying it several times, but I've held off up to this point. I really like the idea of Starbound and all the aspects of the game that I've seen, but the slow progress and overall community ( I don't want to say attitude, maybe opinion is a better word) has given me doubts about making the purchase.

Let me say that I know this is still a beta in Early Access and that it's not a finished product. While I don't particularly care for the Early Access model, I'm not completely against it and I can justify buying a non-released game if I have an overall feeling that the developer will follow through and live up to what's been promised. That being said, I've been a little more cautious with Starbound. This game has been in beta for a decent amount of time and I came across this thread describing the beta stages and general info. Looking at the official beta changelog sticky thread, I noticed that the game hasn't been updated for over a month, which was discouraging, and that it is still in Stage 1. After heading over to the main site I found out that there was actually an update on March 18th. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an official changelog, and there more than a few people displeased about the lack of a major update.

What I'm getting at is, the combination of slow progress, a lack of clarity about updates, and the community generally wanting more frequent or at least more content-filled updates (as promised supposedly) has led me to question whether or not I should support this game. I looked at this poll, and while the majority were satisfied, the number of dissatisfied was not far behind. Not to mention the 14 pages of people debating a neutral option, which shows another decent amount of people who could be happier about the development progress. To be clear, I'm not concerned about the $15 price, but more so about if my money is being used wisely to finish the game in a timely manner and deliver on all that's been previously promised.

So my question to you is this. In your personal opinion, has Starbound shown enough progress and promise for me to support this game and should I trust that Chucklefish will deliver what's been promised within a reasonable amount of time (full release before December, hopefully sooner, which would be a full year in beta)?

 

I would get it

 

I don't regret getting it

 

To be fair I don't believe they ever promised to have the full game done by December, but reasonably I could see beta stretching out far longer. Thats something which you seem to not favor. So I think you might regret the choice in the long run while having a short bit of fun at first. Now if you want to buy the game to test, critique, and offer feedback.. its a good point to jump in. Just be prepared to have that feedback often challenged.

 

I personally think it's worth it. There is a reason it's an early access game and I think it's still worth it. The amount of mods out there really help make up for the slow updates/addons.

 

might prefer to wait a bit considering now it doesn't really offer THAT much.
what i did was just buy the game so i can play it now and then, but most of the time i don't touch starbound.

 

OP...
what are you expecting from the game?
if you are expecting a nice character progression from tier1 to tier 10, you wont find it. T1 - T5 is about 20 hours of gameplay if you dont rush. T6 - T10 can be done i a couple hours.
if youre expecting a grand variety of vistas and creatures as you explore, you wont find it. every planet and creature seem uniformly very similar.
dont expect challenging fights. only boss/mini-boss fights are semi challenging and they can be easily cheesed to win.
the ONLY real thing to do is build. and maybe collect vanity clothes and instruments.
once you breeze through the content you will need to add "MODS" to the game to keep entertained. fortunately, there are over 1600 mods currently and they are super easy to install. they make the game as far as im concerned!
now based on this post you may think im a naysayer for starbound......not true. i have over 650 ingame hours played.
that said, i AM a builder. non-builders can probably expect around 100 hours max before bored silly.
based on what ive watched on youtube, if you can play with 2 or 3 friends you will have waaaaay more fun.
hope this helps!

 

It's fine.

 

It really depends in what you like:
progression and those things? <- wait for more updates
building? <- Buy buy buy!
exploring? <- Buy (or wait for some new things)
Playing servers, RP, and more <- 70% sure buy

 

Buy now, play for a bit, then shelf it for later. Or wait until it goes on the cheap in a year or so and buy it then.

 

I wasn't trying to say they promised release by December, but I wanted to give a date that I thought was reasonable in my mind. I do feel like that is quite a lengthy beta though. Thanks.

Thanks for this. It's the type of response I was looking for! I like to think I'm the builder type, but I usually end up get bored after too long. My main concern was buying it, playing for a short while and getting bored because of it's unfinished state, and then never coming back to it. Everyone here seems to think it's worth it though. I actually hadn't considered the amount of mods available. I'll have to look into those.

 

I would recommend waiting until the game has something more substantial under its belt to purchase it.

 

What's Starbound?

 

I got what I paid for. Hopefully I'll also continue to get what I paid for.

 

Wont happen, you should expect 2015 instead.

 

Totally worth it. I've gotten more money's worth out of this game than several expensive triple-A titles. Even the very first Beta release was fun, and it's only improved since then. I have over 100 hours into the game and have shelved it for a couple months to let it mature before I go back, but I'm very happy about this purchase.

 

I'm pretty much in agreement with Oobleck. The game costs about as much as a haircut. I'd say I've gotten my money's worth out if it, especially since it's not finished and will cost more when it's finished (and I can only imagine it'l get better since it hasn't gotten worse).