Craftopia is a new open-world multiplayer Survival RPG hybrid from Japan that combines features and
mechanics from many different games. It has boss fights, hacking and slashing, building, automation, mounts, gliding, farming, resource collection, civilization advancement, this game has it all!
Craftopia came to Steam early access on the 4th of September 2020, and despite a rocky start is now
sitting at very positive reviews.
So, after dipping my toes into Craftopia for a few hours my first impressions are as follows:
Pros
- I love the art style.
- I was impressed by the diverse range of mechanics, climbing, gliding, vehicles, building, different
abilities, dodge rolling and so on. - I loved the RPG-style combat and wasn’t actually expecting it from this game. It seems like there’s a lot
of fun builds and options when it comes to the game’s talent tree too. - This game has actual boss mechanics, which isn’t something you always see in a survival style game, so
that impressed me too. - I love the way you unlock different islands and after only exploring a few of them, I can tell that the world
is absolutely massive in this game. - The whole premise of integrating the element of age advancement from the Civilization series is really
clever and interesting. - There’s no tedious weight limit connected to the gathering aspect of the game. Your only limitation is
inventory space, of which you have a lot of anyway. - If you look at the footage of later content in this game, you can really get a sense that almost anything is
possible in Craftopia. The scope of the game seems huge and the ceiling for player creativity and
freedom is very high. - The music was really beautiful, and is my favourite type of video game music: relaxing anime piano.
Cons
Night Time looks relatively bad in this game, the transition between day and night looks awful. I think
this has to do with the lighting, and I’m pretty sure this will be improved over time.
- The crafting menu UI needs a search function, as it’s a bit of a pain to navigate once you start getting a
lot of unlocks. - The game is still super rough around the edges which is to be expected from an early access game.
- The climbing mechanics feel rough. You’re not able to just climb normally, you climb by jumping against
a wall instead. They should make the climbing more like Genshin Impact. - In its current state, the game lacks variety in a few aspects such as dungeon layouts, boss fights and
monsters. However, this is surely something that will change over time. I really feel like Craftopia is one of
those games that needs a massive amount of variety to stay fun.
Summary
I think Craftopia is a game with some really amazing bones and will eventually become an absolute banger of a game over time. It should attract fans of both MMORPGs and Survival and Building-style games. When the
multiplayer is working smoothly, I can see this game taking off as it is super fun to play together with a group of friends.
Definitely keep an eye on this one as it develops further!
Credits
| Author | Curtis Pyke |
| YouTuber | TheLazyPeon |
| Program | Freedom! Scholarship |
| Publisher | MGN |
| Game | Craftopia |