Someone has combined the mining and survival skills of Minecraft with the pixel beauty of Stardew Valley and the mind-boggling plethora of options in the excellent Core Keeper, which has just emerged from Early Access after two years and is, unsurprisingly, gaining more and more popularity.
The central premise of Core Keeper has you trapped in an infinitely stretching underground cavern, completely submerged in shadow until you spread torches around the place, and nowhere to go until you mine your way out.
Much like Minecraft, there's no explicit goal to reach, but there is a mysterious core (hence the title) that lies dormant right where you wake up. From there, you set out to discover the various huge creatures, slimes, livestock, and biomes hidden deep within.
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What stood out to me most was the RPG progression, where the more you farm, the higher your gardening levels go, for example, and the countless systems to dive into. There are minecart tracks you can build. Farms you can tend to. Electrical appliances that need power. Crafting. Fighting. Fishing. Summoning. Boss fights. There’s always a little gem, a new discovery to work on that makes the hours fly by.
I’m not the only one under the spell of Core Keeper since its release on August 27. Director Fredrik Präntare took to social media to celebrate some of the game’s incredible feats so far. “We feel so grateful and surprised,” he tweeted, alongside a screenshot showing Core Keeper’s peak concurrent player count of 45,800 on Steam, which has been steadily increasing throughout the week, not to mention the 26,000 user reviews that are 91% positive. “I must be dreaming,” he tweeted a few days ago.
If you want to get lost in the underground labyrinths, Core Keeper is available now on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Game Pass, and is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on September 17.
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