6 Reasons Why You Should Be Excited About Starbound

3. The Gameplay

This picture hits all the right buttons, and some wrong ones.

Although superficially similar to Terraria (one of the Starbound devs used to work on Terraria), this game has a number of unique features that make it stand out, even in chaotic pit that is the indie competition. There was enough talk about procedural generation, so let's mention some other things this time. Perhaps you like the idea of composing your own music ingame? Oh, there will be a load of instruments to play it on, don't worry. If you're more of a scientific type, why wouldn't you catalogue all the weird animals you're sure to find on your journeys?

But maybe all that isn't for you. Maybe you're a collector, and you love finding awesome weapons and armour. Fret not, there's a plethora of furniture that is designed to showcase your greatest finds. Why are we writing about this? One reason: to tell you just how versatile Starbound is bound (pun'd!) to be. You'll build your own buildings, craft your weapons and tools - even vehicles. There was even mention of DNA manipulation being available to splice your tamed creatures into the ultimate hulkness (sure, why not?).

Skills are already implemented. Some of them, such as double jump and dash, have already been shown. These have various tactical uses in assaulting and evading. Flight suits, jetpacks, gravity boots... everything will be inside, waiting for you to use it. The grappling hook is the newest displayed addition to the toolbox. Yes, you can really dual wield the damn thing. How long have we been waiting for a thing like that?