I strapped into my capsule expecting a fully destructible, infinitely expanding universe. Instead, I got half a promise dwarfed by server hiccups and a desert of players. Starbase bills itself as the space MMO mash-up of Space Engineers, EVE Online, and No Man’s Sky—but at its current state, it feels more like a pre-alpha that forgot to turn up.
Overall Impressions
What stood out right out of the hanger was the ambition: voxel meets vertex tech that lets you sculpt ships and stations block by block, then blast them into space dust. It’s a killer hook in theory. In practice, one wrong weld can short out your engine, and one login error can leave you staring at a blank server list. Compared to EVE’s player-driven economy or No Man’s Sky’s solo exploration bliss—you know those games at least run—Starbase still feels unfinished. Its core design shines in fleeting moments: a perfectly tuned mining ship or a slick dogfight. But those peaks are often blocked by missing features and empty lobbies.
Gameplay Mechanics
Building and designing is the real show here. The hybrid voxel/vertex system means you can carve hull shapes that look like they belong in a sci-fi movie. I spent hours fine-tuning thruster arrays only to discover my design reacted badly in realspace physics. Gravity flew out the airlock, and so did my pride. Resource gathering and crafting have a solid loop: mine diamonds, refine them into plates, bolt them onto your hull. Trading and combat follow naturally. Too bad the “MMO” part relies on servers that feel abandoned. One user pointed out the game “NEEDED” private host options years ago—and I second that. Without private servers, every login feels like a gamble. When you do connect, you’ll rarely bump into anyone. Fun fact: at one point I spent an hour alone mining because no pirates or allies ever logged on.
Story and Characters
Full disclosure: there’s no narrative campaign or voiced NPCs. This is pure sandbox. Your story is whatever you cook up with friends or foes—if you can find any. The world-building lives in your blueprints and scrap piles. There’s a charm to that DIY spirit, but it leaves a void. I missed at least a skeleton plot or faction system to anchor my choices. The galaxy feels eerily silent when “character” just means your captain’s helmet.
Visuals and Graphics
If you’ve dreamed of crunching voxels into cosmic dust, you’ll grin every time your plasma cutter bites into a freighter hull. The dynamic destruction is legitimately cool. Ships shatter into pieces that float realistically in zero-G, and station corridors collapse in satisfying chunks. Still, some textures are bland and dusty, and the lighting can feel flat in deep space. It’s like avant-garde sculpture in a dimly lit warehouse: the parts are beautiful, but the whole doesn’t always pop.
Sound and Music
I give props to the ambient hums and mechanical whines that fill your cockpit. The clank of welding tools and the roar of thrusters do a solid job of selling you on the cold, industrial feel. The soundtrack, however, is forgettable—generic synth pads that don’t build tension or evoke wonder. It’s background filler, not a character. No voice acting to speak of, so don’t buy this expecting radio drama.
Difficulty and Replayability
There’s a steep learning curve in mastering the build tools and flight controls. If you’ve ever wrestled with CAD software, you’ll feel right at home—or at least equally frustrated. Once you get past that hump, you’ll still struggle to find people to pilot with or fight against. One player’s recent review said the player count “ended up pretty dead,” but that also makes it a perfect time to grab mats in peace. That peace, though, quickly morphs into loneliness. With no major updates in nearly a year and Frozenbyte radio-silent, replay value depends entirely on your stubbornness and fondness for solo engineering.
Developer Trivia and Behind-the-Scenes
Frozenbyte—best known for the Trine series and the oddball platformer Shadwen—took a sharp turn into space MMOs with Starbase. They launched early access in July 2021, promising a living, breathing cosmos built by players. Since then, the update cadence has faded, and the dev team’s public roadmap is as empty as most Starbase stations. Rumor has it the studio shifted focus back to smaller projects, leaving this massive sandbox in limbo. Community pleas for private-server tools have gone unanswered, though some modders claim to be hacking their own solutions.
Final Thoughts
Starbase’s core tech is downright impressive when it works. Floating shards of your shattered battleship? Stunning. Building a mining rig from scratch? Deeply satisfying. But ambition without follow-through leaves a void you can’t weld closed. Between stalled updates, scarce population, and missing single-player or private-server options, the game feels half-done. If you’re itching for a sandbox space sim and don’t mind flying solo in a ghost town, there’s something here to tinker with. Otherwise, wait for Frozenbyte to prove they still care—or let the community take the helm.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars. It’s a gem that needs polishing, not a finished treasure.
