Oppidum

combat is horrid but it's got potential. Gathering is a little lackluster too. I'd give it a "wait for it to cook some more" rating right at the moment. Gave it another shot right up to the point I had to stop or pass the 2 hour mark. It's a bit too casual even for me and the combat did not get any better.... just. not. fun.

This game is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. It takes about an hour to unlock planks which are required for you to litterally do ANYTHING in the game. The only reason I got this game was because my brother preferred it over Minecraft for some reason. I guess I have to refund my brother too along with this game. 0/10, do not play this game.

The game is a lot of fun with other players. I love how in the settings menu you can set the game to however you want to play. There are a few game crashes and bugs but the game is still alot of fun! Me and my girlfriend just beat the game and it was amazing!!! This game is worth your money for sure!!

Initially a positive (after 4 hrs) but after playing it another 11 hrs I completely changed my mind. Bought it to play with a friend. First 4 hours were fun and bug free. Then the bugs started showing up. When changing settings in game with durability off, every time I changed a setting everything would take durability hits as if it had been on all the time. Eventually after 3 changes everything was red from durability loss and looked like it was going to break. After defeating the 1st boss (that was also designed for MP) I started getting stuck in quest completion dialogues (no effect on the other player). Pretty sure I needed to complete that to get something I would need. To me this is a game breaking bug if playing in SP mode. Dev wanted videos on discord. I don't do videos or Discord considering every game now a days wants you to go to their Discord channel. And not everybody wants to do videos. I have no desire to repeat it again just so I can capture it on video for you. When you get stuck all you can do is rotate the camera and sometimes ESC will work, otherwise you have to kill the game. You don't even get a choice of where to setup your base, it's decided for you. You have a limited area to build in that never expands. There's obstacles (resource nodes) in that area that prevent you from building in certain places. Great now you have even less space to build in. Placing buildings is another nightmare. It looks like it can go there but doesn't want to. Messiest base I've ever had in any game in my life. Game suffers from small inventory and stack size syndrome. Even workstations need to be expanded thru quests. Game is story driven. No exps or levels from kills, just the same loots. Each farm (after unlocking it) has a number of specific plots that you must water each day unless it rains. At 15 hrs, I have no space in the one and only bank that you can build. Chests are just for decoration. That's just what's I've found so far. You can't heal yourself during combat, you have to run away, do the slow healing process and then come back to find your enemies have completely healed. Never found a ranged weapon. I think it's all melee. Can't pull enemies out since they're usually clustered. If you do manage to get a lone one, more usually show up anyway. However enemies do have ranged combat. Ranged enemies that get halfway down on health run away to shoot at you. I often found myself running after them to give them the final blow hopefully before the other swarm and kill me. Was at the time playing in SP mode. Never did find out why I would want 2 weapon slots unless it's for durability on setting incase your main breaks. Felt like it was made mainly for multiplayer with single thrown in for extra sales. Judging this by the clunky combat. Worst design I've every seen in any game, fighting crabs, in SP it's tedious and nearly impossible to kill one since you need to hit them from behind to knock their shells off, and they are constantly facing you. No damage while hitting them from the front. They do have a very short reaction time when they hit you before turning to face you again. No chance of you getting ganged up on right? In MP, you attack from the front and your friend can then attack from the rear. Beach Pong. I absolutely hate this quest. You must defeat 3 npcs. First 2 take some time, 3rd is impossible. If the ball hits you, you lose a point. They can knock the ball over you. You can't knock the ball over them and if the ball hits them they just knock it back. After several games of 0-7 against the 3rd npc, I just gave up. Have absolutely no desire to complete that quest ever. I'm sure there's other quests I'll not want to complete either due to then being tedious and boring like Beach Pong. I ended up setting the teleport scrolls to unlimited to save time having to return to camp so much. You can only craft at base and no where else. Everything is on a timer. Never got to food making, need to complete a bunch of quests to get to animal farm. Then you have to run around every friggen day feeding your animals something and petting them. I hate this mechanic that's in almost every game now. Pet your livestock, make them love you slowly over time. You got four animal types, that means 1 animals stock for each (since mixing them doesn't make any sense), each stock only hold 6 animals. Each animal also can only stack to 1 in inventory and bank. Don't know why you have male animals. Trader never has any males. Maybe for breeding. But it's just easier to trade food for animals. Unless you need a rooster for the hens to make eggs. But I never saw one for sale. Seems somewhat unbalanced. You can make a kitchen but you can't do anything with it, until you get the animal stock and then some chickens and then get them to actually lay eggs that you need to make dough with and milk from cows. Then you have to experiment with the food to find the right combo that the devs want you to find for each food type. And the devs expect you to remember all the cooking hints and how they impact the food you have to discover from the various npcs. Yeah, right I'm going to remember all that. Or mostly like you need to remember which npc told you what and then constantly go there and talk to them. There 2 items the animals make beside their intended. 1 is manure, forget what the other was. Never got any of either even after a few days. Also couldn't tell what I was feeding them if anything. Did I mention seeds only stack to 5. This is just an absolute stupid idea. I was able to buy 150 seeds, realized I could only carry so many, ended up running back and forth a lot to store them all. Not being able to heal during combat forced me to change to "no drop on death" setting. Not a setting I like but needed here if soloing. Never got to the point of getting a horse. I read somewhere it's an end game item. Figures. Plus side, you can trade food for items with most merchants. You can craft/farm out of your bank to save time carrying everything. You can move your buildings and delete them. You can change settings in game. Well at least it had some pluses. Looks like the game was made for kids and not adults. They also use 1 body type. Good luck with that. At 15 hours I'm just bored to death and finding it very tedious. From constantly having to go back to base since your inventory fills up quickly since you have only a few slots and have to unlock the others. Some of your slots are always used up by bandages, scrolls and food. My friend is also bored with this game. To the uninstall pile it goes. Waste of money again. I was hoping that I would like this game, and want to play it a lot, but circumstances dictated otherwise. Luckly I got it on sale. I understand the mixed reviews now, it's definitively only for a select few. I think I had more fun writing this review then actually playing the game.

Not for me, the visuals, combat and mechanics are cool but the biggest letdown was the small map with the lack of biome variety. If the developers keep expanding the map and add a better teleport system so the gameplay loop isn't just going from A to B to give X to Y then it will be a great game!

TL;DR Strong "do not recommend" from me. The quests are tasteless mmo chaff quests, the fishing is the same as every other game, the progression is locked behind the mandatory story that is a waste of time at best, half of your inventory is locked and there are so many items you can collect that your inventory will constantly be full and there is really only one place to store your stuff, crafting is only at camp and makes.. little sense The combat can be fun and the horse is kinda fast to travel from wherever you are back to camp down a railroaded tunnel 100 times. Incredibly unfun game and mechanics overall. I am one to normally stick it out for a games development... I wish that I could get a refund for this game, but because I tried to give it a shot, I lost $30 to a poorly developed game and now I'm writing this out of spite like 2 weeks later for how bad of a time this game was. The story the game forces onto the player to make any progress is lacking and honestly, very irritating to encounter. When you want to make progress, you have to do a series of "quests" that are as engaging as an MMO quest. Collect 10 leaves, kill 10 frogs, bring me back my basket in the woods. Though, the last one is a two-part quest where the NPC goes, "Ugh! I had 40 logs in my basket and they're gone! Could you go get me 40 more logs?" Like, no man. I have 10 more quests to figure out before I can maybe more quickly move from this little village and my single camp that is at the start of the game. You need to do a lot of running back-and-forth to your camp. There are shortcuts that you can build to make that walk a little shorter, if you get nails, which are only traded for it seems. Oh, the trading? There are no values set on anything and there is no currency. So how much does a leaf trade for? Not sure, but not a lot. How much does a gem trade for? Also not sure, and also.. seemingly not a lot either?

Oppidum, developed and published by EP Games®, is a story-driven survival adventure that sets out to soften the often punishing edges of the survival genre while retaining its sense of discovery, progression, and purpose. From the opening moments, the game establishes a welcoming tone, introducing players to the island of Insule as reluctant heroes summoned through a mysterious portal to help restore balance to a land slowly being consumed by corruption. Rather than throwing players into a purely sandbox environment, Oppidum grounds its experience in narrative context, giving meaning to exploration and crafting through a clear sense of motivation and place. The core gameplay loop blends familiar survival mechanics with a more guided structure than many of its genre peers. Gathering resources, crafting tools, farming crops, and constructing buildings form the backbone of progression, but these activities are consistently framed by quests that push the story forward. Early on, players establish a modest base that gradually expands into a functional settlement, complete with crafting stations, storage solutions, and farming plots that support long-term sustainability. This sense of steady growth is one of the game’s strongest qualities, as each new structure or upgrade feels like a tangible step toward reclaiming the island rather than a purely mechanical requirement. Exploration is encouraged through a diverse and visually inviting world design. Insule is divided into regions that range from peaceful, fertile zones to hostile, corrupted areas filled with dangerous creatures and environmental threats. Moving through these spaces feels purposeful, as quests and environmental storytelling guide players toward hidden lore, new materials, and meaningful encounters. While the world does not aim for hyper-realism, its stylized presentation gives it warmth and personality, making exploration feel rewarding even during quieter moments spent gathering resources or tending crops. Combat exists as a supporting system rather than the central focus, and its simplicity reflects that role. Encounters with hostile creatures add tension to exploration, especially at night or within corrupted regions, but the mechanics remain accessible rather than demanding. This design choice reinforces the game’s broader philosophy of inclusivity and approachability. Players looking for intense, skill-based combat may find it limited, but for those who prefer survival as a methodical, story-driven experience, combat serves its purpose without overwhelming the rest of the game’s systems. One of Oppidum’s most notable strengths is its extensive customization and accessibility options. Difficulty settings can be adjusted in granular detail, allowing players to tailor resource abundance, enemy strength, durability, and even death penalties to their preferences. This flexibility makes the game appealing to a wide audience, from newcomers to the survival genre to experienced players who want to fine-tune their challenge level. Cooperative play further enhances this accessibility, as friends can join an ongoing session seamlessly, contributing to base-building and exploration without disrupting story progression. Narratively, the game strikes a balance between lighthearted charm and underlying mystery. Interactions with non-playable characters and a small companion guide the player through the unfolding story, offering hints about the island’s past and the nature of the corruption threatening it. While the writing does not aim for heavy drama or complex moral dilemmas, it succeeds in giving emotional context to the player’s actions, making the act of rebuilding and protecting the island feel worthwhile rather than purely mechanical. That said, Oppidum is not without its shortcomings. Early progression can feel slow due to limited inventory space and frequent backtracking, especially before fast travel options become available. Some systems, such as crafting and storage management, can feel more tedious than necessary, and occasional technical hiccups or interface friction can interrupt the otherwise smooth flow of play. These issues do not undermine the overall experience, but they do highlight areas where refinement could significantly improve pacing and comfort. Ultimately, Oppidum stands out as a thoughtful and inviting take on the survival adventure genre. By combining cooperative play, flexible difficulty, and a narrative-driven structure, it offers an experience that feels purposeful without being restrictive. It may not deliver the depth or intensity that hardcore survival fans crave, but its emphasis on accessibility, steady progression, and cooperative storytelling makes it an appealing choice for players seeking a relaxed yet meaningful journey. In embracing approachability without sacrificing ambition, Oppidum carves out a distinctive space as a survival game that values connection, restoration, and shared adventure over relentless hardship. Rating: 6/10

very cute and fun to play with friends. who doesnt loves cats right? i think so far everything goes smoothly and i really enjoy it :)

This game is not an easy start. Combat and Parry is hard especially at the start. Once you get in 6-8 hours deep it starts to get easier as you advance in gear. The game is HEAVY on exploring, even the same places and talking to same NPC's after events happen (DO NOT SKIP SIDEQUESTS)! A huge giveaway if they are 2 skulls or higher you probably aren't at the right place even if you can kill them haha... Game is great especially for such a small team. You guys are killing it keep up the great work! Only thing I wish there was is a bow :)

Es un juego bastante entretenido y muy bien hecho. Puedes personalizar a tu gusto tanto los personajes (incluyendo pronombres y todo) como el servidor de juego (esto último en cualquier momento) y así poder jugar como te plazca, en modo chill o hardcore. Permite hasta 4 jugadores en co-op sin que el creador del mundo este conectado. Si queréis saber más, aqui tenéis mi reseña: https://www.chicasgamers.com/2025/12/analisis-oppidum-nintendo-switch.html