Anno 2205 vs Starbound
Anno 2205
Anno 2205 is, in some way, a "grand simulation" game and a city-builder that is set in the far future where Earth has already been developed to its maximum capacity and it's time to take to the stars. However, this game is no space exploration sim. Instead, you'll still be focusing much of your development effort on Earth but this time around, you'll get to expand your influence to the moon; to mine the resources there and bring it back to Earth. The gameplay is also further enhanced with a unique Session mode where you can play on multiple locations and then connect all of these regions together. And of course, the map of the region you can play in is a lot larger (five times, to be exact) than the previous game.However, many fans of the game have pointed out that the combat system is rather boring in this game. Though admittedly, the combat in other Anno games isn't particularly exciting either. It's just something that's necessary.
That said, the gameplay might still be interesting enough for you to buy the game, maybe at a discounted price, but for some, the game might not be comparable to any of the other Anno titles. It's up to you to decide which camp you fall into.
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.