Cube World is finally finished after nearly a decade of development and although you can feel the passion that went into this voxel project, it just hasn't resulted in a good game. That's a shame, but a classic case of small teams failing to compete against multi-billion-dollar investments in a saturated genre.
Cube World was originally announced in 2011 where Minecraft-lookalikes were the rage and that genre-defining game wasn't anywhere near as fleshed out as it is today. But in the intervening years, after Microsoft buyouts and big content additions, Minecraft has retained its spot as one of the most popular games in the world, with more than 110 million active players at the last count.
Cube World, on the other hand, has released to a lackluster response from reviewers. While they praise the way the map is handled, the overall look and feel of the game is dated and just doesn't have the depth and breadth of content that was originally promised with the game. What has been delivered also falls behind what is offered by games like Minecraft, making this a redundant release for new players, and a shame for those who followed the project throughout its development.
There are different races to interact with, a variety of enemies, procedural lore, and quests to go on, all in a randomly generated world that expands as you play. It's an ambitious project for two developers, and it shows that they weren't quite up to the task of actually making it fun. The game is janky, dull, and too big to really enjoy.
It's a shame, but not unexpected from such an ambitious attempt to jump into the genre de jour. They were just too late to the table.
