Terraria remains a high water mark among the best PC games of all time, with developer Re-Logic currently working on its latest, potentially final update. Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone’s Stardew Valley, meanwhile, landed with such impact that it basically redefined a subgenre of farming and life games. But what if you took the open world survival crafting and secret hunting of Terraria and injected it into the cozy, top-down perspective of Stardew? The answer is Delverium, a promising new co-op sandbox game debuting as part of the ongoing Steam farming fest.
Coming from Australian developer Sagestone Games, Delverium is a blend of farming, crafting, mining, and fighting in an open-world sandbox game. The perspective certainly evokes Stardew Valley, especially when laying out your lands and planting crops, although its pixel-art style and simple combat animations are reminiscent of Terraria – as is Delverium’s more free-form approach to exploring a procedural world and uncovering the secrets buried beneath the surface.
Starting out in a very comfy land of fields and forests, you’ll gather materials, craft gear, set up a farm, and venture out on missions into the wilderness or deeper through caverns and dungeons in search of rarer resources. There’s danger lurking in the depths, however; as you explore the more threatening and bizarre biomes of Delverium, you’ll start to uncover the nature of the mysterious ‘Faults’ that pose a serious threat to the very land itself.
Sagestone Games says it wants to make sure you can play in whatever manner you enjoy most, “whether that be casual farming and settlement building, exciting exploration, or dangerous dungeon crawling.” That includes the ability to enjoy Delverium as a single-player game or in up to four-player local or online co-op. There are also “streamlined mechanics” designed to minimize the frustrations of inventory management or systems like fatigue and durability getting in the way of the fun.
Along with its delightful pixel look, Delverium boasts audio design from BAFTA-winning composer Jeff van Dyck, best known for his work on Rome Total War, Alien Isolation, and most recently Unpacking. The music is certainly one of the most immediately striking parts of the trailer, so I’m excited for to hear where it goes as we dive deeper into the Faults.
Delverium is currently planned to launch on Steam. There’s no date set yet, but it’s certainly one I’ll be keeping a close eye on – if you want to do the same, you can add it to your wishlist to stay notified of future updates and get a ping once it’s available.
Until then, there are lots more of the best games like Stardew Valley if you’re looking for some fresh-faced farming fun, along with the best co-op games to play in 2024 with your friends.
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