Master of Orion vs Starbound
Master of Orion
Master of Orion is a rather revolutionary strategy game that has coined the subgenre "4X" which represent the four main game elements in Master of Orion - "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate". Play as one of the ten races available and set off to explore the vast uncharted parts of the galaxy to colonize. The game features a ton of planets and solar systems to explore, various customizable spaceships for you to travel in, more than 75 different researchable technologies and a turn-based gameplay where you are free to decide how you'd like to win, be it through military conquest, technological advancement, diplomatic prowess or other methods.Master of Orion is a gem of a game especially for fans of space-themed strategy games. You'll literally get to control and modify each aspect of your empire building and colonization efforts in addition to building ties to neighboring alien empires in hopes of further fuelling the expansion of your race.
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.