When comparing Master Spy vs Starbound, the Slant community recommends Starbound for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D games on Steam?” Starbound is ranked 8th while Master Spy is ranked 61st. The most important reason people chose Starbound is:
Starbound allows the player to go at their own pace while completing the tutorials. By the end of the tutorials the player will have the skills and equipment to succeed in the game and have fun doing it.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Invisibility cloak
Players get an invisibility cloak in the game as a main mechanic where it is used to sneak around. Of course movement is limited when in use which makes for some great puzzle aspects to the game when trying to figure out how to best sneak around.
Pro Over 30 minutes of pixel video cutscens
Reminiscent of 2d pixel games from the past Master Spy implements a variety of video cutscenes to further flesh out the story, completely done in 2D pixel art.
Pro Informative and well paced tutorials
Starbound allows the player to go at their own pace while completing the tutorials. By the end of the tutorials the player will have the skills and equipment to succeed in the game and have fun doing it.
Pro Incredibly deep gameplay
The exploration, crafting and combat are all both very polished and deep in terms of what you can do, especially compared to other games in the genre. This makes the sandbox very fun to play in as you're never really stuck doing the same thing over and over.
Pro Boss levels
For what is a procedurally generated game, Starbound offers boss levels that once beaten unlock new sectors of space to explore.
Cons
Con Calling it a stealth game is a stretch
Even though the setting of the game draws inspiration from stealth "lore" it is at its core a twitch platformer in disguise (get it?).
Con Difficult
This is a game made to be extremely difficult, in the vein of Super Meat Boy or N+ the player will die and die a lot. This can be frustrating a time goes on and the further one gets as the game really increases difficulty.
Con First few hours can be boring
Initially the player needs to amass enough coal to fuel their ship, which is a bit of a grind.