Recent reviews by Syndelis

An absolute blast from the past

Amazing puzzles and very re-playable thanks to shortcuts you encounter along the game.

43 minutes, 10 crashes. Couldn't get past the first in-game cutscene.

Quite probably the best game on Steam.

Cube World is the best example of why player feedback is so important for Early Access games. It managed to upset the huge majority of players with the addition (and exclusion) of rather controversial features. In addition to having most planned features completely absent from the final product, the game manages to jump down from its pedestal and drop dead on the ground.

In alpha days, you would get XP by killing monsters, and leveling up meant new skill points to spend however you like, be it making a skill stronger or acquiring a whole new one. While the skill tree didn't have many options, a more advanced one was in the plans (but never arrived).

Meanwhile, in release Cube World, there is no way to get XP. You level up by finding your region's artifact and for that you'll get a slight bonus (around 2% to 3%) on a random non-combat stat (sailing speed, gliding speed, lantern strength, etc.). That also means you have all of your skills unlocked from the beginning and that your strength comes from what you wear. I'll iterate on why this is a bad decision on a later topic.


As previously mentioned, all of your character's strength comes from the items you wear. While this is an interesting choice at first glimpse, you'll soon wish it wasn't the case when you find out your equipment is restricted to the land you found it (with very few exceptions). In addition, the regions have had their size drastically reduced, so you'll have a small playground to use your new hard-earned yellow items.

Since zones have had their size reduced and as each of them is supposed to be played separately, they have enemies of all tiers (white, green, blue, purple and yellow, in order). That means enemies are all crammed together; you might be fighting whites while there are yellows just to your side. That combined to the fact you'll also run into wandering yellow enemies that will one-shot you really shows how bad of a decision it was.

Finally, we get to discuss the game's progression, which really takes all of what has been said before.

There is no real progression. All you earn for completing a zone is a meaningless bonus to a random stat you'll only have access after finding finding the special item tied to that stat once again. Not only that, but the lack of levels and item region-locking makes it so going to a new zone is no different to creating a whole new character.

All of these bad decisions were made and hidden from the playerbase during this 6 year-long development period. You can argue that's Wollay's vision for his game, and I respect that, but it was not the game and the promises he sold for us alpha players back in 2013.

Additionally, nothing was really added aside from the procedural quest system and some new biomes; no advanced skill trees, new classes, building, etc.

The game had huge potential, but making changes solely on your ideas and not consulting the actual customers does imply you might get bad reviews of the game.