I wanted to share my view on the latest update (and the whole game) for quite a long time, eventually i’m posting it now 
Boundless is at awesome stage and I think this is time for a honest review.
I currently have over 550 hours of active playtime and I’m playing since February 2nd. That’s like 3.5 hours a day in boundless, damn.
I can surely say that Boundless in the greatest sandbox game I have ever player. I have never had so much fun in my 5y minecraft experience compared to 6 months in this game.
What are my favourite aspects of Boundless
- definitely gem hammers. I don’t need to explain i think
- long crafting time e.g 6h for compact hard coal (however it is still too fast imo). I love that i need to own multiple machines to craft more items simultainously.
- plot driven protection system. It’s just awesome players can manage their plots, move from one place to another and keep their stuff safe.
- portals, i have no words to describe how awesome this technology is. You can travel between places in seconds with no restrictions.
- community together. In minecraft i always wanted to play on a long term server where i can play with others, share stories, talk, make friends that will last, in boundless i can. Also planned private official server idea is great.
What i also like in boundless
- Trading - money makes the boundless go… round?
Trading makes me want to explore the world, find new traders across planets. There are people that don’t even know i buy all their stuff every time they restock their shop, and they live far away from cities. I love that i can make a huge shop, share my goods with others, get loyal customers, resources providers i pay for their good regularry. - Art style of the game. I feel like everything is so polished, every block perfectly fits to the game (slide??) . When i was new to the game i was super impressed by Munteen VII and Septerfon’s open areas. I love Nasharil’s weather which makes me stay away from it, mysterious aura at Andoweem and lag festival at Alturnik .
- Render distance!!
What i dislike
- Cuttletrunks
- Seriously, nothing beside that. Never happened to me before.
I want to make an overview on different aspects of the game. From my perspective the best thing in the game is of course
*** Mining ***
I remember spending my first 17 hours in the game desperately trying to find gold. That was before resource distribution update. Amazing time, but really frustrating as i couldn’t find any. Now i can say mining is pretty balanced.
TOOLS
Wood tools - I crafted these only at the beginning. Used for like 5 minutes in total.
Stone tools - Good for newcomers
Iron tools - Many people say iron is too rare - there are planets full of iron in fact. I like that iron is the most balanced tool of all.
Gold and Titanium tools - These are really unbalanced. It’s easier to craft a gem hammer instead of those. Excuse me, but 6400 spark + materials for 1 titanium hammer is waaay too much. I feel like if boundless wants to have a progression system titanium tools should be easier to craft. There is no sence in using this tier when iron is same as good.
…but, i have a suggestion! I would not lower the cost of gold and titanium tools. Instead i would make gems mineable only with gold and titanium hammers. Gems are waaay to easy to mine now.
For example. in 4 hours i can mine 360 raw diamonds, and make 33 diamond hammers. Using just 3 diamond hammers i can mine next 360 diamonds in 2 hours. There is no challange in that.
My suggestion:
Make gold tools mine low tier gems: Topaz, Ruby, Sapphire.
Make titanium tools mine both low and high tier gems: + Amethyst, Diamond, Emerlds.
Make both tiers lose 20x more durability when mining gems to make gem tools harder to obtain. Make them more exclusive. MMO needs rare and hard to obtain items.
Gem tools - Powerful tools. Their crafting cost is balanced, however i feel like they are too common. There is nothing wrong in crafting 33 gem hammers from 360 raw gems, but raw gems should be harder to obtain as i explained above.
PLANETS, RESOURCES AND CAVES
It really like the fact that planets have different shape of caves, different resource distribution, that you can find a great spot for mining and keep it in secret. IMO it’s almost perfect. Almost because i really miss that minecraft style caves. Simple yet interesting. Minecraft’s caves were full of branches, you had to remember where you came from to explore rest of the cave system. I’d really love to see such caves in the game.
Boundless in contrast has lovely infinite cave systems which i also love. Sometimes i like just going deep and mine without need to worry about anything else. I can just go straight forward and explore. Minecraft also had these “dungeons” with mob spawners. That was also an interesting feature. I know oort temples are probably still planned, but i just want to mention that underground has to be interesting I also miss these random encounters from terraria. Random spider caves, gem caves, abandoned houses, mushroom biome underground, but these are just my suggestions
Good job on mining part.
*** Fighting ***
Fighting spitters, hoppers, (not cuttletrunks), wildstock is a lot of fun. I spent probably 20 hours fighting, especially after skills update. I will not review it now, as there are lots of changes comming.
However, fighting is already lots of fun. Monster animations are beautiful, especially cuttletrunks. I will probably update this section later some day
*** Building ***
From my point of view building is juuust right. Good job on blocks design. I feel like every material is unique, crafting cost is very balanced. Blocks tint is one of the greatest idea i’ve seen in sanbox games Some colors are just beatiful like twisted wood and soil from nasharil, elopor’s wood in the color of sepia, purple stones etc. Just great. They give a lot of freedom for dedicated builders as we have many blocks variations to choose from. Some people hunt for specified tints of gleam (e.g. raw red gleam) and i think it’s important to make some tints unqiue and hard to obtain like: purple, blue, green.
Gem torches, lanters, colorful lighting system is great. In boundless you can add some climate to your structures using various colors of torches. Perfect example is Elop Portas, charming city.
Building speed is also great. It was a little bit too slow at th beginning, but now after maxing one attribute it’s too fast!
I hope blueprint system will be impemented sooner or later.
I also can’t wait for more props.
*** Crafting ***
I like that i have to wait to craft things. Machines are great because they take lots of space. You are always willing to build a machinery + storage room. You don’t have to build some fake props to make your room look good. You can actually crate a second machinery, many different rooms, many machines filled with various materials used to craft different things. I have over 20 different workbenches, 6 refineries, 4 compactors, 4 extractors. It allows me to keep everything organised. I suggested once before to add more machines to the game that would fill up space in empty rooms.
More about crafting. Batch and Mass crafting is an awesome feature. I’d like to see longer crafting times for batch and even longer for mass crafting. It adds more immersion to the game. You are more likely to visit game the next day to check if crafting is done already. Any after all, why not? It’s an MMO. Things should take time.
When we’re talking about time let’s talk about:
*** Character Progression and Skills ***
It took me 150 hours of casual playing to reach 38 level. It’s not that fast as it seems. In 150 hours you can complete Witcher 3. In boundless you can still do lots of things. And there are more features to come I hope. Players will be more busy and leveling up your character will take even longer which is good
In general i like leveling my character. Spending skill points is also fun. Earning cleanse points is not.
I want to focus on one skill which in my opinion should be reconsidered.
Shout range it’s a bad skill. You can say hello to your friend from 300meters but they won’t be able to communicate with you. You can post trading offerts at chat, but without whisper system it’s useless atm.
I think i covered most topics of the game. I wanted to give a good feedback on features. I hope it worked out well
Summing up i want to thank you for making that amazing game. I spent 2 hours writing this review and it was a pleasure. Thanks you for developing that awesome game Wonderstruck team. I personally condider you as the greatest developers i have ever found in my gaming experience. You are all so transparent, you communicate with players at forums, at discord, talk personally to them, talk with them in game, develop a great game, improve it. You post ‘weekly’ dev logs, you share your progress. You just make everyone believe in this project!
Boundless is the game you can fell in love with. It’s not only because of the game itself, but also because of the fantastic developers who care about their community!! I wish you all the best during the struggle of the game development now, and when the hard times will come.
Boundless 10/10
a game with no flaws
