I think I randomly picked up a Steamworld bundle on, well, Steam based on a one off comment from someone in The Gamer’s Tavern. I had installed them all pretty much straight away, but never actually sat down to play any of them. Turns out, I was sleeping on a fun little game!
You control Rusty, a steam powered robot who arrives in Tumbleton after receiving a deed to the local mine. You’ll meet a few characters that facilitate the trade aspect of the game, but the goal is to head right into the mine and start digging. The world is pretty much a free form digging environment, with some occasional blockers such as unbreakable walls, enemies, and various forms of minerals which are the game’s currency.
If you like the exploration aspects of games like Minecraft or Deep Rock Galactic, you’ll find a lot of enjoyment here as you can pretty much go in whatever direction you want. Along the way, you’ll find that it takes more swings of the pickaxe to clear blocks so you’ll need to upgrade your pickaxe or search out other tools like the drill to continue forward. Here’s where I could see people losing interest because if this doesn’t sound like fun, that’s pretty much the entire concept of the game.
All in all, though, I had a blast playing it and almost immediately rolled right into the second one, but then TGTSecretSanta24 hit and I think I’m heading back into the underworld to take on Hades again.