Introduction
Today we are going to review a survival game that is in early access. I am talking about Craftopia, a game that takes elements and graphics from other games like Breath of the Wild, but not limited to that game. You will encounter many Easter eggs but Craftopia somehow tosses all these elements together to make a great early access game. There is also a lot of combat elements that have you hack and slash in action role playing style through dungeons. You will also encounter shrines as you travel from island to island. Since this is an early access game, the main missions and story are still under development and still a secret. There are a lot of side missions to play though, like chopping 1000 trees!
What did I think before playing Craftopia
Since I am quite new to the Xbox game pass service, I was looking to what games would be fun to review. My eyes fell on Craftopia since there are not many reviews on survival games yet on Reviews by Supersven. The early access trailer of Craftopia looks great and fun, did I mention you can ride cows? There are also boss fights, you can even capture them and turn them into your pet! For more information we went to the Steam page, we purchased the game there to have the latest update available! Since game pass receives updates later.
The Steam Page
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1307550/Craftopia/
There is a lot of information to find on the Steam page, the game is massive for an early access game. We expected bugs because it is early access, however the possibilities are already huge in this game! You will need to progress ages to learn more items to craft. You can farm, explore different themed dungeons, create a huge base, breed animals and a lot more! Do not forget to level up and put points into your skills. Later on, new skills will be added!
Rating
I rate Craftopia with a 9.0
Even though this is an early access game, the trailer looks amazing, and it even enticed my wife to start playing the game. There is even multiplayer to play with other players on Steam or Xbox.
Gameplay
In Craftopia you will start on a tutorial island where dangers are few, there are a few bears but with a wooden stick that you can craft, you can easily take care of this threat. There are two dungeons on the main island, but they are randomly generated, as are the other islands. You will need certain resources to unlock new islands. You will also need new resources to progress your era, which will unlock new items like working stations.
Some items can be crafted in your inventory, but for most of the advanced items you will need work stations like a work bench. To create armor and weapons, you will need a blacksmith station. For many of the items you will need ingots which can be made in a furnace, you need ore which can be found everywhere, however as island difficulty increases you will find better ores.
To mine better ores you will need a better pickaxe, though. To chop trees you will need a hatchet, however a better hatchet will net you more wood and chop down the tree faster. When you have progressed more era, you can build your own base on whatever island you feel is a good place to build. You can even create machines like helicopters and motorcycles. You will need to make sure that you can make enough resources for everything, though!
A lot of processes can be automated by using conveyor belts and different items. More devices will be added in the future like blowing fans. The floors that you can make are huge and make for easy base building, clipping is also allowed which make building fun and easy unlike other building games! There is a lot more to Craftopia, but it is way too much to explain everything! Use these basics to get your base started and enjoy the exploration of some dungeons!
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Craftopia with a 9.2.
There are barely any game breaking bugs or even normal bugs even though this game is still in the early stages of early access. There is also a lot to do in Craftopia and you can easily put in hundreds of hours!
When there is a bug present, it gets fixed very fast.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics in Craftopia are quite reminiscent of other games like Breath of the Wild, which is also why this game got bad ratings. However, this game is nothing like Breath of the Wild, there are indeed shrine like puzzles, and breakable weapons. There are still a lot of things that need to be fixed or added, but the developers wanted to mix multiple games and genres, and they succeeded. Also, Breath of the Wild is not the first game to use shrines and dungeons, technically everything was already done once and coming up with something new is impossible!
Sound
Craftopia has a lot of sound effects and different soundtracks. There are a few issues like cows mooing at the same time. The dungeons might need some new soundtracks but for an early access game, the developers did a great job!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Craftopia with a 7.8.
There are still a lot of things that need to be added in Craftopia, but the developers are working hard!
What did I think after playing Craftopia?
Both my wife and I made two character files, one on Steam and another on Game Pass. We managed to make a max level character on Steam. We even made some bosses our pets! Automation was key to making new items for our base, an item that you need a lot of is bioethanol. You will need a farm to make wheat, a farm can also be used to make a lot of cash by growing legendary fruits!
Money is needed for era progression and repairing weapons. If you want to repair weapons quickly, you will need a skilled repair station, but the cost is steep in the beginning. We had a lot of fun building our base. If you like survival games, Craftopia is a great game to play! If you have friends on Steam who also own Craftopia, you can play together!
Rating
I rate Craftopia with an 8.1 after playing.
Did you know that there are even fan made mods that are allowed on the Steam Workshop? This still needs to take off, but there is quite some progress on mods already!
What are my personal thoughts about Craftopia?
I am very excited to see what Craftopia will offer when the full game will be released! There is already a lot of fun stuff to do, like going dungeon exploring or trying to make an experience farm!
Rating
My personal Rating of Craftopia is an 8.2.
I like Ark more since it has dinosaurs, but the building in Craftopia works much easier, even though it is unrealistic!
Last Words
Pros
- Play a game that takes elements from many other games to become its own game!
- Great graphics with fun soundtracks!
- Explore dungeons and gather materials to upgrade your base!
- Fight bosses and collect their loot to create epic weapons!
- Build your own base, you can choose a lot of different materials!
- Make traps to capture animals and use them for breeding or enslave them as pets!
- Fight in dungeons and solve shrines for loot!
- There are many kinds of biomes when you unlock new islands.
Cons
- The game is in early access, expect some minor bugs, or weird bugs!
- Helicopters do not work on hell islands.
If you are interested in survival games, Craftopia is a great game for you!
Final Rating
8.5
Let me know what you think of Craftopia in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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Its cool game and review
Seems a pretty complete game
It looks like a lot of fun with different elements.
Quite interesting.
not bad
Not for me, but looks like you can do lots of stuff in this game!
Yeah, there is a lot to do already!
not for me, but thanks!
Early Access, that’s it
Early access can be good!
Pretty good review, as usual.
Thanks!
Good that they are adding new content.
Indeed!
Good read! Would be very low in my wishlist for certain but I know you liked it and people of similar taste for such games!
You need a very specific taste for these kinds of game!
If you have game pass, you can play it on there!
it looks interesting. thank you for your review Sven.
You are welcome!
I love how you can make cows fall into giant cauldrons of lava (or whatever it is, liquid fire?)
A giant cauldron, if you put some oil in it, they immediately get cooked into a dish!
This game looks promising with all the different mechanics.
We should revisit this game!