Review: Core Keeper Is About Creativity and Combat

I love playing games like Terraria on the Switch. It’s the idea of gradually getting to build things out at a leisurely pace. Maybe I deal with a little danger sometimes. You know, just enjoy being able to watch as my surroundings grow due to the investment I put into everything. Core Keeper, now that it is on the Switch, encourages the same kind of creativity as games like Minecraft and Terraria due, and it’s well suited to the system.

The impetus for adventure in Core Keeper is abrupt. You’re on an expedition. You touch a mysterious item. You find yourself teleported to an entirely new area. While there are ruins and an unusual item to power up ahead of you, if you’re ready for that challenge, it is otherwise up to you to decide what you do. You determine your characters’ specialty and appearance before a run. You choose if the world will be a hostile or creative one. It’s up to finding your own way.

This is helped by Core Keeper proceeding much in the same way as games like Terraria and Minecraft, so it is easy to find your footing while still feeling like this is a new and unique experience. Like both games, it also allows you to create a world seed for not-creative-mode words to share. Multiplayer is possible, which also can enrich the experience.

Its perspective and elements of its execution set it apart. As it is a creative, survival sandbox game, you need to worry about your health and hunger in any mode that isn’t about just exploring and being creative in the environment. You’re seeing things from an overhead perspective, and initially have limited information about the area and no tools. The branches covering the relics ahead of you can be used for initial items like a pickaxe and shovel, though even punching walls allows you to get the materials needed to create workbenches and crafting tables to start making ore and stronger stuff. As you go on, you’ll find different biomes with unexpected enemies, opportunities to even farm by finding seeds or certain items, or ways to attract merchants to move into homes built for them. The map automatically updates, much in the way Terraria does, to make it easier to track everything.

What I feel really helps set Core Keeper apart is the execution of its bosses. These are enemies that help you progress towards those unusual tablets and relics when you first spawn in the area. The fights can be genuinely challenging, and the fact that many of the roles you choose from the outset can influence your combat prowess, such as ranged damage, can make it feel like preparing to face them and get those story-based items and merchant materials is a big part of the experience. It’s a scope I didn’t expect, and it’s really quite fun. 

As intuitive as Core Keeper is on the Switch, especially since it does follow the likes of Terraria and Minecraft, the fact that this is a port of a PC game really does stand out. However, I will say they are the sort of thing that could maybe become more comfortable with updates based on user feedback. Managing your inventory, shifting through menus, and assigning skill points are a little finicky. Though in the case of the skill system, the game doesn’t really explain how it works, so you might not realize what to do until you get a notification that you earned a point for performing typical actions n a category, then stumble into the second page for your character in the main menu. I will say an effort was made, as there are console-specific shortcuts for Core Keeper on the Switch and a reminder for them can be toggled on and off in the menu with the left analog stick. 

Some minor quirks aside that could, in all honesty, be fixed by patches before too long, Core Keeper is a delight of a game that excels at offering options for being creative and tackling situations. It is easy to get engrossed in finding your way through the depths, establishing a settlement, and making progress, thanks to the intuitive systems in place. Core Keeper is definitely a game those who loved ones like Terraria and Minecraft should investigate.

Core Keeper is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.