2 
0 Get ready to chop trees, mine ore and… program robots to help you build your city in the middle of a wilderness?
Omega Crafter is the first Steam release by developer and producer Preferred Networks, which mixes elements of Minecraft, Portal Knights and other survival RPGs and teaches players the basics of programming.
Program, build and explore a vast open world…
Single player and multiplayer are available as you learn how to program your Grammies and fight bugs in an open world filled with different biomes, enemies and bosses.
Omega Crafter is set to release on Steam on March 29th! Want to find some more games? Check out our PC reviews here.
Gameplay
With an interesting twist on the usual survival game genre, Omega Crafter launches you into a brand new world with the aim to build a city and defeat any bugs that are plaguing your world.
There are two main elements – survival and programming.
Programming the Grammi
It’s an interesting take on city building which slowly helps you understand programming basics. When you reach the point of unlocking your first Grammi, it can seem a little bit daunting if you have no experience with programming.
The game does a good job of talking you through how it works and offers templates that can get you through the majority of the city building side of the game. That being said, if you were to try and program something without the templates there are definitely a lot of opportunities for it to go wrong.
There were a few times where I was asking the Grammi to pull crafting ingredients from one of the multi storage chests which caused some confusion. They don’t search out the item that you put in the program, they just take the first item in the chest, which might not be what they want.
The programming side of things might be enough to stop people from playing if they don’t want to spend the time figuring out how it works. I did find that there were times where I would leave my city to explore the wilderness and when I came back the Grammis hadn’t done what I wanted because they were struggling with what was in the chests.
Surviving the wilds
The survival aspects of the game are pretty much what you would expect from any survival RPG. There’s farming, hunting and fighting with the ability to level up and craft stronger equipment.
There are a couple of parts to the levelling system. You and your Gummi both have separate skill points to spend on life, damage and stamina upgrades. You can also use the Data Analyzer to upgrade your city and unlock new craftable items.
There seems to be quite a steep learning curve in the game. Getting from the starting point to the first boss is a pretty steady curve. As I started to explore the wider areas, it felt like I was constantly too weak, even at level 20 with upgraded equipment. Stone Golems took forever to kill, even after figuring out their weak spot.
There were also times where it felt like there was too many enemies for one player.
Fighting Bugs in multiplayer
The multiplayer for Omega Crafter works exactly as it does in other games in the genre. Your friends can join your world, craft their own equipment and summon gummies. Both players can program the Grammis and change what they’re working on. The game did struggle when I tried the multiplayer out – though that might be my terrible Wi-Fi.
Kyle’s thoughts
Omega Crafter’s multiplayer is fun and interesting. Allowing both players to program the Grammies helps make building a small city easier. With players working on specific tasks, such as one working on stone and the other on wood. There were a lot of connection problems if this was the game, though I’m not sure, but there would be times I couldn’t do anything but run around.
You can check out Kyle’s other reviews here!
Graphics & Audio
Omega Crafters simplistic art style adds to the cozy nature of the game. Even when you open the Gummi program, nothing ever feels too overwhelming. The design of the enemies fits right in alongside the adorable Gummis. Whilst they’re very obviously the enemy, they’re not so threatening that they look out of place.
The audio was simplistic for the most part and added to the overall atmosphere during the game. The music during boss fights definitely made them feel more important and exciting but didn’t overpower the overall feel that Omega Crafter had.
Longevity
I have managed to sink 15 hours into Omega Crafter and I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I haven’t tried to figure out how to program the Grammi without using the templates. I’ve been too focused on levelling up for the next boss fight as everything feels so much stronger.
There is definitely plenty of life in this game. Preferred Networks has already teased that there will be more being added to the game after launch.
Final Thoughts
If you enjoy games like Portal Knights, you’re going to enjoy how Omega Crafter transforms the elements of survival games. I’m going to keep playing it to see just how much more I can find that I haven’t already.
There were a few times where I got annoyed, such as the sudden increase in difficulty and how specific everything needed to be with the Grammis. Whilst it wasn’t enough to stop me from playing but it might be enough for someone else!
Ultimately, Omega Crafter deserves the Thumb Culture Gold Award. I really have enjoyed growing my little Gummi army but it’s difficult to ignore the potential road blocks that come with programming aspects of the game.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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