Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Nov 5, 2022

  It's a cute little game. Not a whole going for it right now, but has lots of potential for people with creative minds. The progression so far essentially works like this: Gather materials, craft some stuff, kill enemies, complete dungeons, level up, repeat. You unlock new crafting recipes when you level up. Very simple gameplay, and okayish UI. Fair amount of bugs, as expected for Early Access, including two crashes in the first five minutes. The crashing stopped after that though. As far as voxel games go, this one has a mechanic that I wish more had. You can physically alter the appearance of every item and building you own. From the get-go, I was allowed to change, add, or subtract different voxels from my very first axe. Great concept, and I'd love to see it evolve. There are a few issues with it however, that I hope can be resolved. For example, the default stone axe has wooden cylinders for its handle and a protruding stone blade with a sloped edge. If I deleted any part of the handle or sloped edges, I couldn't replace them, as I didn't have the necessary blocks to do so. As far I could tell, there was no 'reset' option to return the item back to its normal appearance. I also couldn't figure out how to create sloped stone to accentuate the edge of the blade. Later on, I found a shopkeep that sells sloped molds for melting ingots into slope shapes, but I feel like that system will become very cumbersome. I would much prefer if you could simply press a button while building that changes the block to a slope. The controls reference using the x,y,z keys to do so, but it had no apparent effect. Aside from that, while being very careful not to delete anything I couldn't replace, I was able to have a good amount of freedom in how I designed my tools and armor. The game supports the ability to create your own user dungeons in the world, that others players can access and finish for rewards and xp. I'm not positive how this system is currently integrated, but the developer dungeons I found were short and interesting. As of writing this, the game is on sale for a little over 10 USD, and I'm not sure I would pay much more for it in its current state. It's fun to walk around and customize your belongings, but unless you're a diehard fan of building, there isn't much content in the game for now. If you're supportive and hopeful for indie titles like this, I'd say give it a shot. But if you prefer to wait for full releases and see how games pan out, then I'd say it's best to slap this game on your wishlist and wait until it's more developed.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 6, 2022

  TL;DR

  This game is fun. It's a cute sandbox RPG with tool/armour customization and a fairly gentle learning curve. It is in early access as of me writing this review, so expect a shorter game with a few bugs and crashes, but those don't lessen the amount of fun I have with Skullborn.

  The Premise

  You're a skeleton trying to make your way in the world. Punch trees and rocks, fight mobs, collect resources, build tools and armour. Use those tools and armour to fight more mobs, clear dungeons, and level up. As you level up, you unlock more crafting recipes, allowing you to make more advanced weapons, tools, and armour. If Muck was less about fighting desperately for survival and more about having actual fun, it would be Skullborn.

  The Fun Parts

  I thoroughly enjoy this game for its combination of building, RPG elements, and combat. It never feels like I'm forced into doing something that I don't want to do, as there are multiple ways to gain resources and level up. You want to grind out dungeons and accumulate materials along the way? Go right ahead, there's no durability on your gear so you can keep exploring the world. You want to grind mobs for your loot? Go ahead, you'll get materials from combat as well. The building system is fairly simple, so it doesn't feel like you need a degree in architecture to create a basic house. On the flip side, there are plenty of options for building shapes and materials, so you have leeway if you want to express your creative side. You can select from cubes, cylinders, and slopes, so if you're more artistic, feel free to experiment, as removing placed blocks is instantaneous. Exploration is also pretty neat, as you'll encounter a bunch of different biomes ranging from deserts to mushroom forests. Each biome has its own quirk, mostly in the form of unique blocks. As you explore, you will encounter dungeons that contain mobs and resources. You will also find crystals around the world, which can be captured and turned into the heart of your base. The world is also massive, so you can search around for a long time without finding yourself limited on some small island.

  The Not So Fun Parts

  The game is in early access, and it doesn't pretend otherwise. I experienced frame drops, crashes, and bugs while playing. From missing items to invisible players, if you play the game for any significant amount of time you'll notice something that's off. There is a bug report form via the menu, and I've used it several times. You can find crash logs on your computer, but they don't live in the Steam Local Files area, so it's a bit tricky to locate, and there's no clear place to submit those logs. Skullborn seems short. At the time of writing this review, I've played for about 4 hours, and it feels like I'm nearing the end of the game's progression system. Aside from the next level of tools and armour, there doesn't seem to be anything special you can do with higher-level materials. I've seen dungeon layouts multiple times, and higher-level mobs are the same creatures with better material drops and slightly different colours. There could be something I'm missing to this game, but as of now, you could reasonably get to the best tier of gear within a few hours and have nothing left to do but build a base and submit it as a dungeon.

  In Conclusion

  Skullborn is a good game. Even as an early access game, I consider it worth the money. If you enjoy games like Cube World, Minecraft, Raft, or Muck, you will probably also enjoy this game. The game does need some work, both in content and in polish, but it's fun, and that's the most important thing for many people, including myself. I would recommend Skullborn to anyone who thinks they may be interested in playing it.

  Score: 8/10

• gamedeal user

  Nov 6, 2022

  Not worth the price they are asking, issues with fps stuttering from time to time, and no idea how it uses 30% or more of my gpu when there is barely any content in the game.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 10, 2022

  I played the game a good while, and interacted with the community and developer. Unfortunately, while I attempted to drag many hours as possible for the sake of a community member who purchased the game and then some on my behalf, I'm afraid I must leave a negative review. The game released in an Early Access state as bug haven typical of an early alpha. Unfortunate to say I can't name a single feature which isn't broken in some way, genuinely. I've reported about one hundred bugs (perhaps literally), and while the developer seems keen on patching them, this is not how an early access game should play. You can expect items being deleted, randomly crashing, FPS spikes, chunks unloading randomly as you walk on them (the void kills you, FYI), being erased as someone decides to place cacti in the small space where players spawn, and more! Oh, and I'm quite sure the game is extremely vulnerable to client-side hacking, due to what I notice is handled on the client, and inferring from certain bugs. Content is miniscule, and design choices are partly questionable. The only available shapes are cylinders, right triangle slopes, and cubes, if said material even supports all of them; there are no building options but these basic shapes, chests, furnaces, portals, and a music box. The gun dramatically overpowers every other weapon type in the game (highest firerate, almost same damage as melee), and there are a total of six enemies, three of which spawning under exclusive conditions, and none posing any challenge nor threat (pretty much ore lootbugs). Infinite world, too, means little when only four repetitive biomes (with mountain modifier) exist. As for design, the game plays as if chasing two rabbits; the first few hours are solely buffer tiered progression which leaves you frustrated upon realizing the actual point of the game is building and fashion shows. However, level/xp progression still remains critical to unlock all block types and gear, thus pleasing no-one. As for the community, my opinion seems to lean just slightly towards the 'toxic positivity' side, but I highly suggest you interact yourself before buying (as one should do for a $20 MMO). I don't vibe with it, but you might. Overall, it has potential, but was disappointingly released far, far too early. Buy it on sale if you do, or wait a few years (three have already been invested). There are other red flags, but I'll leave you to your own intuition and research.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 14, 2022

  I love voxel based MMOs - spent a lot of time in Boundless. This game looks really promising!
• gamedeal user

  Dec 25, 2022

  Cool concept but not very fun in its current state. Got it on sale for 15$, normal 30$ and I would jump off a cliff before I paid that much for this game. Again, cool concept but not worth the money, nor the time atm.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 7, 2023

  I don't have any doubts that this game could be great in the future with many more updates that add content, maybe work a bit on the graphics and animations, UI, and a few things here and there. I'm not saying these things in a negative way, I'm just going to state my own opinions while I played the game. Right off the bat the U.I. and menu look very dull and bland. It is just a few basic squares with generic text. The crafting U.I. and Inventory UI looked good. It was simple in a way that matched the game. The walking speed feels super fast like a running speed. And you can doge roll endlessly. When you run it feels like you are running on ice, covering a good distance in one walk stride. I think the crafting in this game is truely unique and something that I thought was awesome. The gathering of resources is similar to all games. Its not the most fun part but it's a part of the game. The enemies are interesting in their design but it feels like there is no challenge. I killed many of the creatures with ease which didn't seem fun at all. Side note, the dungeons are a cool aspect but I found one that had no enemies in it. it was a room with a chest. I opened the chest and gathered 10 copper. I left, went back in, the room reset, another free 10 copper. It was literally free copper and XP for days. I didn't have to kill anything for copper anymore, just spam that building till my hearts content! The world itself felt empty and was just a bunch of trees and rocks and different biomes. No animals or interesting things in sight besides the large valley of crafting tables that players have left. I think the world is the first thing that could use a makeover and a bid of TLC. I think this game could be a great game with its unique ideas and gameplay. However, it does need ALOT of work. To me it felt like I was playing a ROBLOX game with how the environment and sky looked. Would I recommend this game for $18? No not really. It seems like a very high price for a game that lacks content and the other things I mentioned up above. This is my honest review of the game.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 19, 2023

  No I did NOT play for 11 minutes. I sat in a never-ending loading screen that did not appear to be a crash. I'm not going to spend fifteen minutes loading something with those requirements when my computer setup which has nearly twice the quantified value of each requirement can run something much more intensive and load it in seconds.
• gamedeal user

  May 9, 2023

  its cool thing with the concept of the player makes custom armor and weapons it has the potential to rival minecraft if done right with more time and work it could vary well be the next big game