Omega Crafter is an open-world survival crafter rife with programmable worker-bots and massive bosses to bring down. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Omega Crafter Review Overview
What is Omega Crafter?
Omega Crafter is an open-world survival crafter where you use a bunch of adorable (and programmable) robots to automate and expedite entire production chains. In addition to traditional survival crafting mechanics, Omega Crafter also features a vast open world filled with monsters, ruins, and most importantly, resources.
Kit out your character with the best gear you and your Grammi can build and head out on yet another exciting adventure in Omega Crafter.
Omega Crafter features:
⚫︎ Programmable robot production chains
⚫︎ Fun and simple survival crafting
⚫︎ 3D open-world exploration
⚫︎ Challenging boss fights and thrilling combat
⚫︎ Base building and settlement building mechanics
⚫︎ Play with up to 5 other friends with online co-op multiplayer.
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Omega Crafter's gameplay and story.
 Steam |
$24.99 |
Omega Crafter Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Fun Programmable Automation Mechanics Simplified Survival Crafting |
Difficulty Balancing Issues Breaks The Rules of Open-world Design Base-building is Too Simple |
Omega Crafter Overall Score - 76/100
Omega Crafter is something of an unfinished crafting recipe. At the moment, a few pieces are missing, and it’s mostly still under construction, but the general idea is coming through well, and its most prominent features are standing out nicely. It’s a serviceable experience for now, but I look forward to the fruition of its undeniable potential.
Omega Crafter Story - 6/10
Omega Crafter’s story is novel and creative, although it’s not unheard of. Having a game within a game is a fun idea, although it serves little purpose apart from being a quirky framing device. I don’t think much would have changed if the devs had chosen to frame the narrative more traditionally, but a missed opportunity for more creativity isn’t the most egregious sin.
Omega Crafter Gameplay - 8/10
Omega Crafter implements a fun gameplay mechanic that lets you control a legion of little robots using a bunch of programmable logic gates. I’m a huge fan of this mechanic and I can’t wait to fully explore what kind of coding shenanigans I can get up to when this game leaves Early Access. Sadly, the same uniqueness and novelty can’t be applied to the rest of the game’s mechanics, which mostly consist of your usual open-world survival crafting staples.
Omega Crafter Visuals - 8/10
Omega Crafter’s visuals are serviceable and effective, though I won’t go so far as to say that it’s unique. It’s your standard 3D wilderness survival environment, complete with hilariously chunky equipment and low-poly trees. It’s not by any stretch of the imagination, but I could’ve sworn I’ve seen at least 2 other games that look like this.
Omega Crafter Audio - 8/10
Omega Crafter’s audio is pretty darn good, consisting of good-quality SFX for your various crafting and adventuring actions, as well as somewhat catchy background music that changes according to the situation. Some of the tracks get samey (namely the combat music), but I’m sure that the devs would have ironed out that kink by the time this game leaves Early Access.
Omega Crafter Value for Money - 8/10
Omega Crafter's price is a bit higher than one might expect from a game that's still in early access, but I think $25 is more than fair for a game with this much potential. I can certainly vouch for the quality of what it has so far, and I can only expect better things in the future. Sure, you can get much cheaper games than this, but I promise you that you won't regret this purchase in the slightest.
Omega Crafter Review: Could Use a Bit More Tinkering
I’m going to preface this review by saying that I enjoy survival crafters very much. There’s just something so exhilarating about gathering resources and turning them into tools and facilities that are more than just the sum of their parts. I look at the trees and stones around my player character and can’t stop thinking of all the things I can make from them. What I’m trying to say is that I went into this game with an itch to scratch, and was more than willing to throw myself at everything that it had to offer. Even with this potential bias in mind, Omega Crafter didn’t really exceed my expectations with most of its features…save for one.
It takes a lot to stand out as a survival crafter nowadays, what with a new one coming out every month or so with some variance of sticks and stones to make the same makeshift tools with. And though not all of them are open-world, most of them are, which didn’t really bode well for a newcomer like Omega Crafter to make its mark in the genre. I’m happy to report, however, that not only did Omega Crafter manage to stand out, but it did so in such a way that the game was elevated from mediocre to potentially great. Allow me to elaborate.
The elevating feature in question is Omega Crafter’s legion of little minion robots called Grammi. Apart from being cute as all heck, these robots are programmable and can be set to do pretty much any combination of commands that you can think of. The limiting factor with Grammi is how many of them you can have at a time, but these things are tireless and efficient—two characteristics that can be boosted further by adding special furniture to their crafting areas.
It’s a very fun system where you can set these little weirdos to do something using a command console, then just leave to go adventuring or something. Speaking of the command console, it uses a very fleshed-out logic gate system that lets you set up if-and and if-else statements. To the less digitally inclined out there—present company included—it basically lets you set parameters for your Grammi to follow to the letter. You can chain these up to create a beltless system of worker bots that can turn sticks and stones into building materials in no time flat.
What makes this system great are all the quality-of-life improvements added to keep things streamlined and easy to understand for everyone, even if they’ve never coded a single line in their life. This quality-of-life extends to the rest of the game’s inventory, equipment, level-up, and exploration mechanics, making for a smooth experience that doesn’t leave me wanting in terms of ease of use.
For example, all inventories have an assortment of features like auto-sort, single, half, and full-stack transfer, and a way for you to deposit stackable items without ever opening the inventory screen. Even Minecraft doesn’t have that!
This ease of use, when paired with your assembly line of Grammi, keeps things streamlined and fun, allowing you to do other things like build a base or go on adventures. Unfortunately, with how the game is now, you’re not going to want to do that. Yeah, sad as it is to say, all this automation and streamlining doesn’t really pay off because it’s easily the best part of an otherwise mediocre open-world experience.
I’ll keep this part short because even though Omega Crafter’s open world is easily its weakest aspect, it’s not egregious enough to warrant a tirade. It is, at worst, monotonous, which isn’t the worst thing ever for an early-access game because content can always be added. The enemy variety isn’t the best, consisting of bog-standard wolves, boars, and deer—you know, level-1 mobs in every RPG ever. I half expected a giant rat to show up, but it didn’t.
In the same vein, enemy balance isn’t great either. The aforementioned enemies are all easy to deal with once you make a sword—which is unlockable after 10 minutes or so—even if they surround you. At the same time, the boss monsters will give you Dark Souls flashbacks if you’re not careful. The difference between these two extremes is astounding, but at least it’s only a matter of moving numbers around to fix this.
In terms of visuals, Omega Crafter is pleasing enough to look at and is effective in conveying the video game world that it’s set in. Oh, right, did I forget to mention that you’re in a game? Not you as the player, but you as the character. This game’s whole schtick is that you were sent into this game to deal with a few bugs in the code, which manifest in the gamescape as boss monsters. It looks a bit too much like Pokemon and Palworld in that regard, but hey, it makes sense for the setting, and it’s easy on the eyes.
Audio-wise, I have no serious complaints. The SFX sounds great and is appropriate for the various crafting and adventuring actions you do. The music is well-made and catchy, although a little bit more variance would be appreciated, namely for the combat music.
And that’s all the ingredients of Omega Crafter. It is honestly not that bad a game, although a few bits and pieces are still either missing or not attached too well. I wouldn’t consider this an artisanal creation just yet, but, like an apprentice still honing their craft, this game shows great promise for the future. And, hey, it’s still in Early Access, so there’s definitely room and opportunity to improve as the days march on. I definitely enjoy some of what it has to offer now, but a little more tinkering ought to do this unfinished crafting recipe some good.
Pros of Omega Crafter
| Things Omega Crafter Got Right |
|---|
|
Fun Programmable Automation Mechanics Simplified Survival Crafting |
Fun Programmable Automation Mechanics
I’m all about automation when it comes to survival crafters. While it’s not always an option, I jump at the opportunity to make any process automated from gathering to storage, even if only to feel the immense satisfaction afterward. And while conveyor belts and production chains are all the rage these days with games like Satisfactory and Dyson Sphere Program, Omega Crafter’s approach to automation is starting to grow on me. Heck, I’d even say I like it already.
You already know the gist of the Grammi from my earlier explanation, so allow me to explain how you can set some of these up, just so you have a better idea of how it works. Let’s say that you want to automate the production of arrows. It’s rather simple, as all you need is wood. You can gather these manually, or you can automate it by making a forestry farm.
That sounds simple enough. Just make a plot of land to plant tree seeds in, assign a Grammi with the "Forestry" command, indicate which plot of land it is to work on, assign which box to get seeds from, and finally, assign which box to put the gathered wood into. From here, you can set up another Grammi with the "Craft 1 Item" command, designate which box to get materials from, which workstation to craft with, and designate which box to put the finished product in. Set up the crafting station’s recipe as " arrows", and you’re done. Easy, right?
That’s literally the simplest way to go about it, and you’re not even using custom commands. Those are all preset commands that you can click to activate. Trust me, with the number of things you can command a Grammi to do in quick succession and ever-increasing specificity, a production chain would be the least of your creations.
Simplified Survival Crafting
This game is a survival crafter, but it lacks the thirst and hunger meters that people often associate with the subgenre. True, a lot of games do require something like that to be fun, but Omega Crafter is not one of them. Survival boils down to crafting things and building shelter—exactly as you’d expect from a game with "crafter" in its name.
I think this was a great idea, as it makes perfect sense from a narrative and game design perspective. Narratively, one wouldn’t have to eat or sleep if one is just a consciousness projected into a game world. Game design-wise, such mechanics would detract from the game’s focus, which is crafting and building.
Cons of Omega Crafter
| Things That Omega Crafter Can Improve |
|---|
|
Difficulty Balancing Issues Breaks The Rules of Open-world Design Base-building is Too Simple |
Difficulty Balancing Issues
I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating: this game’s difficulty balance is not the greatest. The basic mobs are too easy to kill, even in great numbers, and the boss monsters might run From Software for their money. One could argue that this is a skill issue and you wouldn’t be completely wrong, but I still think that the difference between killing a monster in one hit and a monster killing you in one hit is a bit too large. Oh well, nothing a little balancing can’t fix.
Breaks The Rules of Open-world Design
It’s not a hard and fast rule per se, but CD Projekt Red—famed developers of The Witcher series—came up with a rule for open-world game design that I hold any open-world title to. It’s called the "40-second rule", and it posits the idea that a player should encounter a new point of interest in an open world every 40 seconds. I timed Omega Crafter’s average time between every major point of interest and it came out as a little over a minute. Not a good start.
Some might consider it unfair to compare an early-access game to something as esteemed as The Witcher, but it’s generally a good rule to follow, and I genuinely think Omega Crafter could improve by following it. More things to do isn’t always a good thing, but it certainly is in this case.
Base-building is Too Simple
I’m not a fan of this game’s base-building for one reason only: it’s far too simple. Right now, it’s not that complex and, frankly, doesn’t look that good. Even the game’s Steam page shows a few houses with a person-sized gap between its angled roof and the nearest wall. Again, the game is in early access, so it’s somewhat forgivable. Still, I won’t be doing the devs a favor by not pointing out a major point of improvement that can still be remedied.
Is Omega Crafter Worth It?
Definitely, And Its Value Will Only Increase From Here
$25 dollars might seem like a tall order for an early-access game, but I think that Omega Crafter's got what it takes to live up to that price and then some. It's definitely worth that much now, especially if you're just looking for a fun crafting game to play with friends, but its value will only increase as the devs iron out the kinks in the game's balancing and open world.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
| Steam |
$24.99 |
Omega Crafter FAQ
How Do You Defeat The Treant in Omega Crafter?
The Treant is Omega Crafter's first boss fight and could pose a major threat to unprepared players. Fortunately, you can defeat the Treant by keeping the following tips in mind:
Rebind Your Dodge Key
Dodging The Treant's attacks is key to surviving this boss fight, so you may want to rebind your dodge controls to your mouse's thumb key (if it has one) or to another that's easier to press than Left Ctrl.
Make Sure You're Buffed Up
The Treant's boss arena isn't too far from the tutorial's starting city, so make sure that you buff yourself with all the food you can before heading out. Make sure to keep a few spare food items in your hotbar to heal as necessary during the fight.
Stock Up On Arrows
If you're not confident with your dodging skills, you may want to consider stocking up on arrows and engaging The Treant from a distance. The only downside to this is that The Treant spawns smaller enemies from time to time, and the bow's attack speed can be a bit slow.
Does Omega Crafter Support Gamepad Controls?
Omega Crafter currently does not support gamepad controls, although the game's developers have already confirmed that full gamepad support is currently under development and should be available in future updates.
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Omega Crafter Product Information
 |
|
| Title | OMEGA CRAFTER |
|---|---|
| Release Date | March 28, 2024 |
| Developer | Preferred Networks |
| Publisher | Preferred Networks |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Open-world, Survival |
| Number of Players | 1-6 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | N/A |
