Caaaaaaaalling Mothership

Wha....Where...Where am...I....

What year is it?

Starbound certainly has that affect on people...Minutes, hours, days go by with little or no recognition of the passage of time. Seriously, what's time when you can be flying around the universe exploring planets? In a space ship?

You start, of course, like many other games: Character creation. There are six races to choose from:

Avian: Zealot Bigbirds
Floran: For you vegetarians out there
Hylotl: Fishy fish...Fish...
Apex: Simian savants
Glitch: Robots who like to get medieval
Human: Booooooooooooriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing

As an old fan of Sesame Street I choose Avians...

...And then I began my career as a professional locust.

I travel from planet to planet, sector to sector, and leech. I mine all surface ore. I raid any and all settlements, because I may not need a giant rabbit statue or 14 refrigerators, but dammit I want it. What the hell is a robot doing with a wooden toilet, anyway?

Hey there big guy, ya mind runnin' this up to my ship? I gotta run back over to that village to the east, I think I might have left a chair or something. Make it fast, Brain Trees leak somethin' fierce this time of year, and I can't have their ooze staining my new curtains.

Starbound, like Terraria before it, brings out my worst hording tendencies. I pocket anything and everything what isn't nailed down, and some things that are. I once partially dismantled a Glitch village because I figured I might use the thatch roofs for something down the road...Maybe.

Starbound is a massive undertaking. There are literally thousands of systems and planets within the game, each with it's own unique flora and fauna. Alien monsters are built using a randomizer, so you can see a myriad of terrifying and adorable creatures, some of which may or may not melt your face off with acid... And or fire. The planets are also randomized, consisting of anything from snow to brains to jungles to grasslands.

The game is currently in beta, so issues and updates are common, but even early on it's proving to be amazing. Even an update-related character wipe a few days ago failed to dampen my enthusiasm, although it is heartbreaking to lose a diamond pickaxe just after acquisition.