Played from – to: (2023-01-26 – 2023-02-18) – PC keyboard.
‣ 6/10 – Hope the full version has more balance and less grind.
‣ Thoughts: After 40 long and chaotic hours, we have reached a rather anticlimactic conclusion in this game’s story. What I mean is, we beat every boss that has been released so far and explored all there is to explore. In terms of story, I wouldn’t say Core Keeper has much. Defeating bosses does not provide lore, besides go west or east for you next target and the NPCs you bring back have no dialogue. Safe to say Core Keeper is not a narratively driven game. Your biggest reward for overcoming any fight is a piece of armor or a weapon. Everything else, like the location of your next target or better gear is a grind. Exploring the randomly generated biomes provides enough to keep you going, however the map is so big it made me narcoleptic. Some important locations you will need to reach are going to be so far that even a singular portal won’t be enough. For me, Core Keeper is that type of game where for every positive thing I have to say, there are two negatives that I can easily find. My best advice would be to play this on normal, because hard is unbalanced to the point where two players with the best possible weapons don’t have enough DPS to survive the onslaught of tornadoes that accumulate faster than flies on left over shit. Slime boss fights are repetitive and there’s at least 5 of them. Not only that they have an invisible target range that if exited will make them regenerate all the health instantly and reset the fight. Overall, Core Keeper just screams unbalanced repetitiveness. Every cool item you might want to craft will suck up all the recourse supply you’ve gathered. Portals literally take 20 minutes to boot up, and boss location items ask you to gather materials that spawn once in a blue moon and can’t be all collected in one world. Safe to say I’m not really a fan of this game, although there were moments where I loved it. My biggest praise for this game is its art style. The shadows and reflections look amazing. Secondly it is the unique boss fights and their attack effects. The rest, sadly, needs work.
‣ 6/10 – Hope the full version has more balance and less grind.
‣ Thoughts: After 40 long and chaotic hours, we have reached a rather anticlimactic conclusion in this game’s story. What I mean is, we beat every boss that has been released so far and explored all there is to explore. In terms of story, I wouldn’t say Core Keeper has much. Defeating bosses does not provide lore, besides go west or east for you next target and the NPCs you bring back have no dialogue. Safe to say Core Keeper is not a narratively driven game. Your biggest reward for overcoming any fight is a piece of armor or a weapon. Everything else, like the location of your next target or better gear is a grind. Exploring the randomly generated biomes provides enough to keep you going, however the map is so big it made me narcoleptic. Some important locations you will need to reach are going to be so far that even a singular portal won’t be enough. For me, Core Keeper is that type of game where for every positive thing I have to say, there are two negatives that I can easily find. My best advice would be to play this on normal, because hard is unbalanced to the point where two players with the best possible weapons don’t have enough DPS to survive the onslaught of tornadoes that accumulate faster than flies on left over shit. Slime boss fights are repetitive and there’s at least 5 of them. Not only that they have an invisible target range that if exited will make them regenerate all the health instantly and reset the fight. Overall, Core Keeper just screams unbalanced repetitiveness. Every cool item you might want to craft will suck up all the recourse supply you’ve gathered. Portals literally take 20 minutes to boot up, and boss location items ask you to gather materials that spawn once in a blue moon and can’t be all collected in one world. Safe to say I’m not really a fan of this game, although there were moments where I loved it. My biggest praise for this game is its art style. The shadows and reflections look amazing. Secondly it is the unique boss fights and their attack effects. The rest, sadly, needs work.