Craft The World - Just another Minecraft and Terraria mix clone?

Genre: 2D Sandbox strategy game, with tower defense elements

Platform: PC

Developer: Dekovir

Release Date: Early Access 19. Nov. 2013

In the past couple years we've seen so many Minecraft and Terraria copies, clones, almost same games but with other names, in 2D and in 3D as well... So what's the difference between all these games and Craft The World? You have you're Worms style dwarves, a world like Terraria, crafting and tasks like Minecraft, but all these together fit so well in this game, and it has a certain unique style in it's graphics, that I think it deserves to be raised on higher ranks from all those games (except of course Minecraft... come on that's the founder of the genre).

The game is not too famous, the ads are not full with it, and there is only an early access release date on Steam, which was last year. It's still full of bugs, but once it will be finished I think it will be an entertaining game.

Game Mechanics

The player begins the game with a dwarf worker, and has to assign to him what to do next. The dwarves need shelter, food, comfort, defenses, and many other things. At night enemies spawn, and attack the shelter, castle, house, whatever the you decide to build, and you gain experience from it. Every level you get one new dwarf, who can help further expand your territories.

You have every resource you need on the map, maybe on the surface, maybe deep into the ground, and you have a crafting system similar to Minecraft (placing the ingredients in the craft zone). You get tasks to complete, which is mainly guide you through the tech tree, plus a couple other like building a shelter or cutting down 20 trees, etc. And there is the ither problem, exploring the deeps, buidling undergound mines, tunnels, maybe even houses, exploring secret places and treasures, and finding the portal to the next world.

Besides assigning duties, you can take control of individual dwarves, and work with them faster. There are some things for you have to pay attention to, like always having enough food and beds, the waves of enemies that come every 50 minutes, and some randomly appearing goblin camps. Besides this, it is a relaxing, gathering game. There are a variety of enemies and bossess, and the waves get more and more challanging while you level up. The magic part of the game adds a nice plus to the game experience, and sometimes the spells can be a huge help.

It has the an interesting combination of gameplay elements from Minecraft, Terraria and Dungeon Keeper, all in 2D, a sandbox, platformer, strategy, rpg, tower defense mix.

The perks of being a sandbox gamer

A great advantage in sandbox games like this, is that you have to begin out of nothing. You chop down your first tree, you catch your first fish, you mine your first dirt... All these lead to start building a dirt shelter to keep you away from the dangers of the night, and slowly build it into a huge castle. And the variety of things you can craft and explore makes this game a very long and exciting game. Another great aspect of sandbox games, that they offer hours of fun with lengthy gameplay.

Sounds of the night and colors of the sky

The graphics are pretty simple, but still look way more better than in Minecraft (with no texture packs and other mods), and not to talk about Terraria (which has awful graphics, even for a 8bit game in my opinion). Although they could have made some more variety in the dwarves appearances and their equipments, that's just a very small minus. When the night falls, we can see the sky turn into darkness, and if we are underground a menacing sound warns us.

All in all...

This game is enjoyable, and you can cach yourself playing it for hours, taking care of your little dwarves, and building your castle. It is worth buying the early access and supporting the developer, but keep in mind that it still has many bugs, so if you are easily fired up beacuse of this you better wait till the game is properly released.

Final Score:

7/10 (Great game for an early access)

Rayman Legends

Genre: 2D Platformer

Released by: Ubisoft

I always loved Rayman games, may it be 2D or 3D. This one is the best. You have so many things in this game, and a huge variety of levels. This is definately the best platformer of the year, after I played all those stupid remakes.

The game has the main levels, and then if you were good enough you can unlock the Origins levels. Plus you have the challanges, and you can play Kung Foot with your friends (or alone but that's not too fun).

The Good:
- fun, non-repetitive elements and gameplay
- many enjoyable levels
- can play any hero you have unlocked
- collectables
- beautiful design

The Bad:
- nothing

Rayman and the Dark Teensies

This game is not exactly about stories, but there you have to defeat the five Dark Teensies who kidnapped some pretty teensies. You will literally kick theri ass, flying them to an astoriod, and creating kind of a little concert by stabbing their asses.

All the paintings...

In the main gallery you can access the levels and other things from jumping into paintings.You have a painting for every main level, which you have to unlock. You have to collect teensies to unlock new levels, and Lums for unlocking new heroes. Plus you get some nice trophies and a huge celebration if you can collect ecery teensie and 600 Lums on a level (there are 10 teensies to rescue on every level). Rescueing all the teensies can be a little chalangeing, you have to look for them in secret places, maybe not even visible at first, and don't forget to always check if there is anything above your line of sight. The king and queen teensies can be found behind secret doors, and there you have to face another challange to rescue them. But it's worth it cause you get a sweet kiss and a heart from them afterwards. Also if you collect enough Lums you get a Lotto ticket on every level, which can be scrapped off and you can won creatures, Lums, teensies, and new levels on Origin.

Toasts, robots and balloons

You can collect all these kinds of creatures, plus a couple more. They are pretty cute, but they are also useful. (They reminded of me old Kinder Surprize prizes, when you had to collect ex. 10 kinds of a lion...) They give you daily rewards after being collected.

Being a hero

If you collect enough Lums, you unlock new heroes, and you can choose to play with them. There are dark Globoxes, and cosplaying Teensies to choose from, also a cool; knight version of Rayman. Plus you have some girls, like Elysia. (One of them reminded me of Braveheart, wonder why...)

What type of level is this?

There are the main levels, you have to collect 10 teensies and 600 Lums. Then there are some rescue levels, which are special levels for ex. you have to fly through the level or dive, or jump on moving down objects, maybe beat the timer... On these levels you only have to find 3 teensies and you are rewarded with female heroes. Then there are invaded levels, after finishing some main levels. These weren't my favs, because there was a timer, and I like to take my time, but they were fun as well. Then at the end of every pack of level there is a challanging boss fight, and a level where you catch the dark teensie. Plus there is a musical level in the end of every theme. They were absolutely my favs. Rock Castle and Mariachi Madness were the best I loved those songs. It was very interesting to hear the Eye of the Tiger in a mariachi version. The music is perfectly fit to the level and to the obstacles. Also there is a painting at the far right end, which you can unlock by collecting 400 teensies, and there is a new music level (yaaaay), plus the 8-bit version of the other music levels. These are a little bit harder than the originals, because they are distorted in some ways (the pixels are getting less and less, so you have to figure out for yourself where to jump with your single blue pixeled Rayman).

Now in the water, now in the air

I really liked that Rayman can swim. I hate those games where you touch the water and instantly die. We have a variety of themed levels: there are underwater levels, fiesta de los muertos (where they transform you into a duck), and many other levels. Sometimes you have to fly, sometimes you have to run upside down, but all the levels are are fun (and they have cool reference names like How to Shoot Your Dragon), with new elements on almost every level, a huge variety of obstacles, enemies and secrets to find (watch out for little plants in the ground tere can be teensies!). Of course, the levels are getting harder and harded, as shown by the skulls under the paintings. Also watc out for purple lums, and chains of purple lums, they are worth more than simple yellow lums.

Rayman's little helpers

You have some old moves, like charging your hands, and flying or gliding when there is wind. You have Rayman's little helpers, like Murphy, who can push out obstcles in front of you, or rotate stuff, move platforms for you, etc. and sometimes a wizard gives you a hand which you can throw far far away. You have cool moves, like jumping wall to wall (so badass like in Prince of Persia), and sometimes you have a nice relaxing level flying on a mosquitos back. Also it's a great plus that if you die you can continue from that segment of the level you aer in, and don't lose any lifes, you can't run out of them.

Fun in every little corner

Not just you can get whole new level of awesomness (by collecting trophies), but even the loading screen is fun. You can move with Rayman, and at some level's loading screen you can get an extra heart if your are quick enough. Also great that once you watched a cutscene you can skip it. Hmmm it's like the creators of this game really LISTENED to the gamers opinions, and put enough time and effort into this game. Even the end credit is a little game, where you can collect Lums, but if you are bored you can skip it.

Beautiful, beautiful Ubi art

Every aspect of the game is beautifully made, with great colors. Every theme is perfectly made, with fitting environment, enemies, color scheme, and music. It is loyal to the other Rayman game art.

Final Verdict

This game just sucks you in and doesn't let you out until you don't rescue the last teensie, don't collect tha last trophy. Even then you still have new challanges every day. So it's the best platform game of the year in my opinion (maybe the best platform game ever)

Final Score

10/10