Craftopia ~ First Impressions!

avatar

craftopiaheader.png

Craftopia is a jack of all trades; master of none. It boasts crafting, farming, dungeon-exploring, hunting, automation, monster taming, and all the things! It is everything all rolled into one!

But does it deliver?

So far, at the beginning of the game, still wearing my rose-coloured glasses -- yes, yes it does.

Screenshot (640).png

The character creator, the first thing I judge any new game by, is semi-decent.

You can choose to be an elf, human, or demon. There are many hairstyles and hair colours, and there are a few anime faces to place upon your person. It would be nice if 'eyebrow colour' was on the same page as hairstyle/colour though.

Screenshot (643).png

After a short cutscene where we destroy the world, we awaken on this small idyllic island.

After punching a few trees, I have enough material to make a workbench, and after punching a few rocks, I have enough material to make a pickaxe, axe, and wooden stick to attack my foes with!

Screenshot (644).png

It's pretty much like every other survival-craft when it comes to crafting.

Although one thing that's different compared to others -- I can make my own glider! Now I can fly around the island and see what's what.

While spiffy, I probably won't really use the glider unless we find some land somewhere that is significantly larger. I prefer to walk for the most part in these types of games, there are even some MMOs I prefer to walk in! The Elder Scrolls Online, for instance. Why mount up when I'm constantly going to dismount to gather crafting reagents?

Screenshot (657).png

Your inventory is pretty sizeable! There are separate areas in your inventory for consumables, gathering materials, building materials, and just general things like your weapons/tools/clothes.

Which is a good thing, because the couple of chests we've crafted so far can only hold 8 items. Very small. I'm assuming we can craft larger storage chests later... I sure hope so, at least.

Screenshot (648).png

Apparently either my partner or myself had an accident too, and just left it sitting on the beach. 👀 I'm pretty sure my person would've dug it under the sand, so I blame my partner.

Here is an image of my lady just staring at it in disgust.

Screenshot (649).png

After exploring the island, I discovered two fancy looking portal things, both of which were guarded by bears. After dispatching the bears, I raced into the first one without waiting for my partner. Not realising this thing was technically a dungeon.

Screenshot (650).png

This first "dungeon" wasn't quite what I expected! There was a lady in the front room and she had a red bar underneath her name, so I automatically assumed she was an enemy and started attacking her.

Woops.

Turned out she was just the lady who tells me what this place is and what to do.

So I go further in and find a line of hoverboards. Apparently I need to get to the end before the timer ran out, so I jumped onto one and zooooooomed through the twisted corridors until I reached the end. And made it with 43 seconds to spare, woo! Which was quite the feat considering that hoverboard was insane to control.

My rewards for completing the dungeon were a bunch of chests with various random things in them. And that's when I discovered this dungeon was now complete, it was not something we could repeat, and I did it without my partner. 😅 Woops. I promised I'd wait for him for the next dungeon.

Screenshot (652).png

While waiting, I made myself a fishing rod and headed for the water.

Fishing is very easy. You can only fish in the pools, not in open water. Just click to cast, then as soon as the line ducks under water click again! And the fish you've just caught will go flying through the air and you have to run over and collect it wherever it landed.

Physics are amusing in this game. 😅

Screenshot (653).png

Finally we went into the next dungeon. This one was more typical with plenty of enemies to attack and with a boss to fight at the end.

The boss was some giant robot construct with laser eyes. Hitting its body only dealt 1HP of damage, but hitting its head or a blue orb in its belly dealt a good 200HP of damage. It's good to know that creatures in this have weak points that you need to aim for and not just go ham.

And now, with the dungeon complete, we were able to summon some magic upon a transportation stone and go to the next area. After cooking up a feast.

Screenshot (655).png

I think my main criticisms with this game so far are just simple little nit-picky things.

For instance, sometimes you'll press '3' which has the pickaxe on it, but it won't actually equip, and you'll be trying to mine with your sword or something because your action to equip the pickaxe didn't work.

It's also hard to tell when things have finished being crafted or cooked. There is a ring around the item being worked on, and it's supposed to fill up yellow as progress is made... however, that yellow ring only shows up maybe a quarter of the time. So it'll still say 0/1 but it IS actually ready and you can just grab it.

I find that annoying.

And I think your character levels up far too quickly.

Screenshot (661).png

There is a sizeable skill tree to go through for various parts of the game -- surviving, combat, building, etc. And you can put multiple points into the one thing. But you seriously level up far too quickly. You get XP for building, gathering, attacking creatures, doing everything. As you complete minor objectives you also get rewarded skill points. We're on the second island and I'm up to my ears in skill points!! Slow it down a bit. 🤣

Another annoyance is that two people can't use the same workstation at one time. Ugh. I mean, I'll probably build my own house at some point too, but at the moment we're sharing. It's easier.

And also! It looks like you need to build a new base every time you go to the next area... so what's the point in building up a super amazing base if you're just going to move on? I guess that'll need to wait til we get to the last area?

Screenshot (660).png

Anyway, I'm enjoying it and will probably play it for a bit longer. I'm not so sure my partner will want to continue with it since survivalcraft isn't exactly his most favourite genre, so I'll need to start over again (he was hosting the world). But that's fine with me, since my first time playing is what I usually consider my trial run. 😅

We've only just reached the second area so we're still so very, very early on in the game and haven't experienced even half of what the game proclaims to offer. We still haven't created any farms, or thrown orbs at creatures to tame them and keep them as our own. There are so many vehicles to create too, like planes and motorbikes.

So much stuff!

It's, unfortunately, an early access title which I'm usually leery of, but hey, I haven't spent any money on it. Thanks, Gamepass.

 

You can find it on the Steam Store here!

And also for free if you're subbed to xbox gamepass! 🙂

 

Until next time! 💩

 


 

All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, @kaelci and are from the game: Craftopia.



0
0
0.000
22 comments
avatar

That's looks like Zelda: BOTW with a MOD. The crafting thing look a but unique though.
Have you played Zelda: BOTW?

!PIZZA

0
0
0.000
avatar

Funnily enough, that was my partner's first comment when we opened the game! That it reminded him of Breath of the Wild. 😅 I personally haven't played it -- the only Zelda game I've ever played is just Ocarina of Time back in the Nintendo 64 days. I've been told that if I ever play BOTW, I'd probably live in it for a good 700 hours. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to commit to that. 😂

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yes, BOTW is a big game and can easily take atleast 100 hours just for the main campaign, and all those side quests and stories will take much more. But it will be worth it for sure.😉

0
0
0.000
avatar

After a short cutscene where we destroy the world, we awaken on this small idyllic island

That's a good way to start a game XDD

The game overall looks entertaining, it gives me the feeling of a Genshin Impact (at least graphically). Coincidentally the same problem with the food (not being able to know exactly when it's ready) is in The Forest, I've always had a problem to differentiate when the food is burnt or can be eaten.

(he was hosting the world)

Wait what? You did a dungeon alone, almost killed an NPC, climbed 800 levels and are about to finish the game (maybe I'm exaggerating a bit) and not only your partner couldn't play, but he was the one hosting the game? Your partner must feel completely betrayed.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh my partner was playing at the time, he was just too busy building up the base while I was exploring, opening all the treasure chests, killing bears, doing dungeons, killing poor defenceless NPCs who only wanted to help........ 😅🤣

Thanks for mentioning that food problem in The Forest -- I've been wanting to try that game at some point soon and now I'll know to keep an extra eye on it to make sure it'll still be edible. 😬

0
0
0.000
avatar

I like the graphics of this game. It's the bright, vivid colors! Seems like a fun one to try sometimes, although I feel that way about a lot of games and then never try them 😅

0
0
0.000
avatar

I feel the same way about so many games! 😅 The main reason we tried this one was because it was free on gamepass and good for co-op play. I do recommend this one just for some fun one day if you feel like exploring a nice survival-craft, but not too sure I'd recommend actually buying it in its current state.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Well, at the very least I'll enter its giveaways if I come across them 😅

0
0
0.000
avatar

Attacking defenceless old ladies that offer you advice. What kind of monster are you?! I'd hate to see what you would've done if they offered you cookies and milk!

0
0
0.000
avatar

😅 She had a red bar under her name! That's supposed to mean she's an enemy!

.....mmm, milk and cookies.

0
0
0.000
avatar

The game looks beautiful, definitely looks like it has similarities to BotW/Genshin Impact! Not sure whether the game includes it but I'd love to see something like terraforming available, it would really bring the decorating aspect up a notch.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Terraforming would be fantastic! I'm not sure if it's available in the game just yet, though. You kind of go through different ages as you're playing: stone age, agricultural age, frontier age, etc... and I'm thinking if terraforming was available it would probably be later on in the game as your technology improves.

Now I'm hoping it has it! 😅

0
0
0.000
avatar

And also for free if you're subbed to xbox gamepass!

The best part comes at the end :D
In this case, totally need to try it out. The artstyle is pretty cool I think. Although, I think I would enjoy it more as a single player title. We will see :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

It will work just as well as a single player title! 😊 When I next play it, it will be as a single player instead. I kind of prefer these types of games in single player as well, mostly because I'm usually slower than everyone else and like to take my time when it comes to building and advancing.

It's good that it has co-op as well though. And it's not implemented too badly either! There are a lot of early access games out there that have multiplayer, but it's always so glitchy and buggy. This one was pretty good. 🙂

0
0
0.000
avatar

This looks an interesting game, why you tempting me Kaelci....
untitled.gif
Does it need mouse or pads, like an external control or is it passive?

Hmmmm really Interesting

0
0
0.000
avatar

It is in interesting game! 😄 I've just started my own playthrough and am planning on making a little story out of it.

It's a computer game, so keyboard and mouse works but it's also controller friendly too!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ah Fantastic
I'll give it more thought then🤔

untitled.gif

0
0
0.000
avatar

I have this in my wishlist. this is insightful.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's fun! But not sure I'd pay full price for it...

0
0
0.000
avatar

and this is why I didn't buy it yet. 😂

0
0
0.000