Developer: 2Dynamic Games
Publisher: Star Drifters, Surefire.Games
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: PC
Lumencraft – Review
We’ve noticed that digging games have been getting more popular recently. Games such as Deep Rock Galactic and DIG Deep in Galaxies already putting their mark on the genre and now Lumencraft joins the party. In this top-down adventure game, we dig for valuable resources to try and provide humanity with infinite energy for centuries to come. The working days are long and hard. Will you be a successful miner or will you perish to the horrors that lie beneath?
Story
The story of Lumencraft starts at an abandoned underground base. Well, maybe not entirely abandoned, as you find yourself here. Before you can ask yourself what you’re doing at this location, your phone rings. It’s your manager, to tell you exactly why you’re there. It seems that the surface of the planet you are currently on is uninhabitable. This means that you’ll need to stay underground. Now you are tasked with rebuilding the underground base. Previous mining expeditions were looking for a rare resource named Lumen, which could grant humanity infinite power for centuries, but all of the previous miners went missing. Now the success of this expedition lies in your hands. Dig deeper, find any lost digging sites, and collect the technology to rebuild your base. This is the extent of the story, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the game is more focused on the gameplay than on the story.
Graphics
Lumencraft is viewed from a top-down perspective. While normally a 2D title would have less attention to details, Lumencraft is completely different in this regard. Every single aspect of digging, building, and combat is nicely presented. When you are digging tunnels, you will often run into some dirt or materials left behind to show you what happened in the past. Your drill will gradually warm up, displaying a nice glowing effect, as you dig for a lengthier amount of time. It will also display signs of stress when digging through harder resources. Equally detailed is the combat: dead enemies leave blood behind and the bullet casings from the turrets and your weapons remain visible for a while (but not forever, unlike in Trepang2).
Sound
Sound design plays a huge role in letting players immerse themselves in a good game. With no music playing in the background in Lumencraft, it’s the game’s sound effects that are the sole contributors to the game’s soundscape. From simple things like walking and shooting to your drill spinning up and the painful reactions of your character when getting attacked by a monster. Everything in the game is accompanied by the right sound effects. Nothing feels better than hearing your turrets doing their job in the background while you enjoy drilling in peace.
Gameplay
Lumencraft is a 2D action game where you have to dig your way through various cave systems to collect resources. During each mission, you’ll need to complete the objectives and keep yourself healthy if you want to survive your stay in the underground. When first beginning the game, you are strongly advised to play through the tutorial to learn the various game mechanics and controls. The controls are easy to understand and quick to master, as only a few buttons are needed. On the other hand, the various mechanics can make it difficult for an inexperienced player. The tutorial teaches you how to mine, collect resources to buy upgrades, and expand your base. The base building aspect is very accessible once you get used to it, but it takes a few levels to fully understand the various rules and materials necessary, to be successful.
After completing the tutorial, you are offered two playstyle choices. You can either decide to play the campaign mode, which spans over 27 levels or you can instead opt to complete challenges. These are short missions with specific rules, to try your skills and wits. The challenges cover different types of missions, such as building and defending an existing base, being stranded in the dark with only flares in your possession, or having to dig and find a rare source hidden on the map.
Given that the campaign offers the meat of Lumencraft’s gameplay, we’re mainly looking at this mode in our review. The campaign begins with an introductory level to get your base started and to let you collect new items. Since you only start out with your drill, you won’t have many offensive items to defend yourself against the many horrors of the underground early on. By completing levels, you’ll gradually be able to venture deeper into the mining operations and unlock more construction pieces and weapons.
During each mission, you mainly search for two materials, Lumen and metal. Metal is used to craft items, erect buildings and upgrade stuff. Lumen is used in combination with metal, allowing you to set up more advanced buildings like electro expanders, for example. These allow you to build further, upgrade the reactor, and craft weapon upgrades. Since you only need to take two types of resources into account, inventory management is simplified compared to a game like Deep Rock Galactic, which makes you deal with a wide variety of materials.
By completing missions, you are granted lumens at your main base, which can subsequently be used to upgrade your character for new missions. The game does not clarify that lumen earned in a mission will not be carried over to your main base. We recommend that you use as many resources as you want and don’t be stingy about it. Every mission is unique and requires different completion criteria. Some missions can be completed in fifteen minutes, while other missions can easily take upwards of an hour to complete. Fortunately, there is an autosave feature, and you can always manually save the game as well.
Conclusion
Lumencraft brings quite a lot of content to the table. Thanks to a lengthy campaign mode with 27 levels, and various challenges that provide plenty of gameplay shakeups, you are in for quite the ride. The action is enjoyable and digging your way through the various caves in search of resources is well presented, with nice animations and overall enjoyable visuals. The sound design is good as well, with the various sound effects bringing the on-screen action to life even further.
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