Honestly, the fact that the dev has gone MIA not once, but twice now should be reason enough to avoid Cube World, but I'll cover what I can so that this review isn't as complete a waste of your time as the game it covers is at the time of writing.

So initially Cube World was actually pretty damn good, I played the alpha with a few of my friends on and off back when I was in high school and we all had a blast with it. However, it kind of stagnated after a while, with no news regarding upcoming updates (seriously, the only update I can really remember was the addition of an extra world boss, but like I had to go looking to find any news regarding it... and I'm not even sure if world bosses are still a thing in the current build) or when any of the features promised would be implemented. So yeah, it slowly died.

Then last year we suddenly heard from the dev again, Cube World was leaving alpha and with the beta build the game would also be coming to Steam! I got rather excited over this, as I hadn't played the game in a very long time and I was hyped to see it back from the dead. Unfortunately that feeling didn't last. The beta build of Cube World didn't seem to bring many majorly beneficial changes to the game, and for every step forwards taken, there were 50 more steps taken in the opposite direction. The biggest change made (and the most divisive one within the community from what I understand) was the overhaul of the progression system. Items are now tied to the region you obtained them in more or less, and become borderline unusable once you leave the region... giving you very little reason to venture out and explore, in an open world game about exploration with a procedurally generated map. Skill trees have been removed from the game and gear is now much more integral to your progression, which just worsens the previously mentioned issue of gear ceasing to function the moment you cross an invisible line between regions.

Myself and a couple of mates also found the early game incredibly rough, as enemies too high level for you to physically deal damage to would seemingly spawn more frequently than those you can actually hurt in the starting area making it impossible to actually get any gear, what's worse is that I personally was only able to find one item my character could actually equip out of the few drops I had managed to obtain, as the others were all for different classes.

The game has a few flaws, my personal "favourite" (ignoring scuffed progression) of which being that the rogue classes invisibility doesn't actually do anything other than make you move slower, as enemies can and will still attack you or aggro onto you as if you were fully visible. The worst part about that is you are unable to change into any of the sub-classes so you can have an ability that isn't a useless cloak until you reach the first city, which requires you to defeat a boss, which first requires you to gear up, which itself requires you to defeat enemies who likely will be too high level for you.

Honestly, if the games dev would just communicate with his community rather than retreating back to his cave every time something doesn't go his way the game would likely be in a better state, or at least the community would be a bit more patient with the guy. But unfortunately he leaves us in the dark, like it's been a year since this game came out on steam and we still haven't heard anything since then.

I cannot in good faith recommend anyone to buy this game. Avoid it like the plague unless major changes are made or the dev breaks his apparent vow of silence.

Honestly, the fact that the dev has gone MIA not once, but twice now should be reason enough to avoid Cube World, but I'll cover what I can so that this review isn't as complete a waste of your time as the game it covers is at the time of writing. So initially Cube World was actually pretty damn good, I played the alpha with a few of my friends on and off back when I was in high school and we all had a blast with it. However, it kind of stagnated after a while, with no news regarding upcoming updates (seriously, the only update I can really remember was the addition of an extra world boss, but like I had to go looking to find any news regarding it... and I'm not even sure if world bosses are still a thing in the current build) or when any of the features promised would be implemented. So yeah, it slowly died. Then last year we suddenly heard from the dev again, Cube World was leaving alpha and with the beta build the game would also be coming to Steam! I got rather excited over this, as I hadn't played the game in a very long time and I was hyped to see it back from the dead. Unfortunately that feeling didn't last. The beta build of Cube World didn't seem to bring many majorly beneficial changes to the game, and for every step forwards taken, there were 50 more steps taken in the opposite direction. The biggest change made (and the most divisive one within the community from what I understand) was the overhaul of the progression system. Items are now tied to the region you obtained them in more or less, and become borderline unusable once you leave the region... giving you very little reason to venture out and explore, [i]in an open world game about exploration with a procedurally generated map[/i]. Skill trees have been removed from the game and gear is now much more integral to your progression, which just worsens the previously mentioned issue of gear ceasing to function the moment you cross an invisible line between regions. Myself and a couple of mates also found the early game incredibly rough, as enemies too high level for you to physically deal damage to would seemingly spawn more frequently than those you can actually hurt in the [b]starting area[/b] making it impossible to actually get any gear, what's worse is that I personally was only able to find one item my character could actually equip out of the few drops I had managed to obtain, as the others were all for different classes. The game has a few flaws, my [i]personal "favourite"[/i] (ignoring scuffed progression) of which being that the rogue classes invisibility doesn't actually do anything other than make you move slower, as enemies can and will still attack you or aggro onto you as if you were fully visible. The worst part about that is you are unable to change into any of the sub-classes so you can have an ability that isn't a useless cloak until you reach the first city, which requires you to defeat a boss, which first requires you to gear up, which itself requires you to defeat enemies who likely will be too high level for you. Honestly, if the games dev would just communicate with his community rather than retreating back to his cave every time something doesn't go his way the game would likely be in a better state, or at least the community would be a bit more patient with the guy. But unfortunately he leaves us in the dark, like it's been a year since this game came out on steam and we still haven't heard anything since then. I cannot in good faith recommend anyone to buy this game. Avoid it like the plague unless major changes are made or the dev breaks his apparent vow of silence.