➤ Staxel, the review 🎮

Before proceeding with the review di Staxel, we are contractually obliged to offer you a quiz without prizes. Let's get started right away. The player is called upon to restore an inherited farm by trying to restore it to its former glory and make it thrive. What game are we talking about? Stardew Valley? Perhaps. The game world is made up of 3D cubes that can be demolished to obtain raw materials to use in the fields or to build things. What game are we talking about? Minecraft? Perhaps. In addition to the farm, you must also take care of a village full of nice and helpful people. What game are we talking about? Animal Crossing? Perhaps.

Gameplay

But no, dear readers, we are talking about Staxel (what a surprise), a game so derivative that it is almost tender. Our adventure begins with a short tutorial, which explains the basic mechanics, so we have to dedicate our soul and colon to our farm, tilling the soil, planting vegetables and rebuilding the infrastructure necessary to make it thrive, such as barns, chicken coops, fences and more. In reality, the focus of the game is another, that is, making oddities to show to friends in multiplayer and streaming, since there is no real strong goal to pursue and that the resource management part is the most. bland can exist, considering that in less than a year of game time you can have a working farm that produces resources at will to do almost anything.

Actually some village characters can give us quests, but they are really simple and repetitive in the objectives (go to point A and take object B, bring object X to character Y and so on), as well as lacking a common thread , so after a while they just become a nuisance and you just end up neglecting them. Seasonal events happen from time to time that add a bit of variety, but even these are repetitive and sketchy and ultimately add little or nothing to the gameplay. For the rest it simply lacks a decent narrative side, which those who have played in Stardew Valley know not to be secondary to cement the affection for the game world and its inhabitants, especially in such an intimate and familiar scenario. After all, in Staxel we have such freedom that we can completely demolish the houses of complete strangers without being told anything. We understand leaving the initiative to the player, but in this way certain aspects of the gameplay completely lose their meaning and the very presence of the village becomes useless. In short, apart from the farm, the Stardew Valley side of Staxel is really deficient and the relationships they establish with the characters of the village are unprecedented.

The Minecraft side also suffers substantially from the same problem, that is, it is well done but does not reach the glories of its model. There are resources to collect and use to build items that give you access to more complex projects, and you can customize just about anything. The variety from this point of view is good, but Mojang's title is much more complete in the materials and in the obtainable results, so much so that it is not clear why anyone should prefer Staxel if they like this type of gameplay. From a technical point of view, however ... no, no 'instead'. Here, too, the inspiration for Minecraft is evident: cuby game world with ultra-stylized models, There is some more detail, but nothing that makes you cry a miracle.

In summary, Staxel works, but after a few hours of play it shows big structural limits that make it an end in itself. In a way it is the classic streaming game that doesn't even have that shred of originality on its side to give it something unique.

Comment

Digital Delivery Steam, Humble Store Price 19,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

6.0

Readers

Your vote

Staxel is a game that you have already seen and played. The goal is to merge Minecraft and Stardew Valley, without taking the risk of trying something different that makes it at least interesting. The result is a game devoid of ideas, which offers gameplay seen and seen, net of some minor variations. This is not to say that Staxel is not well done, but only that it seems to us the timeless clone of a model that has been widely explored and that seems to have nothing more to say. It is the classic game that is not bad, but from which it is difficult to draw any meaningful moments.