Krater Review Summary

Great visuals and audio plus an intriguing world with a fun crafting system, but the game remains unfinished and abandoned with repetitive quests, a bland story, and broken co-op.

Great visual and audio design: Players consistently praise the graphics, visual style, and soundtrack. The art direction and music create an immersive post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

Interesting setting and world: The post-apocalyptic world, mutants, and offbeat setting are frequently noted as appealing. The atmosphere is compared favorably to Fallout and Borderlands.

Crafting system is appreciated: The crafting system, including the ability to craft equipment from plans, is frequently mentioned as a positive feature, though some find it only okay.

Customizable abilities and builds: Players enjoy the implant and ability modification systems that allow flexible character customization. The growth system with multiple classes and branches adds depth.

Innovative combat system: The tactical team-based RTS/ARPG hybrid battle system is described as exciting and well-implemented. It adds variety and strategic depth.

Game unfinished and abandoned: A large number of players report the game feels unfinished, abandoned, and no longer in development, with many citing critical bugs, crashes, and a general broken state that prevents a complete experience.

Repetitive quests and bland story: Quests heavily follow a repetitive pattern of kill, fetch, and deliver without variety, and the story is described as linear, bland, and uninteresting, offering no narrative depth or engaging twists.

Co-op mode is incomplete: The cooperative mode is heavily criticized for lacking a story mode, having only 3 levels, empty lobbies, and launching without online co-op, which is a core feature.

Alt-tab mouse issue: Alt-tabbing causes mouse scaling issues that require a game restart, indicating poor window management and responsiveness to system events.

Map loading is too slow: The large 3D map loads very slowly, causing severe performance issues and frustration when navigating the game world.

Real-time strategy with RPG elements: The game blends real-time strategy with RPG elements, described as a tactical team-based RTS/ARPG hybrid. It is top-down, isometric, and involves controlling a group of characters with strategic elements.

Four classes with two skills each: The game features four distinct classes, each with two basic skills. An augmentation system is available to modify these skills, and there are eight branches offering further specialization. This allows for interesting combinations and teamwork.

Party of three characters: Players control a party of three characters, typically from different classes. This team composition is a core part of the gameplay, allowing for tactical combinations.

Level cap and rank progression: Character progression is tied to a rank system with level caps of 5, 10, or 15. This limited progression is designed to encourage grinding, which some players find bizarre.

Post-apocalyptic Swedish setting: The game is a post-apocalyptic RPG set in Sweden, reminiscent of Fallout. It has a great atmosphere, quirky writing, interesting world, nice visuals, and funny dialogues.

Frequent crashes and instability: The game crashes consistently across various scenarios, including during Chapter 2, multiplayer, crafting, and even before the tutorial. These crashes often occur without error messages, making troubleshooting difficult.

High system demands for age: The game is considered demanding for its age, suggesting poor optimization or high hardware requirements relative to its release date.

Strong Avoid Recommendations: Strong negative feedback advises against any purchase, using harsh language like 'pile of trash' and 'not even for free,' indicating widespread dissatisfaction.

Mixed Grinding Experience: A mixed review says exploration and grinding can be rewarding for those who love them, but innovation is superficial; otherwise, avoid.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Session length: 1.0h.

Krater offers a novel and engaging start with easy-to-learn mechanics and an interesting world, but the fun drops sharply after a few hours due to repetitive combat, limited enemy variety, and weak character progression.

Reported time to anchor: 1h 30m.

Friction: repetitive combat with limited enemy variety; restrictive ability system; low level cap early (level 15) that halts progression incentive; excessive grind from crafting and progression system; tedious dungeon design with few tile sets.

Solo Hack-and-Slash Enthusiast: Plays alone, focuses on the campaign, clicks skills, and explores the world. Motivation: Enjoyment of top-down action RPG gameplay with story and loot progression. Stance: sale.

Disappointed Co-op Seeker: Looks to play with friends, but finds the co-op broken, crash-prone, or too short. Motivation: Desire for functional cooperative multiplayer gameplay. Stance: no buy.

Wary Bug-Skeptical Player: Researches reviews and avoids the game until major patches or deep discounts. Motivation: Caution driven by reports of technical problems and incomplete features. Stance: deep sale.

Steam Deck: The game suffers from persistent tiny font rendering that ruins immersion and remains unfixed by the developer, plus widespread launch failures even under default Proton configuration, making the overall experience frustrating and requiring 40+ due to mandatory tiny-text squinting and startup tinkering.