Cubic Odyssey Review

I’ve at all times been fascinated by games that target constructing and creating moderately than telling a narrative. Between video games like No Man’s Sky and Minecraft, there is definitely a large variance in how the style could be executed. Cubic Odyssey is one other entry into the area exploration/mining/crafting scene, however does it have sufficient new concepts to warrant a spot on the desk?

I went into this assessment with minimal expectations, seeing as the sport appears extremely just like issues I’ve already performed on the floor. It may be a tough line to stroll for a recreation when confronted with these sorts of quick perceived inspirations, however it appeared Cubic Odyssey wasn’t afraid of these comparisons, both.

After getting began, the sport actually stunned me with a variety of the adjustments it brings to the style as an entire, however together with these adjustments got here some drawbacks that I am unable to say I am a fan of. After greater than 20 hours with Cubic Odyssey, this area fairing recreation was enjoyable, however some odd design decisions make the start of the sport a little bit of a slog.

The Dice World

One factor that actually caught out to me when taking part in this recreation was that, visually, there’s a variety of magnificence kind of strewn about on the bottom. However area is the place the sport actually shines. Trying up into the sky at an unbelievable skybox is de facto one thing superb, however out in area, surrounded by huge swirling nebulas in each route, it is easy to get misplaced in all of it.

That is to not say the planets themselves lack any kind of visible enchantment, however that got here extra from the stark variations between every world. Cubic Odyssey does not have worlds with numerous biomes. Actually, the maps are all pretty small, so every world acts as its personal, self-contained biome.

Which means that every world you go to has its personal kind of quirks, from being principally water, to virtually nothing however magma. Past that, every world is made of various supplies, so you possibly can have one planet with mushroom timber whereas others have coral timber.

It actually makes for some extremely distinctive environments that each one have their very own charms. This additionally signifies that every planet comes with its personal natural world, some cuter than others.

Essentially the most visually beautiful factor, although, are the planets themselves in area. Each is a dice, and as you method its floor, the planet will start to warp and develop earlier than you are thrust into the planet map.

Each time I landed on a planet, I used to be blown away by this visible. Watching the planet itself bend and shift as I approached simply made for the good entrances I’ve ever seen.

It wasn’t extremely demanding on my PC, though some occasional spots would make it drop just a few frames, however nothing critical. Some lower-end PCs might battle, however virtually everybody ought to discover this recreation runs nicely on their setup.

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Journey Throughout the Universe

Whereas the narrative right here will not be breaking down any kind of limitations, you may nonetheless just about be compelled ahead to harder planets for particular objects. Every planet can have numerous completely different ores and objects that you just use to craft your wanted gear.

The sport appears to need to encourage you to arrange store on different planets, however there’s actually no want, since you possibly can simply arrange on planets with an abundance of assets and reap the rewards. The one purpose you could press ahead is to unlock a brand new store merchandise, which you may completely have to improve gear.

It isn’t precisely the perfect purpose to maintain transferring ahead, however it does a minimum of forestall you from sitting on one planet the complete time. Nonetheless, you may seemingly be spending chunk of time on planets that you have not linked with warp portals.

You may spend a while on a planet gathering assets, then head by way of the warp gate within the system to take you to any galaxy you have visited beforehand with out the necessity for a warp core, an merchandise that may take a while buying on the very starting.

This can be a nice upside, because it means you possibly can journey to galaxies which have Historical Temples with built-in warp portals, and clear them so as to add a brand new place to warp to. Warping is nearly instantaneous too, so it makes it a lot simpler to get between your bases.

Other than the minimal story and the necessity for improve objects, there’s not a lot of a purpose to push your self to journey the universe, however you may seemingly do it regardless to fulfill your curiosity, very like I did. Getting higher gear actually made the sport a lot simpler, however in a approach, it will definitely made the sport too straightforward.

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Welcome to the World of Tomorrow

The very best elements of this recreation are the baked-in ways in which make it a lot simpler to do all of the mundane duties that the style is understood for. With some inventive design, the group has introduced a variety of new concepts to the style that may have some lasting impacts.

There are such a lot of quality-of-life adjustments that deliver a brand new spin to the style, however just a few of the perfect ones will seemingly turn into new staples of the style as an entire. That is the place the sport is trying to separate itself from its predecessors, however in doing so, I worry that it has additionally fallen into some new sorts of pitfalls.

They’ve modified sturdiness to now not be connected to the usage of your objects. As a substitute, they lose sturdiness if you die, like in some old-fashioned MMOs. This implies your objects and weapons can be utilized indefinitely in the event you’re cautious.

Uninterested in choosing up random items of stone and dust? Nicely, with the filter system, you by no means have to select up these sorts of blocks except you need to. This made digging for ore considerably simpler, and it is contained in your stock display, so it is by no means exhausting to alter.

Together with that, you have obtained a trustworthy companion who will scan for any ore sorts you have already discovered, making it straightforward to search out what you are on the lookout for. When you’re down within the deep floor, you possibly can truly use a sizzling key to focus on different close by ores.

Combining this with issues just like the jetpack and the power to teleport again to your ship actually brings the worst elements of the style into a brand new mild. However in fact, with many nice adjustments, one thing needed to give. For Cubic Odyssey, that one thing actually harmed the early recreation.

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Higher Be Duracell

Since I’ve gone over among the greater positives to this point, I will cowl among the negatives. One factor that actually obtained my goat was that all the pieces on this area age society runs on batteries.

Each bit of drugs or gear you will have will solely function when you’ve got the battery energy to take action. It is not very tough to make and even discover these batteries, however they do not stack within the menu, so every backup you carry knocks you down one accessible stock slot.

It is so extremely irritating to expire of batteries because it successfully kneecaps all the pieces you might be doing. Attempting to run? Oops, no battery. Must jetpack? Oops, nonetheless no battery. Teleport again to your ship? You guessed it — no battery.

This additionally extends to your ship, that means if you wish to actually discover area and have canine fights with different autos, you may need to get loads of batteries to your ship. It turned tedious on the very starting to hold them round or have backups in case of an emergency, however operating out of energy was a lot worse.

Ultimately, this turns into nearly meaningless as each single humanoid enemy you face off in opposition to drops a battery. After the primary few planets, I actually by no means wanted to make extra myself since I used to be now gathering so many.

It was disheartening to have a mechanic that was moderately annoying for therefore lots of these first hours principally be tossed out as quickly as I might deal with myself. It made me marvel why it was so integral to the system in any respect.

Fight for Dummies

Fight wasn’t extremely deep, however there’s a minimum of sufficient there to maintain you in your toes. Enemies have entry to all the identical weapons as you, so that they’re capable of snipe, shotgun, or melee relying on the weapon they’ve.

At first, fight could be irritating as you lack any actual safety, however when you get just a few kills and scavenge some weapons, most enemies will die in just some photographs. Nonetheless, it is virtually not price it to make use of something however ranged weapons since enemies can do excessive quantities of injury in very small bursts.

Fight encounters actually boiled all the way down to wiping them out at vary earlier than slowly working your approach nearer in an effort to not get instantly one shot. I’ll say wiping out an enemy base with just some photographs feels unimaginable, however getting worn out in simply as many photographs makes you are feeling moderately lackluster.

Area fight finally ends up being a selection of whether or not you will have the assets to even deal with the battle, since every time you hearth your lasers you burn battery energy. You may add on weapons to your ship to make fight simpler, however they nonetheless require energy, so greater than something, you may want batteries.

Crafting Every thing

Since it is a survival-type recreation, you may be crafting a variety of your gear—however in a approach that is way more just like the programs in No Man’s Sky than the rest. As a substitute of utilizing your ore to truly make any objects or gear, you may use them to create different crafting objects that may then be used for extra crafting.

If that sounds complicated, don’t be concerned. It is actually a side of the sport I struggled to get pleasure from, however the recreation does its greatest to make the method easy and straightforward. Any time you are crafting one thing that has different elements, you possibly can simply create these elements ought to you will have the mandatory ores and objects to take action.

This would not be so dangerous if there weren’t so many objects to make that really feel pointless. For example, in the event you’re trying to make some higher-end gear and home equipment, you may want a Capacitor, however to make that Capacitor you may want to mix 4 completely different ores.

It will definitely turns into cumbersome to must take your uncooked supplies to make into different supplies so you possibly can craft the precise merchandise you need. They make the method straightforward which is good, however there are simply so many objects to craft that you’re going to go insane in the event you attempt to memorize all their compositions.

The sport does allow you to pin recipes to your display so you possibly can simply be sure to have what you want, however it’s nonetheless irritating to must go gather a ton of ore and supplies to make objects to get the factor you truly need. You can also’t have a couple of recipe at a time pinned, so understanding each merchandise you may want can turn into tough as you’re employed your approach up.

Upgrades Folks, Upgrades

One of many extra attention-grabbing elements of the sport is that you’ve the power to improve your abilities as you employ them, a la Skyrim. That is kind of the principle development characteristic that allows you to craft, discover, and use different objects.

You will not have the ability to mine sure ores with out an upgraded mining device. Nevertheless, the one approach to have the ability to craft that device will probably be to extend your crafting ability. It will occur fairly naturally and is a good mark for the way succesful your character is, however once more, it looks like one other barrier that does not essentially match.

Every potential does have enhancements they supply. For instance, Mining will present further ore and shopping for objects might have higher reductions. This can be a neat use for the system however finally not often performs any half aside from hitting the mandatory checkpoints for sure objects or gear.

The Cubic Vibes

Regardless of many of those negatives and complaints I used to be discovering myself having, the vibes on this recreation are nonetheless immaculate. The background music, ambiance, and audio queues are unimaginable and completely suck you in to the sport.

The music adjustments a bit from planet to planet, however every change actually captures that interstellar ideology of exploration. A lot in the identical approach that Halo utilized its rating, Cubic Odyssey actually needed gamers to really feel like they’re in a film with the background music making a much-needed ambiance.

Talking of ambiance, if you’re going mining, you may sometimes hear a ‘PING’ sound as you break ores. Not solely does this make your monkey mind produce the joyful chemical, it additionally signifies that ore has dropped some further assets so that you can choose up.

It is one thing comparatively small within the grand scheme, however it does assist to make the tedious process of mining a bit extra attention-grabbing. This is not the one audio cue that actually stands out. Very similar to the Covenant Elites in Halo, the enemies in Cubic Odyssey make a fairly distinct sound. It is simply a little janky because the audio appears to return from throughout you, however the precise sound is pretty memorable, very like the sound of Zombies in Minecraft.

This all culminates collectively to create a mode and vibe that actually does stick out and makes Cubic Odyssey a recreation you may bear in mind, even when it is not a fully stellar area exploration and crafting expertise on a regular basis.

Closing Feedback:

All in all, Cubic Odyssey is an effective recreation that will get just a little slowed down by its personal complexities, like character skills and battery energy. It is a strong recreation because of all of the quality-of-life adjustments it brings to the style, together with the robust ambiance and attention-grabbing visuals. Whereas it most likely is not a recreation that I will add to my repertoire, I believe it’s going to actually make a reputation for itself within the business. In case you actually get pleasure from survival exploration video games, then this will probably be a recreation you possibly can sink numerous hours into. Cubic Odyssey is a strong recreation that merely will get dragged down by some odd design decisions that clearly serve so as to add issue, however that issue finally ends up changing into inconsequential at a sure level. Nonetheless, it’s pleasurable, and all of the issues the sport does proper make it a significant addition to the style as an entire.

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Cubic Odyssey

Reviewed on PC

Launched

Might 14, 2025

ESRB

Everybody 10+ // Fantasy Violence

Developer(s)

Atypical Video games

Writer(s)

Gaijin Community Ltd

Multiplayer

On-line Co-Op, Native Co-Op

Variety of Gamers

Single-player

Execs & Cons

• The QoL adjustments actually assist to take away the tedious elements of the style.
• The artistry within the recreation is attractive and supplies some breathtaking views.
• Immediate ship teleportation makes getting again dwelling a breeze.

• The need for batteries means losing area in your stock.
• With so many objects to craft, it could actually get tough to determine precisely what you want.
• Exploring the universe takes a backseat to useful resource administration.