Solarpunk Review: A Survival-Crafting Sandbox That Needs More Work
Solarpunk is out now on Xbox Series X/S, PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2 (I played it on PC). It’s developed by two-man studio Cyberwave, published by rokaplay, and it managed to make quite a splash in the lead-up to its release. It’s a cosy survival/crafting sandbox but one that’s hindered by counterintuitive game design.
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High Hopes and Sky Islands
Chances are you’ve seen a decent amount of coverage for Solarpunk, as it was one of the titles featured in April’s Triple-i Initiative showcase. This led to the game amassing over a million wishlists, plus it received €305,266 from 6,312 backers through its initial Kickstarter campaign. In a world of soulslikes and live service hopefuls, it stood out thanks to its focus on creating an idyllic home on a floating island, with no combat or skill trees or anything like that.
It does, however, have fundamental survival mechanics (hunger and thirst) which it’s possible to die from. Which I did, repeatedly, after getting caught in a cycle of starvation for literally hours of gameplay. Thankfully it’s possible to play with these at -50%, meaning they’re not so difficult to maintain; this setting also doesn’t cause you to drop your inventory upon death, and lightning can’t hurt you (normally, lightning is also the only other thing that can kill you, outside of falling off an island).
Let’s talk about the tutorial. Shortly after spawning on a bucolic island in the sky the game says “Press L1 to sprint” (controller support is very good, outside of a few buttons that can’t be remapped). I press L1. “Too hungry to sprint” the game told me. Oh no.
Undeterred, I tried to follow the other tutorial goals, like “Build a bed”. I had to research this first, then I had to build one. But, I couldn’t put it anywhere because the game hadn’t told me, or instructed me, to build a house first. Turns out you can’t place walls without a foundation, and even then you can’t place a bed without a roof. Can you already sense the amount of busywork required to get up and running?
I was instructed to open the “key items” tab in my inventory. There was nothing in it. “Tutorial complete.” Is it? Alright then. I still didn’t really understand a bunch of stuff but, oh look, I can craft a Survival Guide. But I don’t have the right crafting level to unlock tables yet, so I have to put it on the ground. Except that I respect books, and the ground is no place for a book. I’m sorry, but it’s not.
A Tool for Every Job
None of this is game-breaking, but it is irritating, and it made my entry into this ostensibly serene world an annoying one. However, I persisted because there were also a bunch of cool things and nice touches that either made me chuckle or nod in satisfied agreement.
One is that a tree can fall on you and bounce off your head. Another is that a few seconds after a tree has fallen it disappears with a loud pop, and you automatically get a bunch of planks in your inventory. Wood can be taken out of the furnace and it’ll continue to work with residual heat.
Crafting is done via the furnace (for components like bricks and glass) and the Crafting Table (for pretty much everything else). To unlock things for this you’ll first need to level up via the Research Desk, which is a straightforward case of amassing a set number of something, like three bricks.
Everything is done with a specific tool. The Buildhammer lets you, well, build. The axe lets you harvest wood, sticks and leaves (and demolish items, which either places it back in your inventory or breaks it down into components). The hoe can place little patches of soil to grow crops, and the pickaxe lets you mine rocks, sand, clay, and various ore.
The base building is wonderful and a clear highlight of Solarpunk. Despite the initial confusion with getting started, it’s a robust system with a ton of cool and interesting decorative options like hedges and birdhouses (although it’s a little weird/disappointing you can’t sit in chairs to relax and enjoy the sunset). Walls have to be placed next to or on an existing part of a building, but I’m happy to report that fans of gravity-defying architecture can remove walls after they’ve been placed, to leave parts of a building hovering in the air.
Stairs can be built anywhere, which is really handy as it means they can be used to reach otherwise inaccessible sections of islands, or to create unusual builds almost anywhere you want (flat roof sections, for example, can be attached to stairs to create floors and platforms). I tried building across the sky to a nearby island and got a little way across before a message stopped me for being “too far away” from my current island. Womp womp.
Airship Exploration
This is a shame but I get it: why let players build midair bridges (as cool as that would be) when there’s an airship? This is unlocked at level three (progress depends entirely on your own pace of crafting and farming) and, theoretically, opens up the game world.
I say “theoretically” because while Cyberwave released a lengthy post about what players should and shouldn’t expect (more on this in a minute), one of the things the game doesn’t have is a proper open world. There’s no overall narrative or story progression, but there are ‘wind walls’ that funnel exploration to specific areas. That nearby island I tried to build across to? The game wouldn’t let me fly there until I’d first visited a smaller island and a nearby Tradebot.
I was quite excited to meet Tradebot. There are no other NPCs, and the game is devoid of other players unless you invite them (and even then you’re not forced to interact). Unfortunately, Tradebot always has very specific things to trade, as opposed to being something like a shop (that I thought he would be, given that he lives in a shop). Again, an irritation more than anything, but yet another “odd game design choice” to add to the list.
Solarpunk Is/Isn’t for You
Before launch, Cyberwave posted on the game’s Steam page about what players could and couldn’t expect from Solarpunk. On the surface, this was a handy way to manage expectations. It was also a canny way to give the game a degree of immunity from criticism; if you don’t like what the game does, then clearly it’s not for you, right?
Not really. Criticism is still valid, said the video game critic. Some issues I found were due to a lack of polish, like how the player’s shadow is out of sync with actions (for example: if you mine for ore, your shadow’s arms move after you’ve visually hacked at a rock). The handcrafted islands are all visually similar with no real reason to visit them other than for maybe a new resource.
The balance between grinding for resources and what you need for things (especially hunger) feel out of whack – waiting around for crops to grow is fine, obviously, but you’ll rarely have much else to do while you wait except maybe build something random, just because. Crops have to be manually named using a craftable sign, otherwise you’ll need to remember what you put where, and until you unlock things like a sprinkler system, you’ll need to water them regularly. However, once the game approaches nighttime it’s a double-edged sword, because it actually gets dark and I really like the subtle change in mood, but it makes it impossible to tell if a crop needs water or not.
Small things, a lot of these, but they start to pile up after almost 20 hours into a pile of annoyances. But then, the game will throw something that feels fresh or fun at me and keep me on my toes. Like the storms. These cause intense rain and localised flooding, and they also bring the risk of being struck by lightning. I especially like how lightning can arc across the wet ground; this creates a sense of danger I deeply wish was inherent elsewhere and at other times in the game. I mean environmental stuff, not necessarily monsters or typical enemies.
Solarpunk favours pacifism and is friendly to vegetarians as animals can’t be killed and eaten. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these ideas, nor how the game has a focus on renewable wind and solar energy (it’s called Solarpunk after all). But, and I’m aware I’ve thrown a few ‘buts’ around already, I can’t shake the feeling that the game is lacking something.
Don’t Get Too Cosy
Solarpunk has plenty of nice ideas but rarely goes beyond what you’d expect. The character creator is a really good example of this: it’s super basic. I have to wonder, if you’re going to bother adding something like this then why not go that extra mile and at least offer a solid variety of customisation options? As it stands, there are a handful of colours, hairstyles, and body types…and that’s it.
All of this leads me to my final point. Solarpunk isn’t just competing with heavy hitters like Minecraft but also other indie titles like Everwind (this also comes with an airship) – not just in terms of being sandbox games that allow cosy low stakes crafting but also the price point.
Solarpunk is being sold for around $23: affordable, sure, and if you’re one of those gamers who equates price to hours of gameplay, you can’t argue with the approximate 20 hour baseline nor the potential replayability/continued gameplay of simply booting up the game to build something cosy.
What you also can’t argue with is that Solarpunk’s competitors offer more. Yes, Cyberwave is a small team, and that has certain limitations regarding ability and time, plus their laser focus on making Solarpunk a relaxed experience cannot be faulted. And yet…you can play a similar title for a similar price and choose to have a peaceful experience or throw a bit of danger in, whatever your mood.
I think a really good example of a game that balances both sides of the coin is Kingdoms and Castles. I like to call this type of game (and Solarpunk is very nearly in the same category for me) a “bedtime game”, in that I like to play it for a bit before going to sleep, because it’s really relaxing. Kingdoms and Castles lets you build a settlement at your own pace but you can also choose to deal with viking and dragon raids to spice things up.
I’m not saying Cyberwave should chuck dragons into their game, but Solarpunk would benefit from added (purposeful) friction – certainly in the long term, which is what matters most. A lot of the weird little irritations I’ve mentioned could feasibly be ironed out (and Cyberwave are already working on patching things up) but I have to wonder how many players pulled in by Solarpunk’s recent coverage will still be booting up the game in a few months from now.
So is it worth playing? Yes. I enjoyed my time in it overall, and it’s clear a lot of thought has gone into the building aspects of the game. Is it worth playing right now, though? I’d have to answer that with a ‘no’. The price doesn’t quite equal value, in terms of longevity, to me. I can easily imagine some players spending a chunk of time in the pretty but empty world of Solarpunk, getting bored, and moving on. I would recommend holding off for a little while, for either a sale or a substantial patch to add more content. Then I would recommend jumping in and seeing what kind of ridiculous house you can make with the excellent building tools.
