Recent reviews by Stan Monstro

I'd absolutely recommend this game. It feels similar to a cross between NEO Scavenger and Fallout Shelter, but ultimately deeper, a bunker simulator set in the post-apocalypse that always has you thinking carefully about your next move. You'll worry about your survivors as they scavenge in the wasteland, and you'll pray for rain to come just so you'll have water to drink. Sickness and hunger are always a concern. There are many very realistic aspects that pull this game together and make it a unique experience all its own, and anyone into survival games should have a blast with it.

I've sunk a good amount of time into this so far, since it was in early access. This game tackles many different ideas at once to great effect. It's got the 2D sidescrolling world of Terraria, above ground and below ground, but not as vast in size. It's got the god-game system of Dungeon Keeper, in which you can give orders to your dwarves and have them go about the business of accomplishing it (or take direct control of one of them specifically, also like Dungeon Keeper). And you've got the fortress building aspect of...well...Dwarf Fortress. This is one of those interesting games where starting out can be brutal, especially for a new player, but gets easier as you go, as opposed to other games that start small and scale in difficulty. But that's really one of its strong points, as it has you learning on your toes and makes you think about your next move and how you spend your resources. But that doesn't mean it'll let you off easy, even after you've learned the ropes.

Like most sandbox games, CtW gives you time to build up, and time to be wary. Daytime offers a peaceful chance to work and get things done, while night brings the potential of undead raids on your treasured home. Every 50 minutes of real time play, a portal raid will begin to truly test whether you've prepared properly, or not. And they keep getting harder as well, to force you to think faster and beat the level to ultimately survive.

The crafting is smooth and easy to manage, the graphics are bright and colorful (never really feeling dull thankfully), and the fighting system isn't complicated while still offering plenty of room for strategy to aid the dwarves. Seriously, you'll think of plenty of tricks and traps to make the deadly portal raids easier as you go along, and coming up with said strategies is a large part of the fun.

You'll see some people complain no doubt about resource shortages in the late game, but resource management is important, and it isn't a game problem, it's the players fault for wasting items. This isn't just a sandbox game. It's a multitude of genres at once. It's a sandbox-fort building-management-strategy-survival game with three worlds each between 20-40 hours a piece. It's not about making a beautiful world like Minecraft or Terraria (though you'll love building your fort/home) it's about the brutal survival of moving your dwarves to the next world, towards (what they hope) will be their new home in escaping an undead menace.

10/10 Easily one of the top games of 2014. You'll start playing and look to realize in horror that you've played for hours on end and it's time to sleep. But you won't sleep.

I'm not always in the mood for a deep, heavy game, and thankfully that isn't what Dead Pixels is trying to be. As a casual game, for a bit of great fun or just if you have little time (or if you just want to blow up some 8-bit zombie heads) this is exactly what it needs to be. It goes on sale all the time, and even when it isn't, it's only $3, so please, please give this a play.