Recent reviews by Dapper Raptor

Just played through the game in a single sitting. While I am going to mark this as a recommend, I do think the price should probably be a bit lower (I got it on a sale myself) for what is on offer here. Its less about the length of the game - as personally I don't think the length of a game is a good way to judge value, and more about the fact that the game has quite a few misteps IMO. That said, I did have a fun time overall and would welcome a followup title that explored the world/lore more so still recommending it.

I do think the game could be improved in a number of ways though, so going to list them here in no particular order.
- The world map lets you place a waypoint but you can't remove it... For a game that focuses so much on crafting atmosphere, its a HUGE oversight (IMO) that you cannot remove the giant on-screen widget showing you where the waypoint is. Just let us remove the waypoint in the map by clicking on a placed waypoint.
- Forced stealth sections are fine to me... but I just wish I could crouch. Crouching doesn't even have to do anything mechanically, but not being able to crouch behind cover in a stealth section just feels bad after years of being conditioned to crouch. It would help these sections feel a bit more tense IMO.
- Cultists are annoying... the best way I found to deal with them, if I did get caught, was to run around so that they were all chasing me then kite them back to my train and just kill them. Having no way to counter them if they DO spot you, coupled with the fact that they run about the same speed as you and chase you for a VERY long time just makes them feel bad. I like difficult enemies and so on, but it just feels like you have to perfect the stealth everytime the first time, or too bad.
- Charles randomly turning up was great the first couple of times... but after that it got a bit annoying. Most of the time he would turn up at incredibly frustrating points - like when I was stealthing through areas with cultists and such. Meaning that my best option was to just run away and hide in a building or let him or the cultists kill me to get it over with. Similarly, the best way to deal with Charles, if you aren't in your train moving, is to just wait until he's there, jump inside a building, and wait him out - which is very boring. Sometimes he would leave after 10-20 seconds, other times it would take minutes. He even glitched into the building and killed me once lol. A few little checks to ensure that he isn't going to turn up at particularly frustrating moments would go a long way IMO. Likewise - the fact that he DIDN'T come attack when did things that were very loud or whatever (like blowing up dynamite or turning on a lighthouse) feels like a missed opportunity to me.
- Dying feels like a bit of a missed opportunity for stakes. I only died a handful of times and each time I did I lost single digit amounts of scrap... I had completely upgraded my train in less than 80 minutes of playtime, so losing 1-3 pieces of scrap for dying really didn't matter. In general the game has a bit of an economy problem - its way too easy to get scrap.

As I said - I still enjoyed the game. I just feel like the price of entry is a bit high when there are quite a few issues and annoyances hurting the overall experience. I absolutely adore the atmosphere in the game, and the music (while barely playing) was wonderful. Obviously Charles' design is sick as well. Again - I'd LOVE to see the developer revisit the idea and expand on the lore, polish it up, etc. in a future title!

Enjoying the game a lot and can see myself sinking a LOT more time into it. But... I just don't understand why it has to be an online game. Literally every person you see in the game is doing it on their own - there's never groups running around. And while its nice to see other people puzzling and occasionally emoting at you, there's also the risk of someone spoiling a solution to a puzzle. Still going to rate it positively as I do legitimately like the game, but if they added an offline mode it'd be a much firmer recommendation tbh

Edit: They added offline mode and as I said - that makes this an easy recommendation to anyone that likes these sorts of puzzle games. Very good addition to the game IMO.

Game looks great, unless you like having a smooth experience then you need to use AI upscaling and it looks terrible, even on high end gaming machines. Additionally, the servers, at least in Oceania, are about as good as two tin cans with some string connecting them - so much rubber banding and lag on even the smallest actions. Really disappointing.

Number goes up. Is good. Me like.

Picked this up around the time it launched into Early Access and played about 2 hours of it before putting it down because I loved it so much that I wanted to wait until the 1.0 release and enjoy it in its entirety... and boy I'm glad I did! Absolutely loving the game so far. It feels like a really interesting mix between the recent wave of boomer shooters and old school immersive sims. The map (can only comment on the first one so far because I haven't left it yet) is incredibly well designed and has so many different paths and points of interest to explore, with a heap of secrets and hidden-away loot. Combat is beefy and rewarding. Weapons sound amazing. Its all really, really good. Honestly, I don't have a bad thing to say about it at this point!

Been helping test the beta version of the game and honestly, had a blast with it. Its the sort of game you can fire up when you have 15 or 20 minutes spare and just blast some skellies away, or you can invest some more time into and get some progress done. Snowchimp has done a great job at building out a set of mechanics that all feel really rewarding and enjoyable to do, with really good feedback and fun effects. Looking forward to seeing the game expand over its early access! All the best to the dev - hope launch goes great :)

Stupidly fun, way more so than it has any right being!

What if Core Keeper was made with some roguelite and extraction shooter concepts? Oh, that's pretty much Below the Stone.

ROCK AND STONE!

**Additional stuff/edits added at end of review**

Honestly, I'm less than an hour into the game but I spent more than enough time in the demo when it was available. I'll update this review should ANYTHING change, but this game is incredibly well designed and really enjoyable.

No mechanic in the game is particularly complex or difficult - every individual action is simple and easy to complete. But they all come together in a way that gives a really well crafted experience. You go out and explore the world for resources, mine them, bring them back, refine them and use those refined materials to upgrade to explore further, mine more, etc. There are locations like caves and such that spice things up, and I've already found a little lore that I wasn't expecting.

What blows my mind here is that this is the dev's first game (according to their launch post) but everything is incredibly well designed. All the mechanics feel deliberate and meaningful, and everything seems incredibly polished. It all feels like this was part of the idea the dev had from the beginning and they just executed on it perfectly.

As I said - if anything changes I'll come back and update this review... but as it stands, if you look at the screenshots/trailer and read the description and it sounds up your alley, you are going to have a good time I'd say. Its a very unique idea with a very specific experience its going for, and it nails that perfectly.

One special mention for the music too - absolutely lovely music that really adds to the experience. Dev if you are reading this - soundtrack release please! :)

After playing more - I can honestly just confirm the initial review I wrote was correct. I've seen a lot of people complaining that its too short for the price... They are all finishing it in 6ish hours, and sure - you can rush through it in that time and probably even get all the achievements, but I'm at 8 hours now and I don't think I'm near the end yet. I'm enjoying building my base out, setting up refinery rooms, farming areas, etc. I'd expect I have at least a few more hours in the game so idk - if you're the type of person who just takes the shortest path, AND you think the price is a bit high, then yeah you might have issues with the length. For me the price is more than worth it - even if I had only gotten 6 hours out of it - after having recently put over 220 hours into Starfield, I'd MUCH rather take a 6 hour game that is well designed, polished and clearly executes on its design goals over something longer that doesn't do those as well.

Final addition - I just finished the game at 11.2 hours. Idk why people are rushing through this game tbh. Its incredibly fun and if you are looking for a checklist to burn through, idk, that's not the vibe of this game. Absolutely loved every moment of it :)

Spent the last 3 or 4 days binging the game after forgetting to pick it up on launch... absolutely love it. If you enjoy forager and factorio - this is a good mix between the two :)