Recent reviews by Tickler

I would recommend playing in Romance mode because it brings a new and fun way to play Total War, putting more of the focus on your characters and their abilities

I liked this game back when it first came out on steam. When 1.0 came out, I figured I might enjoy it again. That wasn't the case. A lot of content was cut and even exploration feels much more bland and stale.

-Temperature system has been removed. This was one of the nice features back during the beta. Most clothing had function (Snow Infantry set was very useful) and it felt very relaxing sitting by a fire on a snow planet so you could warm up.

-Sectors have been removed. You used to only be limited in exploration by the temperature system and how warm or cool you could get. A forest planet in a sector would be just as dangerous as a lava planet on that same sector, and you would find the same resources on every planet in that sector until you moved on to the next one. This was a favorite feature of mine and really enhanced exploration because there was just as much incentive to going to the forest planet as the lava planet.

-Most techs are gone. I remember all the vehicle and flying techs, and how you'd have to find them to actually use them. Now that I can't use my bubble tech, I have to build giant pillars to get on avian pirate ships. And this isn't all, there was also a mech and some other vehicles. The only surviving tech vehicle is the boat, only now you have to waste pixels buying it instead of being incentivized to explore to find it.

-Randomly generated monsters and weapons have been removed. I enjoyed this because it added to exploration and had you wondering what kind of creatures and crazy weapons you'd find on a planet you'd land on. Every creature was unique and every weapon was unique, down to the name and function. This also added a lot of fun to exploration because of course, you wouldn't know what you're going to find.

-Story isn't that great. I honestly had more fun back when you'd build the bosses yourself in order to advance to the next sector and unlock more equipment and crafting tables. I thought the beginning of the story was fine, but the rest felt repetative and boring. "Find a ________ settlement and scan objects" gets very annoying and I tend to just drift away from the story altogether. I have yet to face the final boss because of this.

-Plenty of weapons and armor have been cut, and I don't mean the randomized ones you used to find on planets. I mean weapons and armor you crafted at tables. Copper and gold almost seem to have no use anymore, and I quite enjoyed those armors, as bad as they were, and copper armor and weapons were easily obtained in the early game, allowing you to take on more dangerous things. It felt like I was legitimately getting stronger and every ore had a use. Almost any type of weapon could be made from any type of ore. Feel like making daggers? No problem. Spears? Yep. Instead now, there are too few craftable armors and weapons, and it seems ores have gotten even more scarce.

-Further cuts include certain dungeons (USCM bases are a prime example), and you can no longer attack NPCs unless you break all their stuff. If I want to be a murderous psychopath and purge xenos, just let me do it please. On top of all that, there's little reason to go to moons or asteroids anymore. Asteroids would be one of the most dangerous biomes in the game with the best resources, but now there's pretty much nothing.

I will repeat, I LOVED this game in 2013. Telling people to mod it in is no excuse and it's the wrong mentality to show to developers.

I'll change my opinion if some of the good features are added back into the game or some of the many promises Chucklefish made are implemented. Starbound simply feels like half the game it was when it first came out on Early Access.