Crashlands Review

Crashlands, an action RPG, has taken the mobile gaming world by storm. Tons of gamers have been celebrating its outlandish humor, gameplay, and cartoon aesthetic. I had to check out Crashlands for myself to see if it lived up to all the hype.

Crashlands’ story is over the top without taking itself seriously. Players take control of Flux as they are delivering items across space with their robot sidekick, Juicebox. In a surprising turn of events, an alien who is a large, floating purple head, blows up your ship and you crash land on an alien planet. Flux, ever the dedicated worker, wants to get off the planet, finish their deliveries, and avoid the purple head of doom.

The planet you’ve landed on consists of four sentient races, lots of enemies, and a large map to explore. Enemies range from a hippo-dinosaur love child, to rock monsters that shoot fire, and floating squids. To get off the planet you’ll need to get crafting, Crashlands features over 500 craftable items. Players will be scavenging for materials and crafting items such as armor, weapons, base décor, and new crafting stations to create a wider array of items.

As you scavenge you’ll find crafting recipes and discover that you need to develop stronger tools to access various resources. Creating and equipping stronger weapons, armor, and tools are Crashlands’ equivalent of leveling up. Each piece of armor has its own buffs, such as resistance to particular types of attacks, or allows you to regain health over time. Still, you’re most likely going to be sticking with the higher level armor and weapons as they provide better health and attack stats.

Crashlands features excellent and simple controls. Tap the screen to move Flux, attack enemies, and to hack away at the environment for resources. The game automatically equips the tools you need such as a light at night, a pick ax to demolish stone, and your trusty wrench to throw at enemies. One of the game’s best features is its infinite and self-sorting inventory, a massive time and frustration saver.

This game is pretty forgiving. When in combat, the game allows players to see their enemy’s line of fire in red and try to get out of the way. Eventually, you get an alien companion at your side that can do the dirty fighting for you while you stay at a safe distance. When you do run out of health, you respawn and can retrieve any dropped items (even a commemorative headstone). For players who want more of a challenge, the game offers four difficulty modes.

As fun as Crashlands began, it quickly became predictable. To progress through the campaign, you’ll need to complete quests that have you travel sizable distances across the map. These quests generally require crafting a new item. Players will be trapped in a cycle of getting a new crafting station, creating new items, and using these items to get resources they didn’t have before. Then you will use these newly obtained resources to make a new crafting station and repeat the process.

The player’s progression through the campaign is linear, the only things that will make your experience unique is how you decorate your base and what creature you have fighting alongside you. With more player autonomy Crashlands could have achieved greatness. However, the game’s development team is small so I’ve got to cut Crashlands some slack.

Despite Crashlands’ flaws it does make for a fun game. The game’s simple controls and difficulty selection makes it accessible for gamers of all skill levels. Crashlands doesn’t force ads or in-game purchases down your throat, allowing you to focus on the game. For those looking for a unique and funny action RPG, Crashlands might just be what you need.