Eden Rising

Eden Rising offers a unique blend of open-world exploration and tower defense gameplay, appealing to fans of RPGs and strategic combat. Players appreciate the vibrant, colorful environments and the variety of crafting and progression options, which encourage experimentation with gear and playstyles. The game's cooperative multiplayer mode is highlighted as particularly engaging, allowing friends to tackle challenging sieges and world bosses together. The developers are praised for their active communication and ongoing updates, signaling a promising future for the title.

However, the game currently suffers from significant performance issues, including frame rate drops and lag spikes even on high-end PCs, which detracts from the overall experience. Combat mechanics feel clunky with animation locking and unresponsive controls, leading to repetitive and sometimes frustrating encounters. The tower defense aspect is underwhelming, especially in solo play, due to weak towers and imbalance in enemy difficulty. Furthermore, the story is minimal and lacks depth, leaving little emotional connection to the world. Despite these flaws, many players find the core gameplay fun and recommend it, especially at its current discounted price point.

Highlights

Players praise Eden Rising's unique combination of tower defense and open-world exploration, enjoying the challenging combat that requires timing and strategy. The crafting system is robust, allowing diverse weapon and armor builds that impact gameplay significantly. The colorful and artistic environments enhance immersion, and the game supports up to 8-player co-op, increasing its replayability and fun factor. Active developer support and frequent updates add to the game's appeal, with many noting the joy of overcoming difficult sieges and world bosses with friends.

Criticisms

Common criticisms include poor optimization and performance issues such as frame drops and lag, even on powerful hardware. Combat is described as clunky and unresponsive, with animation locking and limited feedback on attacks. The tower defense mechanics are weak, especially in solo mode, with ineffective turrets and unbalanced enemy waves. Exploration is hampered by repetitive enemy designs and occasional mob placement glitches. Additionally, the story is minimal and lacks engagement, and the UI can feel cluttered and confusing. Some players also note a grindy progression system that sometimes fails to feel rewarding.