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Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 4.4 hrs on record (3.3 hrs at review time)
Posted: Sep 4, 2020 @ 1:02pm
Updated: Sep 4, 2020 @ 3:33pm

Early Access Review
I normally don't write reviews, But for this product I thought I would.

Before I dive in, I also wish to add, Hamatchi is not required for multiplayer. You just need the host to port forward their router. There are many guides on the internet for this if you have not done this before. The defualt port for Craftopia is 8787.

My experiences were through multiplayer, and while I had some glitches and bugs, none of them I encountered were devastating. I should also note this review I'm writing is after 3 hours deep of gameplay, and while that may not be much, I feel like it is enough to evaluate the game to some degree.

.:Aesthetics:.
Firstly the aesthetic of the game are fantastic, from a visual sense it reminds me of breath of the wild. I personally found the music to get annoying after awhile as it was on a constant loop and sounded low quality (coming from a bit of an audiophile). So I simply turned that off. Some of the animal sounds also seemed off. Such as the deer, didn't sound like a deer to me, though this is a minor flaw. There really isn't anything I can complain about visually, and I didn't encounter any issues or bugs with graphics. The interface is standard of an RPG, easy to understand so there's not much more you can ask for in that regard.

.:Performance:.
The game ran alright, At 1440p my fps were almost always ~60 (capped at 60) with a 8700k, 1080 TI. Sometimes they'd drop a little into the 50's. This title can be demanding on your graphics card depending your resolution and graphics card choice. At the current moment their graphics settings are rather simple in terms of customization or optimizing your performance. The best you can do is downscale resolution and disable antialiasing, so some additional graphical options would be a great improvement for players.

.:Gameplay:.
Gameplay is fun, melee combat is movement based with wide sweeps, jump attacks, and charge attacks (additional attacks and skills can be unlocked) it feels very classic-like. the combat felt familiar, such as titles like Ratchet and Clank. Magic seemed to be blended with melee and range, as those weapons also offered bonuses to magic attack. I'm unsure if there's specific magic weapons, but with what I've seen if you were to go pure magic the best stat stick is the best sword you can get your hands on. This gave magic more of a supportive, side class feel rather than one of the trinity (melee, ranged, magic).

.:Building:.
Building is simple, not that I feel it needs to be complex, but it has floors, walls, ramps, conveyors, and simplistic automation. Your autonomous devices mostly serve as a quality of life, and still require player interaction somewhere along the line.

.:Progression:.
Progression is short, but also fun. With 3 hours I'm at stage 4 out of 5 (There are currently only 5 stages released, but there are more planned). Even though each stage expands on the grind and the requirements to progress, I found it's still pretty fast progression. This is alright for me, as I'm fine making my own goals in a sandbox environment, such as going out and discovering things rather than focusing on gathering and crafting. I plan on investing a lot more time in the title later, but I'm waiting for a few hotfixes and patches before progressing further. It's obvious in-game that they plan to expand it much more.

.:Exploration:.
While progression is short currently, exploration seemed to have many places to go. This game isn't open world entirely, but instead you can travel to new maps, with different level design, monsters, and resources. The zones seem to have a level recommendation, though I did not check if you need a level requirement to move to a new tile. You would definitely have a harder time if you went underleveled though due to enemy scaling.

.:Glitches:.
There were some glitches I've encountered, while I wasn't host in the multiplayer session, I encountered a fair amount of desyncing. Enemies that were there for me, but not for host. Boss went into a lazer attack, died for host, but never stopped firing the lazer. Host got stuck in a default pose, no animations. (re-equipping armor fixed that) and host had a couple of UI bugs that a quit to menu and relaunching the session fixed.

.:Do you recommend the game?:.
This game is very much "early access" If you're willing to be a early adopter, and enjoy what the game has to offer, while it isn't alot. it's still substantial and there's alot of fun to be had. If you're looking for a in-depth experience I think it'd be best to wait and see where development goes and what Pocket Pair adds. There are quite a few skills, and some weapons/items that show in the menus but are locked out labeled, "coming soon". Past that, I have no idea of their direction, it's too early to tell. But as is; It is a game with a hand full to things to do, places to explore. And I will admit an enjoyable one.
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6 Comments
[Ono] Kurz Sep 6, 2020 @ 4:00pm 
Hi. Onono would love to publish your review at www.Onono.no
Please contact me on steam or discord. See profile.
Kyanos Sep 5, 2020 @ 11:57pm 
My bad, After looking into Hamatchi, The Player joining host choose would need to copy the IP4 address, direct connect with that address.
Kyanos Sep 5, 2020 @ 11:33pm 
@joey If you havn't figured it out yet, The host port forwarded the ports I mentioned in my review. (8787) I joined through steam.

The other option, If you wish to not hassle with router settings. Then you could download a program from LogMeIn called "Hamatchi" along with your friend. connect to them through this third party software, and join on steam.
joey Sep 5, 2020 @ 1:48pm 
please tell me how you got multiplayer working
SourceUnknown Sep 5, 2020 @ 11:14am 
Ive heard good things about the game but I see a lot of people complaining it has stolen assets, etc... Im pretty sure they wouldve been sued by now seeing as this game has clearly been advertised and promoted more so than just about any game... but Im not worried about that... I think for the price and by what you said, it sounds like a decent deal for a few hours of fun. I just hope development continues and they refine and fix a lot of the problems I have seen reported. I had high hopes though for a lot of games that were promoted and they still havent gotten their act together...covid or not! Guess, Ill buy it and hope for the best... thanks for your honest opinion of the game.
Sol DizZo Sep 4, 2020 @ 9:43pm 
It looks like they even stole assets from BotW, for instance the underwear on the male character and the actual gliders.