Minecraft and Animal Crossing have ruined a lot of lives. Sure, some people might call it ‘enriching’ and ‘sparking the imaginations of a generation’, and that might be true – but man, the basic gist is that both of them get inside your brain and tickle a special spot and don’t let go.
Core Keeper has just released on Xbox Series X, and it follows very much in the vein of both. It is a survival, exploration sim, but instead of a blocky 3D visual style of Minecraft, it is played from a 2D top-down view similar to the farm sims of yore.
As the player you start with a customisable character, a starting class (that can be shaped to your liking later so don’t dwell on it too long) and then a basic preamble. Soon the blank-slate character is dumped in front of a massive giant core underground. The core has no power, but connected to it are three statues that represent three monstrous looking creatures.
Personally, I loved this cold open there is no real tutorial, only a few button prompts and a sense that anything and everything is possible.
Core Keeper is brought to life with pixel art and superb lighting effects. There were countless moments where I was walking around inside these gloomy caverns and then would come across a brightly lit tree and pond and admire the reflections in the water, or have my eye drawn to a well laid out, soft blue glow in an antechamber to an alluring dungeon. The care and attention do a lot of elevate the already rich world and make you feel like you might stumble all kinds of things.
Those that have played a survival game will be familiar with the basic verbs. There is a crafting table that needs to be made, and some basic tools. This leads to cutting vines for wood, and mining the walls for ore. There is a hunger meter which means that cave mushrooms must be harvested to eat. Later there are cooking pots to be built with the ore mined; these will allow for making meals. To make more complex meals, seeds will need to be collected, gardens tilled, fish caught.
In terms of interlocking systems Core Keeper does a great job of making sure that exploring any one aspect of the game will then require investigating another part to make that work. This is also encouraged by the levelling system present in the game. This is a delightful ‘the more you do of something the better you get’ system, which means that as you run, cast spells, cook, etc, you gain levels that can be spent on upgrades. These upgrades improve movement and combat – for example: there are options to improve ranged penetration, or provide a dodge bonus.
These perks will come in handy as the statues you see at the beginning of the game represent 3 bosses that need to be defeated. Between them and the player are lots of slimy and spiky enemies. The further the player goes in any direction the harder the enemies will get, with the levelling being nigh essential for tackling those areas. Fortunately, the more risk the player takes more the more chance for better loot and gear.
There is so much to do in this game, and some players will find it overwhelming – fortunately it is possible to host a map and have up to 7 friends join. This will allow for dividing up tasks, or grouping up to take on bosses. In my experiments with it Core Keeper ran well with 6 players wandering through the four corners of the extensive world. The social element felt great, I was able to see my friends split up and focus on what interested them. One friend got into creating a park of sorts, another took to wandering around and exploring as he familiarised himself with the game, and one friend got obsessed with building a minecart rail to commute down to the harder areas as quickly as possible.
Core Keeper is a largely a great experience but there are a few flaws.
Unsurprisingly, with a game this size and scope, there are crashes present – in my 20 hours playing I’ve experienced a few, but thanks to the generous save system that has not resulted in much lost progress.
The progress is pretty well thought out, but I was disappointed that much of the upgrades available through crafting are undermined by there being better, more readily available loot dropped by the mobs roaming the underworld.
I have some gripes with the controls too: the controller works but there are definitely some fiddly moments where the precision of a pointer is missed or where I have to press one too many buttons where a click and drag would have streamlined the experience.
Most grating complaint, at the moment, is that this is a Game Pass game that does not support Play Anywhere, nor cross save compatibility between PC and Xbox. I played my initial 20 hours on the ROG Ally (it runs great and is an almost perfect way to play this) and was disappointed when I had to start again with a new character and world on console. The PC version does offer mod support, but there should have been some way to play together.
None of the above is enough to tarnish an otherwise excellent product but do add a few concerns.
More importantly, there is a good chance that Core Keeper will ruin a few people’s lives with how more-ish it is.
Conclusion
Core Keeper is an excellent addition to the sandbox survival genre. The cleverly interlocking systems, the levelling up, and the promise of something new around each corner is going to cause it to consume a lot of people’s times. A must-have for all players.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
