An Early Access code was provided; many thanks to Double Jump Communications.
Delverium is an open-world adventure game that you can play with up to 8 players in a single world. It has local and online co-op that lets you explore, craft, and farm with your friends.
A Vast World to Explore
In Delverium, you will find a lot of things to do—most of it is based on exploring the appealing, brand-new world around you. Start by talking to some NPCs and crafting basic tools. You will slowly unlock more recipes in your inventory as you encounter new items and materials. This seamless progression comes naturally without much of a tutorial, and it’s very intuitive.
The surface has different biomes and treasure chests to loot, but it’s mostly filled with common ores, trees, and most ingredients available for cooking. You can also encounter farm animals and a few dangerous mobs, like zombies and goblins. It’s mostly safe exploration, but with only common goodies.
Real danger lies in the mines, where the rarest ores can be found and used to craft better equipment. There, you will find progressively more dangerous creatures as you go deeper. On the first floor, you can encounter skeletons, bats, and zombies, but on the second floor, the skeletons have armor and necromancers will shoot magic at you.
Down there, you will even find hidden bosses. In early access, there are up to three bosses and four mini-bosses—two can only be found on the surface. To help you navigate easily, you will unlock shrines that allow you to teleport between them, granting a fast way to traverse long distances.
It’s Not Just Exploration
Delverium is not just about exploring the world; you can use your time to build, farm, and fish. The NPCs you encounter will ask you to build houses so they can set up their shops. You will need a house for yourself as well to set up your respawn point, organize your items in chests, and place workstations.
Grow your crops and raise animals so you can use the ingredients to cook dishes that will replenish your health. Although you are not required to eat often, food can be particularly helpful while fighting difficult bosses or staying in the mines for extended periods of time. Outside the mine, life on the surface can be very chill and relaxing.
There are a few other interesting pieces of gear and items to collect besides basic armour. You will come across accessories with different bonuses for your character, a variety of cosmetic clothes, and most importantly, tokens to improve your mana, health, and inventory space. The tokens are especially useful since at the beginning your stats are very low.
The game can feel a bit grindy sometimes. There are lots of different kinds of armour you can craft, and each one takes a lot of materials. You don’t need to craft every new piece of armour you unlock, but you will have to upgrade them if you want to keep progressing. In the endgame, you might be spending a good amount of time just trying to gather all the ore you need.
Still, the progression is pretty rewarding and mostly smooth until you reach the endgame. If you are focused on combat, you might need a little break to cook some food and brew some potions to help you. You can even buy some goodies from the NPCs to speed up the process. There is more than one way to achieve your goals, and that keeps the game interesting.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Delverium feels very complete for an early-access game. You can chill out with your friends or embark on a solo adventure, reunite your buddies and conquer the mines, or cook every dish alone. It’s really up to the player to decide what kind of experience they want to have.
Still, exploration remains the core gameplay. The surface has lots of interesting things to find, new biomes, dangerous mobs, and a few places that are a bit harder to explore than others. In the mine, you will feel the difficulty increasing as you go deeper. The mobs get stronger with more defence and higher attack, sometimes grouping together and defeating you in seconds.
For an early-access title, Delverium is already pretty impressive. I’m eager to see what else they will introduce in their rich and compelling open-world game.
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