When comparing Space Engineers [Early Access] vs Starbound, the Slant community recommends Starbound for most people. In the question“What are the best Base-Building games on Steam?” Starbound is ranked 6th while Space Engineers [Early Access] is ranked 12th. 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 Easy to build
Space Engineers makes it easy to build any items or objects making sure any skill level can easily have fun in game. All one needs to do is select what they would like to build from the menu and then choose the parts they would like to add.
Pro Destructible ships
Players are able to smash ships into each other with satisfying destruction physics.
Pro Prefabricated ships available in game that are modifiable
For those that do not want to build a whole ship from scratch there are prefabricated ships available upon start that are also modifiable so users can customize to their liking.
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 Servers are a "lag hell"
Due to the nature of physics simulation of custom built ships, the game requires top hardware to host the game, still making it a "lag hell" if there are more than 10 players.
Con Still not a whole lot to do
Being an early access game there is still a lot of missing features such as missions, thus leaving no much to do other than the free building mode.
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.