Starbound is what happens when a company full of people who have no qualms about exploiting the labor of minors sees Terraria and says "Let's make one of those." Once, I quite liked this game - but the honeymoon period is long over, and in its wake is disappointment and regret.

There are few games as shallow and tedious as Starbound. It carries the same cocktail of heady ambition and creative bankruptcy as Skyrim, and like Skyrim it exists as a hollowed-out shell for modders to make a better game out of. Visit homogeneous randomly-generated planets, collect worthless currency hand over fist, open chests full of terrible weapons, scan objects, do a forgettable mission, repeat the whole routine a few times, and you've beaten the game. The story is threadbare (another unflattering Skyrim parallel) and the gameplay is just not very fun or deep. Eat to keep your hunger meter full! Better dig up the new ore to craft the latest armor that magically makes your character stronger! What do you mean, you've "already played this game?"

I can't be too hard on Starbound, though. I mean, it just wouldn't be fair, a lot of it was made by teenagers - for free, no less!