Crafty Survivors has been a wonderful surprise within a recently very over-saturated genre of survivor-likes. There are a few additions and gimmicks that make this title alluring albeit being currently held back in a few ways.

PROS:
- Being able to switch between manual cast (click button when you want to use an ability) and auto cast (abilities are used automatically off cooldown) on the fly and for individual abilities allows for amazing customization in playstyle. This can actually feel more like an ARPG (in a good way) when set to full manual cast. The devs have said they designed the game to be played with manual casting in mind, and it shows in a few limitations to auto cast, but I found much success in mixing and matching which abilities were manual and auto to fit the individual character and build I was going for on any given level.
- There is a wide variety of characters that all have their own unique active abilities, passive abilities, and synergies. There are typically two general paths that a character is guided down in a build, but I often found myself choosing a hodge-podge mixture of abilities to produce the best results. For example the chef, aptly named Stoverick, has a build path that either cooks and seasons enemies or candies and adds frosting to enemies for various results depending on the path you choose. For Stoverick I typically will fill all five possible ability slots. But for the lumberjack and farmer, I typically only fill between one and three active ability slots because it allowed me to play more precisely.

- The balance is very tight. I have heard some people argue that characters like the sculptor, farmer, and blacksmith aren't very good. I play exclusively on the hardest difficulty because I have found it more frenetic and fun for me, and have been able to beat any level I come across with the character of my choice. The reason people have difficulty with certain characters is due to their high skill ceiling. For example, the sculptor is centered not on hitting enemies with your attack, but hitting unfinished sculptures to chisel them down into their final product which then attack enemies. Not to mention the fact that you deal damage in an area behind the sculpture you're working on. This requires really precise positioning, but is very potent when done well.

- The devs seem very active in discussions and updates which is great to see.

- There are a lot of secrets to be found that have incredibly valuable rewards (including new characters and vital upgrade materials).

- I really enjoy the metaprogression that plays out like a city-builder of sorts. After runs you go back to town and upgrade buildings that give various passive improvements (think "add 10% weapon damage" sort of thing) and active benefits (like equipping characters with meals to increase functionality of play).

♥♥♥♥:
- While I do think the character balance is really strong, the material balance is a bit different. When I was playing on the normal difficulty, the upgrades were a slow burn in which I was able to upgrade one or two things after a run. When I decided to start playing on the highest difficulty, I realized that money and materials were no longer a factor at all. I was very quickly quite literally swimming in munz and mats. This may be by design, but I think it reduces the feeling of progression. On the highest difficulty I would upgrade everything possible with that material type in one or two runs and would then have to play through the rest of the biome without upgrading anything until I found a new material type. This is a bit of a bummer because the highest difficulty is just such a joy to play as it really makes you think about every decision and move you make.

FINAL THOUGHTS
If you are a fan of survivor-likes or bullet-heavens, I highly recommend you try Crafty Survivors. They devs are still pouring out new content on top of the massive amount of content already present. There are still things to be ironed out (like when I launch myself off the map with the seamstress and freeze the game LOL), but what is here is very polished, balanced, and unique within this genre.

https://youtu.be/70FugpZQ4Lk

Being weird and different is a very necessary element to gain notice in the 'survivor' game space. Every character is very unique against each other and the wider genre also.

Aside from a few minor technical faults, this is a fun survivor-like that allows you to slowly rebuild a town as you venture further and further into monster infested lands unlocking more nontraditional characters, meta upgrade types, and all kinds of fun stuff.