Eden Crafters: Early Access Review

Eden Crafters, what is it?. It’s a survival and crafting game that combines elements from Planet Crafter, Satisfactory, and a bit of Minecraft, yet tries to add its own spin by letting you transform an entire planet. The goal? To make this hostile place into a livable environment by tackling challenges like air quality, water purity, and temperature control. And while it’s clear this is still an early-access game, the concept is quite compelling, and there’s already a solid gameplay loop in place.

What Makes Eden Crafters Unique?

One of the standout features is the terraforming aspect. Unlike other games in the genre where you’re mainly fighting off monsters or other threats, here, it’s just you versus the environment. There are no aliens or wild animals attacking you; instead, your main obstacles are things like a lack of oxygen or toxic lakes that need to be purified. This means that the experience is more about survival and planning rather than constant battles. For those who enjoy games focused on exploration and environment manipulation, this feels refreshing and allows for a more laid-back, yet engaging experience.

The scale of the planet and the voxel-based world is impressive. Being able to dig and reshape the ground as I like reminds me a lot of Valheim and Life is Feudal, but without the risk of structures collapsing. It’s satisfying to see the planet transform bit by bit, especially once you start automating tasks.

Gameplay: Slow Start, Then Gradual Payoff

In true survival-crafting game style, things start slowly. Gathering resources and crafting initially feel repetitive, and it can take a bit to set up basic infrastructure. However, once you unlock automation, things start moving at a faster pace. As I built machines to mine resources and process materials, the grind eased, and the game felt more rewarding. Compared to Satisfactory, Eden Crafters has a similar automation process but doesn’t push you into it immediately, which can be both a pro and a con depending on how much you enjoy the early handcrafting phase.

For players who like the more hands-on approach of Planet Crafter, where every small task builds toward your goal, Eden Crafters will feel familiar. On the other hand, it doesn’t match Satisfactory’s efficiency-driven mechanics, where the game encourages you to scale up automation as quickly as possible. Here, the shift from manual crafting to automation is gradual and gives the player some flexibility, which could appeal to a wider audience.

Visuals and Atmosphere

While the graphics do the job, Eden Crafters could benefit from a stronger visual identity. The color palette is reminiscent of Space Engineers, with blues and whites in the structures and machines. It’s functional but doesn’t stand out, and some more unique visual elements would help set it apart. The planet itself looks decent but could use more exploration-driven landscapes—right now, the focus is mainly on resource gathering, so the world feels somewhat bare.

Bugs and Co-op

During co-op sessions with my friend, we only encountered a couple of minor glitches, which is better than I expected for an early-access game. We didn’t run into any game-breaking bugs, just small annoyances that didn’t take away from the experience. Some players have mentioned bugs, but in my experience, they’re more an occasional nuisance than a significant problem.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Unique focus on terraforming without constant threats
• Automation gradually improves the experience
• Large voxel-based planet with flexibility in how you reshape it
• Co-op mode works well, minimal bugs

Cons:

• Slow start, with a grind-heavy early game
• Lacks a distinctive visual style
• Could use more exploration elements
• Feels derivative at times, like a blend of other popular games without adding much new