Creature Keeper was supplied by Graffiti Video games for evaluate. Thanks!
Creature Keeper is one in every of a rising variety of creature assortment video games that stay on Steam, and the comparisons to Pokémon are not possible to disregard on this style. And the way can it not? Pokémon is the most important leisure franchise on the earth, in spite of everything. Nonetheless, it differentiates itself from its rivals in a large number of how, like real-time fight and robust world and character constructing. Whereas the expertise was an pleasing one, it was marred by some troublesome points that ought to hopefully be fastened by launch or quickly after.
Creature Keeper doesn’t appear to be a lot on the floor, nevertheless it has a ton of self-awareness and mockery of the fantasy system that intrigued me. As a Keeper within the fantasy world of monsters and taming, your first day doesn’t begin effectively. The tutors are lazy assholes who make the recruits choose weeds and don’t care whether or not you want that or not. The sport’s dialogue is usually well-written and does not fall into the entice of different comedies. The introduction is hilarious, however the characters don’t really feel like they’re making an attempt too laborious to be humorous.
After the hilarious tutorial sequence through which you choose your first critter pal and be taught some fight in opposition to your childhood good friend (and get stung many instances by wasps), you set off in your journey. A wierd pressure corrupts monsters, and the man tutoring you is making an attempt to take over because the village elder. After being given a weird pocket universe by an outdated couple, the sport begins in earnest. You’re appropriate when you suppose Creature Keeper sounds somewhat bonkers, and it may be a bit difficult to maintain monitor of, nevertheless it oozes appeal.
Whereas being ‘simply pixel artwork,’ the visible design is putting, with exploration taking over a Metroidvania model that fits the sport fairly properly. There may be a variety of creatures to gather and battle, and I used to be delighted to discover a codex within the menu that shops all types of details about the creatures. There are nonetheless ‘studying’ factors you accumulate by encountering them organically by gameplay, which makes them simpler to tame and enhance their stats.
In contrast to many collector titles, Creature Keeper presents a novel monster-taming expertise. As an alternative of battling creatures into submission, you tame them with meals, with every monster having particular preferences. This refreshing method reduces the grind and makes creature taming really feel immersive. It is a important departure from the ‘pound the tar out of all the pieces’ method, including depth and technique to the gameplay.
The fight took me unexpectedly as effectively. Often, on this ‘Now we have Pokemon at dwelling’ style, combating is a turn-based affair, however Creature Keeper bucks this pattern with a fast-paced real-time fight system. Your creatures nonetheless battle alongside you, however you’ll be able to swing swords whereas dodging assaults, therapeutic your self and your pet by petting them, and doing combo assaults to extend harm. It’s a excellent instance of retaining issues easy, and Creature Keeper is pleasant when combating, albeit barely chaotic at instances.
Within the overworld, you’ll be able to usually keep away from fight if desired, aside from corrupted creatures that can assault you. Often, progress is locked till you defeat the encounter, however there’s time to organize. Creature Keeper respects the participant’s time, and I drastically respect that! Bear in mind the little pocket dimension? It’s a little hub space to return to from quick journey factors and a backyard to develop fruits for extra taming.
All these items sound nice, and the gameplay loop is great. Nonetheless, I discovered some points. When you can entry the overworld map by quick journey factors, there isn’t a minimap or navigation throughout gameplay. You need to depend on reminiscence to get by the routes. The hands-off exploration model is just not unhealthy, however I typically discovered it complicated the place to go subsequent. I bumped into my first main drawback early on after I needed to find a temple for a quest, and the map layouts appeared an identical. I most popular a minimap so I might navigate the world higher.
Stability additionally wants some work. Some obligatory boss fights are difficult, such because the dragons, that are very early within the sport. Although I used to be over-leveled, I stored getting killed, although there was no penalty for defeat.
I additionally bumped into some irritating bugs. The sport froze each time I activated a quick journey level outdoors the Pocket Backyard. It labored after ready a few minutes, although I needed to rebooting twice.
The efficiency might use some optimization. I noticed frequent stutters and body drops throughout heavy motion scenes, and the settings menu sometimes introduced the FPS all the way down to the mid-10s. Typically, the taming interface would bug out and be minimize off on the display on my Steam Deck.
Creature Keeper wants some TLC and patches to succeed in its full potential, however the elementary sport design is on level, and the world will maintain you entertained. The sport respects your time with the primary story whereas sustaining sufficient aspect content material to fulfill most gamers.
Creature Keeper – Steam Deck Efficiency
Total, Creature Keeper is a strong sufficient expertise on the Steam Deck, though the dearth of choices and aforementioned stuttering detract from it.
The basics are all working, and whereas I couldn’t rebind any controls, the sport comes with full controller help.
Advisable Settings
As typical, I attempted two default choices. There isn’t any approach to tweak graphical settings in Creature Keeper, not even display decision, so we’re restricted in choices. With the inventory 90Hz refresh charge and a full TDP, Creature Keeper was secure at this setting, though it is going to dip throughout fight scenes when loads is occurring on display. Locking the body charge to 60/60Hz made issues smoother, and there isn’t a lot level going larger than this from my expertise.
The ability drain is surprisingly excessive when you don’t restrict the TDP, with energy spikes to 17 watts customary. The ability draw was a lot larger than I anticipated as a result of whereas Creature Keeper’s visuals are good, they’re nothing groundbreaking. Sadly, even with the unlocked TDP, accessing the menu nonetheless tanked the framerate.
Battery Saver Settings
Regardless of these points, Creature Keeper is pleasing when you want extra battery life whereas taking part in. As soon as once more, the dearth of choices hurts us, however a 5-watt TDP, framerate lock to 30FPS, and 90Hz refresh charge resulted in a decently secure expertise. You will notice extra instability in fight, and the menu will sluggish issues to a crawl, so this gained’t be optimum for a very easy expertise.
In fact, the numerous benefit of this profile is battery life. I noticed a mean draw of 8 watts, a considerable achieve in battery life. Don’t activate Half charge shading, as this can make the textual content unreadable.
Accessibility
Creature Keeper is on the market in English, Spanish – Spain, Portuguese – Brazil, Simplified Chinese language, and Japanese, though some languages haven’t but been totally applied.
Creature Keeper is a type of video games with the naked minimal accessibility necessities. You’ll be able to modify the amount and toggle Vync, however that’s it for accessibility choices.
Conclusion
Whereas I’ve been crucial of Creature Keeper, I nonetheless drastically loved it. Creature Keeper is likely one of the most well-written ‘comedy’ video games I’ve performed shortly, and it comes with a refreshing tackle the creature accumulating style. Combating alongside your rising assortment of monster pets doesn’t get outdated, and the dialogue stored me engaged.
Regardless of this, I come away from Creature Keeper pissed off. All of the bizarre freezes and interface bugs put me off, and the sport’s lack of handholding is each a power and a weak point. The sport is a good performer on the Steam Deck, although the dearth of accessibility choices brings it down. I’m glad the builders are conscious of and dealing on the issues.
Creature Keeper can be a lot simpler to advocate with some optimization and bug patches, nevertheless it has nice ambiance and strong gameplay, and it’ll positively be an pleasing time down the street.
Our evaluate is predicated on the PC model of this sport.
When you loved this evaluate, make sure to try the remainder of the content material on SteamDeckHQ! Now we have all kinds of sport critiques and information which are positive to assist your gaming expertise. Whether or not you are searching for information, ideas and tutorials, sport settings and critiques, or simply need to keep up-to-date on the most recent traits, we have your again.
