Craftopia

It may not have much press coverage in the U.S., though Craftopia from the team at PocketPair exhibits a unique mixture of genres to form an in-depth survival experience with an unexpectedly good combat system. It’s in the early access stage and marked for release on Steam come July 2021. Looking at the graphics and mechanics, it seems to draw aesthetic inspiration from the anime games. However, the additional facets of crafting, resource gathering, and overall survival bring a sense of originality to Craftopia’s gameplay.

A Genre Mash-Up: Craft, Fight, & Survive

When players ask what type of game Craftopia really is, or mostly matches up with, it’s tough to establish between its survival elements, crafting dependency, thorough combat system, and vastly open world with a collection of islands to explore. The developers at PocketPair have claimed that more than 3,000 items are available to craft and modify with a variety of enchantments for further modification.

The combat is smooth with attack and evade functions similar to most MMORPG’s, even reminiscent of Final Fantasy with its dependency on speedy maneuvers, roll-evades, and surprisingly attractive boss-fight mechanics not typical of survival games. Additionally, Fantasy RPG fans will appreciate the spell-crafting aspect used for both survival and gear enchantments. Eventually, once players have leveled up a bit and harvested the necessary materials, automated structures can be used for faster resource gathering.

Explore a Massive World, or Not

The different ways of traveling around the island pose a great deal of fun. Early on, for example, players typically construct a glider to gently float around the island, and updrafts from campfires can even be leveraged to gain height for further travel. As the age of an island progresses and more advanced technologies become available, vehicles such as motorcycles and hoverboards can be crafted for rapid travel across the massive collection of islands within Craftopia.

Power supplies in the form of human-powered hamster wheels, breeding cows and pigs to pop out animalistic abominations, and building massive ramps to pull off stylish hoverboard tricks are all within players’ capabilities. When exploring feels a bit dry, there’s still so much more to do on the islands of Craftopia.

Bottom Line

Most of the time, games which try to appeal to a wide range of genres seem to exceed in one area while lacking in others. This isn’t the case with Craftopia. It’s a beautifully constructed title with a seemingly endless bound of actions and possibilities for long-term enjoyment, and fast-paced combat helps to relieve players of exploration exhaustion.

Pros:

• Eye-catching anime style graphics
• In-depth crafting with over 3,000 items to build
• Combat and spell systems for MMORPG or Fantasy RPG gamers
• An impressive combination of some of the most popular genres out there

Cons:

• Complete survival gamers could find combat a bit overwhelming