Although this game has strong potential, its shortcomings prevent it from being a hit release. Here is our review for Farworld Pioneers, a look at its gameplay and story.

This review will cover Farworld Pioneer’s gameplay and story. The game came out back on May 30, 2023, and is available on Xbox One, Xbox Seris X|S, and PC. The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game will come out on June 14, 2023, after the developers announced its delay. Without further ado, let’s dive into our review of Farworld Pioneer’s gameplay and story.

Farworld Pioneers Review

Farworld Pioneers Background

This game is an open-world, sci-fi sandbox game, playable in PvP, PvE, and co-op. It follows the story of a scientist who crashlands onto an alien planet and must find a way to leave it. The player will be doing this a few times, jumping from one planet to another. While searching for a way to leave the planet, the player must find resources and keep themselves, as well as their fellow survivors alive. They must also fight off against hostile creatures, raiders, and other players.

This makes up a majority of the game’s gameplay loop, as well as the player’s motivation to play the game. Now, let’s dive a little deeper.

Farworld Pioneers Gameplay

This game is not my first sidescrolling open-world sandbox game. I’ve spent numerous hours playing Terraria, as well as Starbound, so I can say that I have experience playing this game. I’ll first talk about this game’s strengths before I go over its weaknesses.

For starters, this game is not just Terraria in space, neither is it a copy of Starbound. Although there may be overlapping mechanics, this game still has a lot going for it. For starters, there’s the AI companion system. Terraria and Starbound both have AI companions as well, but Farworld Pioneers does it a little differently. In Terraria, the AI companions/NPCs are basically just shops that can fight when endangered. In Starbound, the companions are basically just additional firepower when facing enemies.

Farworld Pioneers does it a little differently. The AI companions you have in this game, be it the planet’s inhabitants you manage to hire or the various survivors, have various functions. For example, you can assign a certain area on the map for your companions to gather materials. You can even assign them to plant and care for various plants. They even do tasks such as crafting, researching, butchering, and more. The game basically gives you a means of automation from the get-go. You no longer have to grind for hours to get the materials needed to make an automatic farming machine. You just need to assign your companions to do the job.

Of course, as these are actual characters, the player has to care for their needs. This includes food, shelter, and safety. In Terraria, the player has to create homes for the NPCs as a way to keep them in one place. Here in Farworld Pioneers, it’s a bit more functional. The AI companions all need a bed, as well as food. They will also need protection in the form of armor and weapons. In fact, they will have speech bubbles showing the player what they need, if any. This forces the player to have a more active approach when it comes to caring for their companions.

Additionally, the player can form parties with the AI companions. This makes exploration easy, as multiple well-armed enemies can easily take the player down. Having more people with guns makes it easy to dispatch any enemy that gets in the player’s way.

Its biggest strength, however, is also its biggest weakness. Although the AI companions are very useful, their programming is not the best. I have encountered various situations where the AI pathfinding would get stuck just because of a hole that they can easily jump out of. There are also times when the companions would just wander off on their own, leading to them getting attacked by creatures or being exposed to the elements. There’s also the constant reminder at the side of the screen whenever a companion does not have a job assigned to them. The player has to constantly assign jobs to the companions, and it can get tiring to go back and forth to do so.

This is just a small nitpick on my part, but I also don’t like the fact that I can’t start selecting an area for mining, and then walk to make it bigger. Instead of making the selection area bigger, it instead stutters and follows my character on screen. That means I have to select a small area at a time if I want my companions to gather large amounts of materials at a time.

Usually, AI companion problems aren’t big enough to make a game bad. Just look at games like Fallout, Skyrim, and more. However, as it is a huge part of the game’s gameplay loop, the player consistently encounters these faults, and the minus points just keep getting bigger thanks to it.

Outside of the AI Companions, this game has a lot to offer when it comes to gameplay. There are various planets for the player to explore (once they figure out how to leave the first one). New planets mean new biomes and new biomes mean new creatures, materials, and more. There are also various bosses for the player to discover and fight, further encouraging exploration. I haven’t fully seen if the game’s universe is just as big as Starbound but if it is, then the player will have hours upon hours of gametime ahead of them.

Now, let’s take a look at Farworld Pioneer’s story.

Farworld Pioneers Story

As with most open-world sandbox games, Farworld Pioneers doesn’t really have much in the way of a story. It sets up the player’s basic motivation and pushes them to find their own path. You are your own storyteller, and you must find your own path. Of course, you have your best friend Buddy to give you your objectives, This is the main driving force that the game uses for the player to explore and expand. Buddy gives you various missions, such as finding an underground launch facility, gathering materials to create a spaceship, and more. What happens in between, however, is up to you.

The player will encounter various NPCs in the game, ranging from traders to AI companions to aggressive Raiders. Will you choose to stay out of the Raider’s way and just mind your own business? Or will you actively seek out the planet’s other inhabitants to take their supplies for your own? Will you become an ever-expanding colonizing force? Or will you just find and thrive on a few planets?

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The story possibilities are endless in Farworld Pioneers, especially so when you play with friends. Be it PVP or Co-op, the experiences you and your friend can have while playing this game can vary from playthrough to playthrough. It really just depends on what you want to do, and nothing more. Of course, Buddy can point you in the right way, but, as I said, everything else depends on what you want.

Farworld Pioneers Summary

At its current state, I cannot fully recommend Farworld Pioneers. Although the game has quite a lot of strength, from its AI companions, exploration, and more, the problems with the AI companion’s programming can quickly get out of hand. It is entirely possible to go through the game and just ignore these problems, but it can definitely haunt you when you least expect it.

As I said above, that’s only my verdict on the game in its current state. Should the developers continue to fine-tune the game, improving the AI programming, and introducing new types of biomes, planets, and more, then they will have a good game in their hands.

Score: 6.5/10

Editor’s Note: ClutchPoints received a PC review copy of Farworld Pioneers to allow us to cover the game. This copy did not, in any way, affect this Farworld Pioneer review’s verdict.

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