Recent reviews by Deadly Cushion

Before I begin, it's worth noting that I did play this game years ago during the alpha, and as such my opinions are going to be based on this past week of beta access. That being said, I'll be avoiding any comparisons to what was in the alpha/any content that was teased on Twitter, blog posts, etc, as that's a whole separate bag of worms.

Cube World is a game that I think could be good, but there are major issues preventing that. There are a lot of conflicting mechanics/design decisions that severely hamper any enjoyment/longevity the game might have. Let's start with the games quick description on the store page:

Cube World is a voxel-based action RPG with a focus on exploration. It takes place in a procedurally generated fantasy world made up entirely of cubes.

Let's look at the exploration portion first. The game itself is divided into different regions, with different biomes between regions. There are various structures, locations, etc that you can find while you're out exploring, ranging from graveyards to arenas to locked chambers containing treasure. Sounds good from an exploration standpoint, right? Well, our first issue is the map. Every player in Cube World is playing on the same map. There's no concept of fog of war, instead the entire map is revealed from the get go. What that's led to is the "best" strategy for finding new locations is to pore over every inch of the region you're currently in, placing markers as you find things of note, and then you can go experience them as you wish. In my opinion, that's not exploration, that's following a GPS. I'm not going to be wandering aimlessly around the world and stumbling upon an arena, because I'll have known to expect it. There are various NPCs that can give you quest locations, which is a more natural approach, but that implementation has problems as well. There's no indication as to whether an NPC is going to tell you something new, so most of the time you either hear about a quest you already have, or get some generic text about your pet or a piece of equipment. Because of that, you're pushed towards using the map as it's more efficient.

The main reason you explore/go through a region is to, eventually, discover the location(s) of that region's artifact(s). To do that, you'll need to have found various items items in the world, ranging from a hang glider or boat for mobility, to a bell and harp that allow you to access certain areas. NPCs and tablets spread throughout the game will aid in this, giving generic bits of lore and hints to their locations. Eventually, you'll hit the threshold where the location will be shown on your map. Once you get to those locations, you go through a dungeon, and finally get that ancient amazing artifact that you've been hearing about all this time. And that artifact ends up... giving you +7% increased climbing speed. Or a 1m increase to your lamp's light radius. These artifacts, supposedly ancient items of great power, only ever increase your mobility stats. You won't be getting any cool new skills, no massive increases to your combat stats, just the ability to move a bit faster in that hang glider you found. Which brings us to the next, biggest issue.

Region locking of items. Every item that isn't artifacts, gold, pets, or a crafting material is locked/useless outside of the region you found it in. That legendary sword you found after getting a lucky drop after a few hours? After crossing the border it's suddenly worse than a standard white item. Your artifacts stay, but they all affect the speed of items you're going to need to find again. So, beyond the fact that you've got some extra gold to buy some basic weapons and armor at the start, each new region is effectively like starting a new game. I assume this system was put in place to deal with scaling of the map. The map is procedurally generated, but everyone is playing on the same seed, you just start in different locations. Because of that, every region has to be balanced for a completely new character, so any form of meaningful progression is on a region-by-region basis. There are certain pieces of equipment, + items, that can be brought to regions surrounding the one you found them in, but finding them is up to chance. I personally have yet to find one, and I don't think I'll be playing again in order to. Even if you do find a + weapon, you now have the issue that you're going to be killing most enemies in the next region extremely easily, since there's no form of scaling. Overall, region locking dissuades you from exploring, one of the things Cube World claims to be focused on, since you're actively punished for moving to somewhere new. Some might argue that it's effectively the same as having infinitely scaling stats for enemies, weapons, etc, since you're still the same strength comparatively. That, however, is missing the actual feel of it. I'm able to understand that it's the same, but it's still a kick in the gut when all of my gear becomes terrible and my health drops from 1000 to 100 because I crossed over an arbitrary line.

And that brings us to my final major gripe with the game, progression. In terms of stats, only your gear matters. If you want more health, more attack power, critical chance, etc, you need to find better items. Those items that become useless if you go into a different region. There are levels, but they only serve the purpose of tracking those artifacts that I've mentioned. Now, gear based progression is a viable thing in games. You've got games like Terraria that do it, where you've got plenty of incredibly unique things that can massively alter how you play. Or you've got your classic example of Diablo, where there's not too much variety, but you're constantly seeing your stats increase, which feels great. Cube World, however, doesn't have any of that. Your weapons don't have any unique effects, they only alter your basic and strong attack. And, since it's gear based progression, your stats are going to drop massively once you enter a new region. It's almost like it's trying to be a roguelike, but your runs last 4-8 hours and each one is effectively identical.

Overall, these are my major issues with the game. I could continue to gripe about how the combat is massively swingy, or how there have been a number of dropped/scrapped features, but I don't think it's worth it. I want to like this game, I really do. But, once I completed my first region, I felt no desire to go and do that again. It just doesn't feel like a complete game to me, especially given the development time, and for that I can't recommend it at all. There's plenty of other games out there that you'll get more enjoyment out of for less money.