GAMER LOUNGE 20XX (NO CASUALS!!)

[Koh]

I don't usually like sandbox games, tbh. Often I end up lost. It's not so bad if there's a map and some clear objectives, and if the developers have gone to the trouble of making the worlds sculpted in a way to ensure that they'll always be fun to explore... but a lot of time sandbox games end up being barren, glitchy messes. The only one that's "hooked" me, so to speak, is probably Minecraft, but that has more to do with the whole 3D-Spriting thing. Though through that I've become invested in some of the Minecraft world's lore itself.

Usually I prefer to be rewarded for my exploration with story elements, power-ups, whatever... I'm not typically an "Explore the World Because That's Fun" gamer unless the universe of the game really captures me.

That's exactly why I feel Terraria and Starbound are the best in this category so far.  Minecraft's Adventure mode is still as empty and barren as it was when it first started...they kept talking about some cool concepts I thought would make exploration actually worth while, but it turned out to be useless.  For example, the Villagers and Temples.  Whatever the villagers have that they want to trade, or whatever you find in those random temples, can easily be obtained right at the beginning of the game, just digging down, mining out the ores, and crafting them yourself, which renders them moot.  In direct contrast to Terraria and Starbound, where you find things you cannot craft while exploring, as well as get new abilities and tools and such. Also, the combat in Terraria and Starbound is a lot more layered and interesting than Minecraft's, so the boredom is held at bay for a much longer period of time. Minecraft is basically legos, which is fine in concept, but the adventure mode is almost totally worthless.