Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 16, 2022

  Crashlands isn't a bad game, I just can't recommend it personally. It looks nice, it's funny, and I really like the idea of merging casual crafting with exploration and ARPG elements. The problem is that each of those three things is super shallow in Crashlands and WAY too drawn out. Even though it shares a lot of similarities with Don't Starve this is extremely not that game. There's no sense of urgency and no survival elements. This essentially boils down to there never being any tension when exploring and no reason to really build anything other than what's needed for quests. I like that there's combat but it's VERY simple with extremely basic enemies. You can move and attack and that's about it. And the idea of rolling random rarities on equipment you craft is cool but it ends up just forcing you to grind for more materials so you can craft things over and over again to get a good roll which just plain isn't fun. On top of that exploration is never rewarding. It's just the same randomly generated landscape bits filled with the same enemies for what feels like miles. I've yet to find anything truly unique or weird or interesting in the world. You just sort of pick a direction and walk until you get bored. Ultimately there's nothing about Crashlands that doesn't work. It's a well made game but it just feels like every mechanic was put in there to drag things out as long as possible. It just does nothing to hold my attention or make me think putting 40+ hours into will be worthwhile.
• Panda Cheeks

  Apr 15, 2023

  Yes. A million times yes. Just buy it if you haven't. Positives -Inventory. It's rare that I get to say this, but I love Crashland's inventory system because... well, you don't have to manage it. Acquired materials are simply tracked. Inventory management is basically just restricted to equipment, and this is fine. -Combat. Challenging combat with a relatively simple interaction loop makes for generally enjoyable combat. Death is expected, but it's trivial to run back and grab your stuff. The monsters are super interesting and in no way feel contrived. -Story. Although there isn't a TON to the story, it's humorous, and it drives the player's motives. Expect to chuckle a lot and feel a general sense of forward motion. The protagonist is hilarious, the antagonist is hilarious, your assistant is hilarious, every NPC you meet is hilarious. -Crafting. Tiered crafting systems basically depend on style, and boy does this game have a lot of style. Every time you move up a tier feels good -- what weird, gross things do I get to make now? The sheer amount of crafting stations is mitigated by the fact that you'll WANT to know what comes next. -Graphics. The graphics are stylistic and neat. You won't see anything like these graphics elsewhere, and they're gross and enthralling and great. Can't get enough of it. -Environment. There are three distinct worlds, and they're all a lot of fun to explore, complete with their own creatures, materials, inhabitants, and quests. -Platform. I LOVE THE FACT that I can sit at my computer and play, save it to the cloud, then jump in bed and play the same world on my phone. Negatives -Uhh... nothing. I mean, I guess if I had to pick one thing, I wish the game were longer. Yeah... that's it.
• MavenACTG

  Jul 20, 2023

  With the caveat that I only paid $3, it is worth the money, but man, is this game a needless grind. If I give one tip, don't explore, just go straight to your objectives or straight to the resources you need. The game uses procedural generation in real time, and exploration doesn't have many meaningful awards. Update: I'd be doing a disservice not to mention that this game *does* have some pretty imaginative designs and humorous writing. It runs relatively stable (only death so far was due to getting stuck in terrain and unable to unstick myself while in combat), has competently implemented systems and mechanics, and combat is alright, mixing what I would call Don't Starve's 2d presentation & combat with Final Fantasy 14's "Echo" mechanic where you can see what attacks are coming to assist dodging, which feels slick. The main issue I have is everything takes 2x - 5x longer than it really ought to. Travel is a huge bore. Enemy attack patterns are one to two different modes, with tougher enemies taking minutes to kill through the same patterns. The bosses I've encounted so far do have interesting bullet-hell style mechanics. Again, competently implemented, but not an enjoyable grind.
• Astrolibrarian™

  Sep 12, 2023

  I don't understand why games like this have such high ratings. It's average at best, but the gibberish dialogue and repetitive "missions" really make it hard for me to keep playing. I played more hours than it shows, I got some better items and armor, etc, beat a lot of missions and kept hoping the game would get better, but it's just not very interesting.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 21, 2016

  Best and most sassy award 2016 Crashlands in a unique game with a wicked sense of humor you won't find anywhere else. Between awesome quests and hilarious dialogue there's hours of entertainment waiting to be found. Sam's art style is fantastic, and if you haven't heard the backstory to how this game came to be, track it down and find out. You won't be disappointed and a lot of this nonsense will make some semblance of sense. Cannot recommend this enough. Fantastic Job, Bscotch Bros!
• gamedeal user

  Jan 23, 2016

  [i]"Mix Battle Block Theater's humor, gathering in the spirit of Don't Starve and crafting designed by twisted minds. Add to that bits of action rpg with the job of a space courrier expert in fixing alien environments/neighbouring problems... and you have Crashlands !"[/i] [h1]Plot:[/h1] Your ship was destroyed during an urgent delivery, you play as Flux, a courrier who needs to return home as fast as possible if she wants to keep his job. But first, from noting but with the help of your fellow "Juicebox" you will have to gather, kill, figure out a way to leave the crazy alien planet you where forced to land on. And kick the ass of the dude who smashed your ship.... this is gonna be a long trip. [h1]Layout:[/h1] Colorfull with a day / night cycle and many biomes, the game knows how to be appealing and varied. Flux, your hero, walks like a dummy and indeed (she admits himself) she has no elbows and knees. Monsters are cute creatures and i have to mention their offsprings to tame, a great addition. All pieces of armor, weaponry are visible on Flux and effects of passiv and actif effects are nice. Also enemies have hundreds of attacks that use various and pretty sprites. Only different version of enemies doesn't change much except in size and subbtle shades of their respective colors. To sum up Crashland is a pretty game: designed like a comic where creatures and characters are enough ridiculous to be loved at first sight. Environments are very nice and the world is huge. [h1]Music and Effects:[/h1] Music is quiet but very good. Slow paced, it makes the adventure much like a walk in an alien park than something. I really liked the yoghurt speech of characters and overall effects. Music and effects never bother you. For a game that will catch you during hundred of hours it's a very good thing. [h1]Controls:[/h1] Maybe the most complicate thing to talk about especially because of the cross-platform feature. Designed to be played on a tablet, on pc you only move/interact with your mouse and use few keys as menu/quickslots shortcuts. Simple enough, many tasks are automatic like building walls/floors in your bases, cutting or picking up item where you just need to clic one time. Also items have no durability so coupled with the clever self-managing inventory, it spare you millions of clics. But in combat it's another story. Because of lack of movement keys, especially in the hardest difficulties, you will die alot due to miss clic on ressources or bad timed attacks. Also consider that monsters always have attacks with area of effect so you can imagine how tight it can be. I want to mention the fact that all menus are excellents, crafting is easy and clear, map is perfectly clear too, also you can teleport at anytime to your base and other points of interrest. Dialogues of quests and even datas about every monster you encounter are stored in a nice compendium. The overall is very good and very easy to handle. Only combats can be tricky sometimes. [h1]Gameplay:[/h1] Crashlands takes from many games and does a great mix with its own personnality. You will [u]farm, kill and grind during hours[/u] to get the required gear for every zone you will explore. Especially on Hard and Insane difficulties ! Very soon you will need to be organized and cultivate restorativ plants, ressources and in general collect/gather everything. This aspect of the game is very important because every pieces of equipement you craft has a random chance to get one of the 5 qualities that varies from basic in white to epic in orange. This difference is also in passiv armor and weapon effects that can trigger amazing bonuses like health leech or even berserker mod where your attacking speed increases. So quite often (again in very high difficulties) you will be forced to farm and craft again and again sames items to be able to maximize your stats. Maybe another weak element of the game that should have been turned into a system where you can add more components during crafting and increase chances to get better qualities. You can still recycle your old gear to get some materials. [u]Combat[/u] is of course a huge part in the grinding imposed by the game. I was surprised by how vicious animals can be. I started in insane mode and to be honest i got owned so many times with different attack paterns, aggro or even the look of enemies, that i just felt a bit disguted. With very unaccurate controls for movements, many times i had to dodge attacks and instead Flux went to cut a bush/tree/ect.... So quickly i had to prepare fields and organize my ressources to aggro correct monsters and time my attacks/movements/ skills accordingly. Especially if you consider that every enemies have attacks with area of effects and marked radius/attack paterns shown on the ground. Note that depending of difficulty levels you will or won't be able to outmatch bosses with your equipement, making every boss fights epic... so indeed "there will be something for everyone". You can also accept [u]quests[/u] from native aliens or Juicebox (the robotic companion). Even if the tasks are often basics, it brings funny dialogues and many ways to expend your knowledge of the lore and crafting receipes. The more you take quests, the more you venture further on the planet. And it's a good thing because it brings some kind of "direction" in a game where the world and possibilities are enormous. Sometimes you can get receipes from enemies or ressources, making exploring and farming much more enjoyable. During night time new monsters appear giving you other receipes and challenges! Also [u]dialogues[/u] are a delight, totally in the mood of Battle Block Theater, Crashlands brings a fresh air. Punning all the time and makes you laugh with weird situations. Nothing is serious and it's where the game shines above many. [h1]Life span:[/h1] Crashland is a long and interresting game. But be ware, you must be prepared to do some tasks often as what you can do in a game like Don't Starve but in a "friendlier" way. The only thing that might lack is a local or internet co-op mod. Challenge is decent and again there will be ways to play for everyones. [h1]Fun/Stress aspect:[/h1] Even if it can be difficult nothing is punishing or too important to bother you. You just enjoy and have choice to do things the way you want and at anytime. As an exemple, your base never gets raided or as promoted (and it's totally justified) your inventory manages itself. Even dying is not so hard because you just loose few items to forces you to walk a bit (the monster that killed you despawn leaving you chances to get your stuff). Also you can teleport to your base and important locations at anytime and you don't need to feed, rest, ect your character. Food only serves to heal when you don't have passiv restorative effects on your armor or weapons. The game and will only stress you because of movements with mouse during combats and forces you to do again an again what could have been easier... let's say more intuitive. Crashland is still amazingly funny and entertaining ! [h1]TO CONCLUDE:[/h1] I've posted that this game was the one i was waiting for this year. And indeed, Crashlands is the gem i was waiting for. Balanced and easy to pick up on every aspects (expect movement with the mouse ARGH). Crashland is a good addition to a genre that stays a bit too serious and even punishing sometimes. A great part of the game is about grinding but quests, dialogues and possibilities are excellent. Building a house has never been so easy, taming beasts is interresting, fights are tight enough to makes you come back again and again. Crafting is deep and funny. The game is beautifull and ridiculous enough to surprise you at every encounter. Allready a classic.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 26, 2016

  Things I love: Roguelikes Things I love: Hitting stuff with a sword FOREVER Things I love: Weird humor Things I love: Exploration games Things I love: Crafting Basically, this game is incredible. Butterscotch Shenanigans have managed to snag the best parts of roguelikes, of exploration/crafting games and of diablocore hack-n-slash while simultaneously ironing out the headaches: teleport pads, retrievable inventory on death, trackable recipes and a dozen plus a hundred other goodies make this a refreshing and rewarding experience. The Coster brothers have a bit of an idiosyncratic sense of humor about them, and the dialog, art and story in the game all work together to provide plenty of character and laughter. Just wait til you get to the second biome. If you are reading this review then you've already committed enough time to thinking about the game, JUST BUY IT ALREADY.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 26, 2016

  [b]Don't be fooled by the playtime, I've logged tens of hours on Android for this game.[/b] [h1]TL:DR You'd be hard pressed to find a game as rewarding and well-made as this one. [/h1] [b]There's crafting, survival, cooking, fishing, building, questing, and plenty else to do in this game. Crashlands is REALLY good, and each of its mechanics is so well done, you'll wonder why other developers hadn't thought to do it this way.[/b] For the full review, I'm going to break things down by mechanics and features. New players will also be able to learn some useful tips about the game, by reading this. So, let's start with: [b]Storyline and Gameplay[/b] For starters, this game is pretty funny. It doesn't take itself seriously, and has jokes and humour littered througout. The thing is, it's all quite well done, and creates an enjoyable world to explore and discover. The characters you'll meet are often silly and entertaining, but not in any way that breaks immersion. Overall, it's very well done, and by doing the storyline quests and side quests, you unlock more recipes and ingredients to use to make your character even stronger. [b]Crafting[/b] The crafting system in the game is very well done. There are different crafting stations for different tiers of equipment and tools. There are a lot of similarities between this system and Starbound, however this one ups that by offering ideas that make it easier to craft. One of my favourite features of crafting is the ability to track a recipe. Click "Track" then you'll see what ingredients you'll need to craft that item. As you collect the ingredients, you'll see how much you have, and how much you still need, in order to make that item. Recipes are another fun aspect of the game as you start with a bunch when you make a new station. You can also get new recipes from finishing quests. My favourite feature, however, is that you can get epic and legendary recipes from resource drops, mob drops, and fishing. It's very rewarding to kill an enemy and suddenly see a recipe box pop out. It could be anything from a new piece of furnature for your house to a legendary blueprint for a piece of equipment. Crafting is this games' killer app, and it really is killer. [b]Exploration and Map[/b] Exploration in Crashlands is very similar to Don't Starve. You start at your pod, and as you travel further out, your map gets filled in, block by block. The further away you get, the more interesting (read:dreadly) the enemies become. Then again, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. There are lots of interesting places to discover, and NPC locations are littered everywhere, which results in gaining new quests, learning more about the planet you've crashed on, and of course, more recipes and lot. It also helps that the art style in Crashlands is wonderfully colourful, with lots of glowy things that light up the world in a myriad of colours. Exploration is FUN FUN FUN in Crashlands. [b]Cooking and Fishing[/b] At a certain point in the game, you're going to gain access to a hearth for cooking, and later, a fishing rod for fishing. Unlike a lot of games that have fishing spots randomly appear in different places, fishing spots are permanent in Crashlands. That means you can place signs (assuming you've crafted some) at any spots you find, and come back to them every two hours. At one point, I was using signs to label sites on the map, but eventually the game one upped that by giving me a recipe for an item that creates fishing spots in any body of water I choose. Let me remind you, fishing spots are pemanent, so these items were a Godsend, as fishing is not only very rewarding, it's also very enjoyable. Add to that the fact that you can also gain legendary items and recipes from fishing, and you have a system that will keep you coming back for more. Fishing spot cooldowns will continue to count down, even when you're not playing the game, so long as you haven't left the game paused. Pausing the game and leaving it, unfortunately, also pauses timers. Bummer for sure, but this can be avoided by simply exiting the game when you walk away from it. The game saves everything automatically, so you won't lose anything by doing so. As for cooking, when you use the hearth, you'll have a bunch of recipes for potions. Potions provide health, speed, resistences, etc. There are all sorts of boosts and benefits from potions, so you'll want to pursue that, when the hearth comes available. Quick tip: There's a quest, not long after you get the hearth, that'll allow you to make really good health potions out of fish and stone. If you have a rod and a hearth, but not this recipe? Do some quests, it's worth it... so worth it. [b]Building[/b] Building is another great feature in this game. It's extremely simple to get some building supplies, then activate build mode which will allow you to click (or tap) anywhere on the screen to place that item. Additionally, each building type is seperated into function. Floors have their own section, so it's easy to select that item set, choose a floor type, and just start pasting those floor tiles down the way you want. Vegetation (farming... yes, this game TOTALLY has farming) is another section, and you can plant your seeds, and place potted plants which can both be harvested after a 15 minute cooldown. Again, cooldowns will continue to count down while you're out of the game, so be sure to check back on your farms, from time to time. [b]Animal Taming[/b] Here is perhaps one of my favourite features of Crashlands, you can have pets! Pets serve two features. First, you can feed your pets to harvest resources from them. These resources can be used in certain recipes, and often come in really handy. The second function, and perhaps the most important, you can take one of your pets out with you while you explore. They'll fight for you, while they keep you company. Additionally, they're invincible, so you don't need to worry about them getting killed by other baddies. They also don't need to be fed to stay aline, feeding is only something you do when you want to... milk them... How about one more awesome point of keeping animals... Well, you can also unlock recipes for items that will cause your animals to permanently evolve into larger and more powerful versions. Each animal has multiple stages of growth, each one making them bigger, stronger, and look cooler, each time. You should get an egg drop for each enemy type, shortly after you've crafted a station that can make that animal's nest. Keeping animals is absolutely worth it, in this game. [b]Looting and Inventory[/b] There's loot... lots and lots of loot. When you kill creatures, fish, harvest resources, etc, you'll get showerd with items and materials. The key point here is that there is not traditional inventory with a sprawling list of things you have and don't have. The inventory system manages all of that for you, and there is NO LIMIT TO INVENTORY SPACE. As you pick things up, they will scroll by discreetly on the left, along with a number in brackets which indicates how many you have in total. The inventory system in Crashlands is another one of those features that makes you wonder why it has taken so long for a developer to think of it. It's clean, efficient, simple to figure out, and cuts out all the mess of traditional inventory spaces. As mentioned before, all enemies, resource points, and fishing have a chance of dropping some epic items, so there will be a lot of "OMG That's AWESOME" moments in your adventures with Crashlands. [b]Summary[/b] Seems I'm at the word limit for this review, so let me just sum it up by saying, Crashlands is one hell of a good game. It aces its presentation, mechanics, sense of rewarding, and enjoyment. If you haven't purchased it yet, do yourself a favour and get in on the fun.
• gamedeal user

  May 15, 2016

  I really appreciate that the developers made this game to be fun, rather than a management nightmare. [h1]Two things I don't like in this genre: Starvation. Limited inventory. Neither of these is an issue here.[/h1] I generally don't buy a game for the writing, but I really love the writing here. Everything about this game says, "These developers wanted to make something that's actually fun to play." And they nailed it. Sure, the mobile version is the same as the PC (minus the key bindings being displayed in the UI overlay). That's not a problem. The game is a solid hunk of enjoyment on either platform. Added bonus: I have the most common form of color vision deficiency (deuteranomaly / deuteranopia, depending on severity), and their setting for that nicely turns the red target markers for enemy fire into blue ones, which contrast very well with the target markers for my pet. Quest / Crafting RPG, where all your stats come from stuff you make (if you include your pet in stuff you make). Great writing. No annoying maintenance work. Buy it. Heck, buy it for your phone, too. You can link the two through their website, though I haven't done that. But I did buy it for both platforms.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 7, 2016

  [h1] Highlights [/h1] +* Terrific pet system +* Vast, unique locations +* Plenty of content [h1] Positives [/h1] + Nice, catchy music + Less is more in terms of combat [h1] Negatives [/h1] - Too much delegation - Became repetitive especially the crafting system - Most quests feel more or less the same [h1] Concerns [/h1] -* Repetitive nature of the game caused me to drop it after 20 hours [h1] Consensus [/h1] Crashlands is a good game in any right and many would say it's even an improvement over Don't Starve which is an obvious source of inspiration for the game. But unfortunately, Crashlands just couldn't retain my interest for long enough and as much as I would have loved to finish the game it started to feel like a chore, so I'm afraid I just cannot reccomend this game personally, but for those that do enjoy it, play on. [h1] 6/10 [/h1]