Core Keeper review: Just keep digging

Raise your hand if you heard the following: A 2D survival game, set in a wacky procedurally generated world where you have to dig and fight in every direction against bigger and meaner bosses while you acquire an increasingly ridiculous weapons arsenal. Multiplayer optional.

I'm the Core's Keeper

This genre is extremely overcrowded and it's hard for titles to stick out within it. I’m happy to report that Core Keeper manages to do just that. Its approach to linear survival-crafting progression in a randomly created world isn’t exactly unique but its energy and straightforward design philosophy set it apart.

After a short introduction, you’re transported into the darkness with no clue what is going on or what you’re supposed to do next. The initial just feeling things out and figuring out where to go is one of the best parts of the genre. Core Keeper doesn’t overwhelm players at the start but instead slowly eases you into its never-ending cycle of obtaining resources and snowballing into better gear and an ever-growing arsenal of crafting stations.

If you’re familiar with this genre, none of this is new. I would even go so far as to say that Core Keeper is spiritually closer to Terraria than Minecraft. While it borrows the sandbox from the latter, its linear progression, bosses, and wacky abilities are closer to Re-Logic’s 2011 classic. But where Terraria tends to overwhelm and eventually fall off the deep end, Core Keeper remains focused and approachable. 

There's no such thing as digging too deep

To progress you need to kill bosses. But you first need to find them and gather the equipment to take them down. As your arsenal expands and your humble abode fills up with a plethora of crafting stations you’ll also acquire the means to do so. Linear progression becomes both its boon and curse. While it keeps things simple, it had me fighting tooth and nail on one side of the map only to realize after many shameful tracks back and forth that I was supposed to be somewhere else. This unique brand of humiliation of yours truly could’ve been avoided by not letting the copper pickaxe mine iron while being one slap away from certain death, but I digress.

I did learn a valuable lesson about combat while avoiding those glowing eyes in the dark: It's pretty easy to bait an attack and strike back as long as you’re not getting overwhelmed. Which is, once you’re sufficiently equipped, one of the more fun scenarios you can end up in. Just picture my sad, sorry butt surrounded by a bunch of enemies I could barely make out in the dark fighting for my life because I don’t want to walk back here. It's good stuff and I cannot imagine how much better these scenarios will play out in co-op.

Big Worm, Big Problem

Once resources are gathered and you’re geared up, you have to head out and fight some of the bosses. These range from disgusting bugs in various shapes and forms to mystical creatures and slime. The few I fought so far offered a decent challenge and probably most importantly they all felt like they had a thing going. Ghorm the Devourer is a fast favorite. A giant worm that roams in a long circle around the player's spawn. Finding it is one thing, trying to fight it is another and it made for one of the most fun boss encounters I had in a while.

If you’re not out and about claiming the fruits of the earth for yourself, you can try and build a proper home, raise animals, farm, or fish. These elements don’t go above and beyond in their complexity either but they offer a nice change of pace. And then there is electricity, which once unlocked gives you access to conveyor belts, robot arms, and drills that can make your underground life much easier.

Sometimes you just need to take a break

I think the biggest praise I can give to the game is that I cannot wait to dig into it with a few friends over the coming weeks. It's the kind of game you can slowly chip away at over several evenings and the hardcore mode even offers some replayability down the line. While it doesn’t reinvent the wheels of its genre, Pugstorm’s Core Keeper emerges confidently out of early access and I’m looking forward to revisiting it over and over again in the coming years.

Core Keeper is available on August 27, 2024, for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. The code for this review was provided by the publisher.

Timo Reinecke

Contributing Editor

Timo is an avid enjoyer of all things video games hailing from Germany. After being abandoned as a child on the Rolanberry Fields of Final Fantasy XI, he has since developed an undying love for the digital worlds of MMOs. But if you can't find him crafting up a storm in Final Fantasy XIV, you'll probably find him workshopping combos in action/fighting games or being extremely passionate about the latest mobile title.

Outside of gaming, Timo is usually skimming through the Criterion Collection or praying to whatever Eldritch horror that his latest favorite manga doesn't get damaged in shipping. You can find live reactions to all of that on X @ALahftel.