Star Citizen vs Starbound
Star Citizen
Star Citizen is an incredibly ambitious and yet highly anticipated (and not to mention, hyped-up especially players who simply adore the genre) project to create the world's very first open world, sandbox game that's set not only in space but also on the many different planets and other locations that you happen to land on/dock to. The game will be pretty massive and it is developed on an as grand a scale as an indie company possibly can. The end product - the game's currently in early access - might end up looking like a Star Wars/Star Trek-like world that's equally in-depth and likely as diverse. Of course, the science-fiction/futuristic feel simply adds to the enormity of the game.However, being the type of game that even triple-A companies have never yet attempted before, the developers have drawn some flak in regard to the chances of actually finishing the game development process and giving their players - the people who had bought and funded the game - a complete game to play. Many critics think that these players will get burned in the end, but for someone who has grown up somewhat obsessed with almost every "space frontier"-type series ever made, I do hope that Star Citizen will be able to reach its true potential even if that means the downloads will take a painfully long time to complete.
Starbound
Starbound is amazingly fun 2D sandbox/exploration game that will put you in the shoes of a spacefarer and a captain of your very own spacecraft. As you travel through space, you will need to stop by planets to collect resources and perhaps even colonize them so you can also gather up a crew to man your ship. There are up to 7 races to play as, a story campaign where you are tasked to save the universe, and 3 different game modes ranging from Casual to Hardcore to either provide you with a fun relaxing experience or to put your survival skills to the test. You can even play the game cooperatively when you want. For modders, you can add in new races, biomes, dungeons, quests and anything else you'd like as well.Starbound can be turned into a pretty much an endless game due to its procedurally generated universe, where you can simply fly around in your spaceship looking for your next big adventure. Thus, you can definitely expect hours of gameplay at the very least for your first playthrough, making this game very well worth its price.