Graveyard Keeper
analyzed 2026-10-05 · sample of 447 English reviews across the whole review history
Players consistently praise Graveyard Keeper's art style, writing, and atmosphere; the art style drew positive mentions in 41 of 44 sampled reviews, and writing in 38 of 42. Many describe the game as "addicting. Very much so." and note that "it will keep you busy for hours". The DLC draws favorable comment, with players calling it "good upgrades and addons", and the soundtrack and graphics earn similar approval. Opinion splits on the learning curve and quest design. Of 54 reviews mentioning the learning curve, 36 are negative, with complaints that it is "difficult to navigate new things" and that there is "Too much information to gather in order to play a simple game". Quest design draws 24 negative mentions against 18 positive, including "the quest tracking is really obtuse". Pacing and the UI also skew negative, and players repeatedly raise grind and crafting. Smaller groups report bugs, controls, and level design problems, while price value, relaxation, and community sentiment are largely positive. The recurring themes players bring up, alongside the calibrated aspects, are grind and crafting.
numbers checked against this report's stored data · quotes copied verbatim from reviews · plain text is the language model's own wording
Aspects
share of sample, axis to 20% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share
- positive
- mixed / neutral
- negative
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gameplay
54 positive · 19 negative · 7 mixed · 1 neutral
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i love the adventure side of this game and i enjoy the farming process only thing i dont like is that no one will take your wheat when you have too much of it
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I enjoy these kinds of sandbox games where I am given a dozen different goals to work on at once.
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The art style and mechanics are very similar.
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content amount
44 positive · 13 negative · 3 mixed · 1 neutral
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It is definitely worth looking into at least because it will keep you busy for hours, and at least in my case, I did not get bored of it yet :)
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Graveyard keeper is an amazing game full of great content!
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There is so much to do and explore.
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story
38 positive · 15 negative · 4 mixed · 2 neutral
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Becides that the story line is good and funny at times.
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The story is fun, and there are so many different aspects to the game that the title of Graveyard Keeper can't even begin to cover all the different things you can do.
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Interesting story and full of content.
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learning curve
6 positive · 36 negative · 6 mixed · 6 neutral
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Im 43 hours of the game but im gonna give it a review,its challenging and time consuming for me its not enjoyable as stardew but im not comparing them but its difficult to navigate new things and you get stuck sometimes but its mystery and enjoyable i guess when your high level.
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A bit confusing to be honest. Too much information to gather in order to play a simple game.
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I felt overwhelmed within the first hour of gameplay.
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quest design
18 positive · 24 negative · 3 mixed · 3 neutral
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So many quests, which just seemed like busy work.
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Get the ♥♥♥♥ out of here with these pointless waiting quests and constant, tedious battling with the equipment.
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the core gameplay is fun and the possibilities of progress the story in different directions look really interesting, but there's just so many little QoL things that are annoying and if they aren't fixed by know i assume they never will, to name a few the quest tracking is really obtuse.
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dlc
34 positive · 8 negative · 3 mixed · 2 neutral
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The DLCs really add more to the main game, instead of just being an extra level or a fancy thing.
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The DLCs are nice. Theyre good upgrades and addons, Id say.
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I purchased all the DLC and had a good time with the game, though I definitely stopped myself from having an easier time by trying to hold off on certain activities.
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art style
41 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 2 neutral
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The art style and mechanics are very similar.
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Stawdew Valley is one of my favorites so the art style caught my attention.
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It's got a cute style, it's fun to play, and has essentially 0 bugs or glitches, even when it was in early access it was pretty decent.
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writing
38 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Not to forget the quirky humor!
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Humor is great and the game is mostly morbid fun.
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It could be quite funny at times and there was enough drama that it could have been a soap opera.
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progression
23 positive · 14 negative · 2 mixed · 1 neutral
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Give me more things to do, and that's just more things to complete and I love seeing the progression over time.
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The first few hours were interesting as I unlocked the tech tree and discovered what the game had to offer.
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I had a blast researching everything in the tech trees.
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addictiveness
38 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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I lost a night to this because of how smoothly the game moves.
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I can never manage a short play session with this because it always sucks me in for hours.
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Addicting AF.
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see more
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pacing
8 positive · 25 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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walking anywhere is painfully slow - which is also a mechanic for progress balance in a sense - remembering to do the thing (and walking around in the dark cause you took too long deciding what you'd bring) is part of the experience a sense.
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Sometimes it can be quite slow while you grind for materials, but the game has a PUNCH in it.
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It just gets very boring at the end phase and you often have to wait for a specific day to progress a quest. The art looks beautfiul, but the overall gameplay is very basic and repetitive.
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characters
17 positive · 10 negative · 6 mixed · 0 neutral
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A little bit grindy, but the cast of characters are very lovable.
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But am I glad this person did, there are so many odd people to meet,things to build and manage (not to mention the expansions)
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I also found the main NPC storylines to be surprisingly heartwarming.
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price value
25 positive · 2 negative · 6 mixed · 0 neutral
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It is a pixel game so keep that in mind, but it is totally worth your time, especially if you can get it for a smaller price.
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this is an amazing steal with hours and hours of content at $5.
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Worth the buy.
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relaxation
27 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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There is no demand to complete or do anything in any order at any time before any dates which for me makes the game less stressful than Stardew Valley was.
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Very enjoyable resource management and "sit back and relax" game in the spirit of Stardew Valley.
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I wanted something that would be relaxing to play on the steam deck to wind down.
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ui
1 positive · 24 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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There are a couple of flaws: collision can be irritating sometimes, mid-game inventory management becomes a headache, there are too many items and many with not much point in making, some merchants don't buy from me, and many crafting recipes can't be queued for multiples like other recipes can.
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I wish there was a more clear quest tab but other than that I have no issues with this game.
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Too much information to read and remember.
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bugs
5 positive · 16 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral
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There are a LOT of bugs. I've run to quite a few that will literally block you from progressing a DLC. I haven't encountered a bug where it stops you from progressing through the base game, which is good, but it feels like a waste of money if I can't even finish a DLC I paid for.
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Also buggy - went to gather some berries near the garden by the mountain, got sucked in between a bush, and and old tree that I don't have the tech to chop yet - the long progress now will be lost as well as desire to play it.
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The most frustrating issue I had in my playthrough was being unable to progress because I had to reopen a dialogue option I thought I expended.
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game length
12 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 4 neutral
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23 hours in and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
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I have been stuck in here for 120 hours and no end in sight but tons of fun along the way.
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The time it took me to do all the achievements was about 90 hours (I would have had a lot less but I made a mistake and had to make a new save) so time-wise the game is worth its price.
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graphics
20 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The graphics are cute and sometimes morbid with a bit of humor, and really adds charm to the game.
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Loved the storyline, graphics, music, characters, humor and general atmosphere of the game.
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On the plus side, I can say that I was captivated by the beautiful and polished pixel graphics.
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music
18 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The in game music is great and also helps the walk be more enjoyable.
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I love the artstyle of the game, and the music is really great!
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Loved the storyline, graphics, music, characters, humor and general atmosphere of the game.
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updates
11 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Love the dark setting, and each new year brings new content!
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The devs have been steadily making patches and adding quality of life improvements like a teleport stone etc
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Alot of things were solved in free DLC/Update.
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atmosphere
15 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Whimsical and morbid.
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Dark, funny, and lots to do.
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Love this game, it's very relaxing to play and immerse yourself in.
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community
14 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Also the wiki is really well put together.
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Not super intuitive, but there are multiple resources in the interwebs to figure stuff you're stuck on.
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Luckily there are many MANY guides to help you through the game.
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controls
2 positive · 13 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Also, controller support is broken, though that may be though Steam itself.
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The controls are annoying and hard to tweak, and the game is poorly designed.
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Full of grinds, long walks at slow speed and busy work, with no real guidance.
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level design
3 positive · 11 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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On top of that, sometimes it just feels like paths aren't intuitively designed and you needlessly need to circumvent something to arrive at your destination.
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- Walking takes forever, especially in dense areas (despite limited fast travel option).
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Limited map which is dull in general lacking any exciting venues or environments.
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world
11 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Love the dark setting, and each new year brings new content!
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It's like a slightly less developed stardew valley, but less focused on gardening and with a fresh new theme (medieval gravekeeper).
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The colourful and peaceful setting of the game that hides the more sinister undertones is thematically appealing.
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difficulty
4 positive · 3 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
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Im 43 hours of the game but im gonna give it a review,its challenging and time consuming for me its not enjoyable as stardew but im not comparing them but its difficult to navigate new things and you get stuck sometimes but its mystery and enjoyable i guess when your high level.
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But also not so hard you cant play it after a tough day at work.
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It's cute, it's fun and actually makes you think to complete the game.
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combat
2 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Get the ♥♥♥♥ out of here with these pointless waiting quests and constant, tedious battling with the equipment.
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The combat is also janky as hell, but if you prep yourself with health potions and energy replenishing items, you should be fine.
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The game needs more interesting combat mechanics and more combat as a necessity to balance out the grind of chopping trees and mining stone.
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developer conduct
4 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Not only is content that was for all intents promised during the Alpha not present during release, it's being hinted at was apparently a 'joke' with no plans to be implemented.
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… these are pretty big areas that should have been implemented, what makes it worse is that the developers when questioned about the town in particular lied and said that adding the town was 'A little joke' - saying you are working on content and then laughing that it was a joke is not funny, it's …
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Yes, these devs are ♥♥♥♥♥ ( remember the way they reacted to people finding punch club difficult?) but this game did everything right.
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replayability
5 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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You can play this at the pace you want and even though the story is the same each playthrough you can do it in different ways, together this means you can have a different experience each time
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10/10 would play again in the future.
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There is a sense of nostalgia and do come back once in a while to start a new game once in a while.
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performance
3 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Optimization could be better, when there is a lot of things on the floor there are fps drops, but manageable.
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The performance is terrific, 40 fps like a joke.
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It's a little rough around the edges, some dialogue weirdness, and some performance issues.
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balance
0 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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not needed at all when Wine is pretty much 'thanks for playing the game, now for easy mode!'
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With the DLC's, it's got a pretty good story line, though as you go through the game, things become ridiculously easy to complete which means you get through the missions and story lines a lot quicker.
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Terrible economy, the more you buy the more expensive it becomes and vice versa.
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exploration
5 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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There is so much to do and explore.
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Feels like a darker Stardew Valley with much more exploration, which is awesome.
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I have been avoiding the wiki, and personally, I do find the process of discovery "FOR SCIENCE!" to be mentally stimulating.
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player choice
3 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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the core gameplay is fun and the possibilities of progress the story in different directions look really interesting, but there's just so many little QoL things that are annoying and if they aren't fixed by know i assume they never will, to name a few the quest tracking is really obtuse.
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I love how it's open and you can enjoy the game as you want. There's so much content.
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You set your own tasks for the most part, always keeping 1-2 goals in mind as you go. On my second playthrough.
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mods
4 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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if you happen to have a working mod app, quality of life improvement mods will make things a lot easier for you!
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Great fun, with mods it's even better.
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I may try modding next if I can find one that lengthens the story or something as the mechanics are great with very few wants for improvement.
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monetization
0 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Everything is bound to actionpoints what makes your action very limited to build and do things and as a cherry on top, you have to pay twice when you did things wrong.
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I did not approve the developer's decision to charge even more money to get to play the alpha ahead of time.
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No money/item sink. There's no way to sell everything that you've made-- most Gold-Grade items become trash, unfortunately, unless you buy into the DLC [spoiler]because a chunk of Gold-Grade items can be sold in your Tavern,[/spoiler] reportedly [I don't own it].
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platform access
0 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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Has some issues running on Mac.
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Cloud save not working is a major PITA.
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proper steam deck support plz devs
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Emergent themes unvalidated
topics reviewers bring up that are not on the validated list; raw counts only, no error bars
- grind 80
- crafting 6
Review timeline
monthly peak 2,403 reviews · all languages
monthly share rated positive · 50% reference · months with <5 reviews faded
the timeline as a table
| month | reviews | up | down | positive | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2018 | 2,403 | 1,662 | 741 | 69% | |
| Sep 2018 | 667 | 471 | 196 | 71% | |
| Oct 2018 | 197 | 149 | 48 | 76% | |
| Nov 2018 | 971 | 919 | 52 | 95% | |
| Dec 2018 | 248 | 211 | 37 | 85% | |
| Jan 2019 | 375 | 299 | 76 | 80% | |
| Feb 2019 | 203 | 165 | 38 | 81% | |
| Mar 2019 | 117 | 86 | 31 | 74% | |
| Apr 2019 | 82 | 60 | 22 | 73% | |
| May 2019 | 233 | 176 | 57 | 76% | |
| Jun 2019 | 398 | 374 | 24 | 94% | |
| Jul 2019 | 467 | 426 | 41 | 91% | |
| Aug 2019 | 88 | 75 | 13 | 85% | |
| Sep 2019 | 67 | 55 | 12 | 82% | |
| Oct 2019 | 284 | 247 | 37 | 87% | |
| Nov 2019 | 1,462 | 1,368 | 94 | 94% | |
| Dec 2019 | 1,013 | 905 | 108 | 89% | |
| Jan 2020 | 581 | 524 | 57 | 90% | |
| Feb 2020 | 345 | 311 | 34 | 90% | |
| Mar 2020 | 277 | 251 | 26 | 91% | |
| Apr 2020 | 289 | 251 | 38 | 87% | |
| May 2020 | 430 | 382 | 48 | 89% | |
| Jun 2020 | 274 | 247 | 27 | 90% | |
| Jul 2020 | 516 | 454 | 62 | 88% | |
| Aug 2020 | 386 | 332 | 54 | 86% | |
| Sep 2020 | 202 | 185 | 17 | 92% | |
| Oct 2020 | 510 | 422 | 88 | 83% | |
| Nov 2020 | 1,398 | 1,260 | 138 | 90% | |
| Dec 2020 | 524 | 462 | 62 | 88% | |
| Jan 2021 | 506 | 450 | 56 | 89% | |
| Feb 2021 | 287 | 252 | 35 | 88% | |
| Mar 2021 | 210 | 184 | 26 | 88% | |
| Apr 2021 | 478 | 411 | 67 | 86% | |
| May 2021 | 258 | 230 | 28 | 89% | |
| Jun 2021 | 449 | 397 | 52 | 88% | |
| Jul 2021 | 658 | 569 | 89 | 86% | |
| Aug 2021 | 370 | 314 | 56 | 85% | |
| Sep 2021 | 204 | 186 | 18 | 91% | |
| Oct 2021 | 404 | 352 | 52 | 87% | |
| Nov 2021 | 999 | 913 | 86 | 91% | |
| Dec 2021 | 518 | 446 | 72 | 86% | |
| Jan 2022 | 544 | 464 | 80 | 85% | |
| Feb 2022 | 274 | 240 | 34 | 88% | |
| Mar 2022 | 197 | 172 | 25 | 87% | |
| Apr 2022 | 195 | 165 | 30 | 85% | |
| May 2022 | 175 | 158 | 17 | 90% | |
| Jun 2022 | 188 | 166 | 22 | 88% | |
| Jul 2022 | 288 | 253 | 35 | 88% | |
| Aug 2022 | 230 | 204 | 26 | 89% | |
| Sep 2022 | 207 | 173 | 34 | 84% | |
| Oct 2022 | 192 | 166 | 26 | 86% | |
| Nov 2022 | 315 | 292 | 23 | 93% | |
| Dec 2022 | 431 | 370 | 61 | 86% | |
| Jan 2023 | 989 | 876 | 113 | 89% | |
| Feb 2023 | 375 | 338 | 37 | 90% | |
| Mar 2023 | 492 | 438 | 54 | 89% | |
| Apr 2023 | 691 | 596 | 95 | 86% | |
| May 2023 | 392 | 348 | 44 | 89% | |
| Jun 2023 | 330 | 281 | 49 | 85% | |
| Jul 2023 | 475 | 393 | 82 | 83% | |
| Aug 2023 | 829 | 684 | 145 | 83% | |
| Sep 2023 | 408 | 347 | 61 | 85% | |
| Oct 2023 | 261 | 226 | 35 | 87% | |
| Nov 2023 | 873 | 789 | 84 | 90% | |
| Dec 2023 | 526 | 454 | 72 | 86% | |
| Jan 2024 | 512 | 427 | 85 | 83% | |
| Feb 2024 | 338 | 284 | 54 | 84% | |
| Mar 2024 | 508 | 435 | 73 | 86% | |
| Apr 2024 | 263 | 233 | 30 | 89% | |
| May 2024 | 333 | 287 | 46 | 86% | |
| Jun 2024 | 281 | 240 | 41 | 85% | |
| Jul 2024 | 457 | 371 | 86 | 81% | |
| Aug 2024 | 332 | 283 | 49 | 85% | |
| Sep 2024 | 309 | 262 | 47 | 85% | |
| Oct 2024 | 246 | 209 | 37 | 85% | |
| Nov 2024 | 289 | 253 | 36 | 88% | |
| Dec 2024 | 451 | 395 | 56 | 88% | |
| Jan 2025 | 359 | 317 | 42 | 88% | |
| Feb 2025 | 358 | 303 | 55 | 85% | |
| Mar 2025 | 281 | 241 | 40 | 86% | |
| Apr 2025 | 314 | 262 | 52 | 83% | |
| May 2025 | 247 | 213 | 34 | 86% | |
| Jun 2025 | 334 | 285 | 49 | 85% | |
| Jul 2025 | 338 | 283 | 55 | 84% | |
| Aug 2025 | 341 | 281 | 60 | 82% | |
| Sep 2025 | 226 | 190 | 36 | 84% | |
| Oct 2025 | 290 | 232 | 58 | 80% | |
| Nov 2025 | 354 | 303 | 51 | 86% | |
| Dec 2025 | 260 | 221 | 39 | 85% | |
| Jan 2026 | 372 | 313 | 59 | 84% | |
| Feb 2026 | 205 | 169 | 36 | 82% | |
| Mar 2026 | 257 | 218 | 39 | 85% | |
| Apr 2026 | 723 | 597 | 126 | 83% | |
| May 2026 | 284 | 233 | 51 | 82% | |
| Jun 2026 | 325 | 268 | 57 | 82% | |
| Jul 2026 | 265 | 226 | 39 | 85% | |
| Aug 2026 | 278 | 228 | 50 | 82% | |
| Sep 2026 | 552 | 441 | 111 | 80% | |
| Oct 2026 | 99 | 78 | 21 | 79% |
How this report was made
- Population
- all Steam reviews of the game (every language, purchase type, and verdict), walked newest-first per window; only English-language reviews are analyzed
- Sample
- 447 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 99 windows (newest-first within each), taken from an all-language walk and kept English-only — where English is a minority the sample runs smaller than the draw, and every margin of error is computed at 447
- Aspect yield
- 315 of 447 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (70.5%); every share on this page divides by all 447
- Interval regime
- calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
- Fetch paths
- 99 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
- Language mix
- 1,000 fetched: english 450 · russian 128 · brazilian 95 · 20 more
- Steam-marked windows
- none flagged by Steam (Valve's off-topic flagging began March 2019)
- Marked share
- 0.0% of sample inside marked windows, under the 2% floor
- Narrative
- passed the grounding gate first try
- Evidence floor
- aspects and emergent themes appear only with 5+ supporting reviews; smaller counts sit at the classifier's false-positive floor
- Instrument readings
- measured once on the study corpus for this model and prompt: frozen calibration, not properties of this run
- · aspect tagging vs. human labels
- 0.801 [0.752–0.844] (F1 against a human-labeled test set; 1.0 is best)
- · quotes filed under the wrong aspect
- 11.6% [6.6–19.6] of quotes, measured by hand on a sample; lower is better — measured on the prior model (2026-08-05); re-measurement pending
- · independent model vs. production labels
- 0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model) — measured on the prior model (2026-07-25); re-measurement pending
- Versions
- deepseek-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
- Run
- serve-20261005T210152Z-f3cca7bc · code 798e06c
full methodology in the milestone write-ups