Atypical Games looks to meet Minecraft and No Man’s Sky in the middle with its sandbox adventure Cubic Odyssey, but can it carve out its own open-world identity?
The hook of Cubic Odyssey is an enchanting one. A voxel-based universe where you can shoot off towards any star in the sky and visit the planets that orbit it. Where each planet offers its unique peoples, places, and treasures. Where you can build all manner of things, settle into a hand-crafted home base and mine for resources. It promises the swashbuckling expanse of No Man’s Sky as it is today, and the creative freedom of sandbox games such as Minecraft.
The truth is it doesn’t quite get close to being either.
Which doesn’t have to be a drawback. Indeed, the onboarding of No Man’s Sky, even with refinement over the last 9 years, has long been a complex and intimidating aspect of that game, and I don’t really think you need the complete freedom of something like Minecraft in a game where you have near-endless planets to explore.
So, with that in mind and expectations set accordingly, it was a bit disheartening that Cubic Odyssey still disappoints.
Cubic Odyssey Review: Star Chores
Firstly though, a major positive. The voxel style of Cubic Odyssey helps to give its vast expanses lots of distinctive, vivid landscapes. That first look at the planet you crash land on is a real high point. It’s also pretty adorable to eventually see a new planet and its cubic shape.
While you can jump in and do whatever, the game’s systems are a tad too fussy to go in blind on, so there’s a handy solo story mode to teach you the ropes. It’s fair to say that the tutorial portion of Cubic Odyssey is currently a mess.
It starts out with the simple stuff: how to move, a few simple objectives like harvesting materials, building a crafting table, container, and other survival RPG-style box tickers. The problem is that once things get beyond that, the tutorial muddles up and omits essential information, basically invalidating the tutorial by making you figure it out yourself. It might be more frustrating for console players because the menus and cursor are better suited for mouse and keyboard use.
This process never gets any easier, and my impatience with its laborious, muddled onboarding grew as I increasingly felt stuck on this starter planet, with few spots for resources and surprisingly little to do. The No Man’s Sky launch alarms are probably going off in your head, and yes, they did for me a bit, but only a bit because it’s a touch more focused and fruitful than the hollow yet enjoyable early days of that game. It just takes too long to get moving.
The smoke and mirrors of Cubic Odyssey’s universe were clearly showing in that opening planet, but at the time, I just chalked it up to a dry ‘My First Planet’ tutorial that would move aside to really let me see the goods. Sadly, the variety on offer is stretched thin.
I’d already grown weary of mining on the first planet, mainly because there wasn’t any wonder to it. Instead, it feels workmanlike and strangely rigid. The game offers discovery, but it’s pretty limited, and discovery whilst digging does not factor in how you’d expect.
So, if that’s not Cubic Odyssey’s strength, where does it lie? Well, messy as the introduction to it is, the creation side of the game does its job nicely, and playing it with others eases some of the frustrations. Yes, there are other options out there you’ll probably be more familiar with and are easier to get into. Still, there’s something quite chilled out about working together to do menial jobs, build fortresses, and fight space pirates.
Oh yes, combat is a factor here. It’s probably the most survival-led aspect of the game as you often feel underpowered against humanoid foes. Is it frustrating that these enemies can just drop out of nowhere and easily destroy your defenses (that aren’t exactly cheap to acquire, I might add)? Absolutely. Does it add some spice to your in-game life? Yes. Does there need to be a greater balance between the two? Again, yes.
I don’t doubt there’s potential for Cubic Odyssey’s future to be brighter. Many current issues are common, fixable ones in many games like it. Currently, it doesn’t offer a compelling alternative to the games it will remind you of the most.
Score 5/10 – Average
Developer: Atypical Games
Publisher: Gaijin Network
Reviewed on PS5
Cubic Odyssey PS5 copy purchased by the review author.
Cubic Odyssey is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
