this game is not really funny, I have 3 character to control, but what is different with only 1? I don't feel any different. this game totally failed to give players fun.

When this game was released it was very buggy and it always crashed, however. Now it's completely different. Krate has recieved mayor fixes and it's much more stable and the best part, IT HAS CO-OP NOW!. Krater is a unique game where you control three characters at once. It's set in a colorful post-apocalyptic Sweden. If you like RPG, atleast give this game a chance. It deserves much more than just 52 out of 100. A solid 8 out of 10!… Expand

There's absolutely no bugs in this game as of 1/3/2013. All of what's left is a good game. In fact, I bought this game and was expecting so much less than what I paid. I was, truly blown away. I'll be playing this game for a long, long time.

As others have noted here, Krater has a lot of charm. The post apocalyptic theme and the humor kinda reminds me a little of Borderlands, except a bit less ultra violent. Your weapons are going to be made from whatever materials they have available after the apocalypse in Sweden, so expect guns made from soda cans and a 2 hand weapon made out of a mailbox. In Krater you'll level up soldiers of various archetypes, who generally fall into the category of tank, healer, damage dealer, or crowd controller. You mix and match soldier combinations to form teams of 3, and then go do quests, level up, get weapon and ability upgrades, etc.,-- typical ARPG stuff. The combat is in real time, and you're going to be controlling the three different characters all at once, including their targeting, abilities, and positioning, (each character only has 2 abilities and a cool-down item so it's not that bad). The controls can take a little getting used to though, judging from some of the other reviews this was a hurdle that was too steep for some. Last time I played there were two fairly lengthy, (maybe 40 level?), dungeons which constituted the "end-game". The enemies get repetitive as there are only a limited type, (you're going to be fighting a lot of bears and moose). The monsters basically come in packs of 3-5 which your team would fight in a similar fashion to a multiplayer role playing game, with one soldier tanking, one doing damage, another healing. Or, you can have two damage dealers+one healer, or, three crowd controllers, or, any other team set-up you find viable for the encounter. Towards the later levels of the dungeons, some strategizing is necessary for certain mob groups, and a bad pull will wipe your team quickly. Then you have to start over at your last checkpoint, which could be many floors back. It can get a bit frustrating at times. For the $15 I spent on the game though I feel I got my money's worth from Krater, I got about 90 hours of game play out of it. For the price point I give the game a 7.49, the story is worth playing through once.… Expand

This is an initially appealing game, an old-fashioned turn-based (ish) squad scale RPG. The art style is cute, and the goofy humour is somewhat charming. Sadly, however, it is absolutely bugged to fsck. I am fed up with reporting basic bugs, to see them eventually declared fixed, when a cursory look shows that they aren't, and are easily reproducible. CTDs, save file corruption, vanishing items, GUI problems, you name it. That's before we get on to the simplistic and skewed mechanics, which need a major overhaul. It's a shame, Fatshark (the developers) themselves are friendly and polite on their forums- just they seem to have a really lousy development process, and a habit of putting out interesting-looking yet fatally bugged titles. I have wasted so much time struggling with bugs in this title, reporting them, waiting for patches, rinse and repeat- just to find that I no further forward. Leisure time is limited, and I don't expect to have to babysit games for near-homeopathic levels of entertainment. To justify this level of faffing about, this game would need to be a lot more entertaining than it is. I don't except this flakiness to fun ratio from free games- I sure as hell wouldn't from a commercial title. Even in a Steam sale, I would avoid this like the plague. There are far better games that you can pick up for less. Even all this time after release, it's barely beta quality.

Sorry, Fatshark.… Expand

The gameplay is incredibly repetitive, once you have your strategy you just do the same thing every battle. There is only a small variety of AI and most enemies are dealt with in the identical manner. Most dungeons look the same and they feel pointless. While the RPG elements are all really cool, the gameplay just becomes super dull. The world map is even worse though. The world map you get doesn't let you view the WHOLE WORLD. I just have never seen such a terrible map in my life, not to mention the incredibly slow crawl between locations means getting across the world requires 10 minutes of more boring gameplay - because you get into battles. The graphics, sounds and dialogues are brilliant and I feel the style works incredibly well, unfortunately about half-way through the game, it falls flat on its feet because of the repetition which limits the gameplay time.… Expand

This game had so much promise. An interesting but failed take on the action RPG genre. At launch it was a buggy mess. Full of game breaking and crashing glitches. It launched without the promised multiplayer. In fact multiplayer was delayedeven further so that they could work on the games many flaws. When it did launch it was not what was promised pre-release. They had listed it on steam as a co-op game and it is... kinda. It has co-operative portions. This is a little nit picky on my part but still another way that Fatshark has failed to deliver. Fatshark as a company are simply pitiful. Everything they release is overpriced, undersupported, buggy as hell and fails to deliver on their lofty pre-launch promises. Save the money and get something worth while or at least wait till a 80% Steam sale.… Expand

Krater is a game which provides many hours of gameplay for fair price.The game is click to explore, and you control three different characters together. you can choose the classic tank-dps-healer combo but also other combinations because everyone has the slots for the booster and implants, crafted through the game, which improve the skill so, for example, an ability of the tank can increase the party dmg, or a cast of dps increases armor and so on. From this point the game has different fighting styles also because humans and mutants have different skill. The map is very big to the point that I have not visited some zones. while traveling from point to point on the map, there are "random encounter", small instanced area where you fight or if you are lucky you can find special vendors.
There are several cities to visit, each with vendors for weapons, materials for crafting, points to recruit new fighters and quest-hub.Good graphics and also longevity, to finish it took me about 35 hours..have fun with Krater… Expand

The Krater is an interesting idea. Maybe not as interesting as some sensational ideas for games, but can play in it. Targeting three warriors (they can call it that ...) is cool because in this game it is often not used. Curiosity gets when fighting a monster. We need to use (and sometimes we can) from each of the three skills. It is cool and rarely used. In Krater impossible to play at times in the game really fun. It is a pity that at times it is hard to even comprehend. You can easily get lost because everything is not always marked on the map to the maps are so made ​​that everything seems to be the same. After a while things get too heavy, and the fight against creatures require reboots even after 8 checkpoint's. The downside is also a call for getting the quest. People talking without sense, and most say even too much for what the game wants to sleep (or at least the talks). As for the storyline or not, it is addictive, it really is not all fun and give her too much, even there is not. The game looks good. There is obviously something graphic and could put an eye, but it is good. The game generally played as nice, of course, until it gets hard. But I think that many people will like this game. My rating -6/10… Expand

Up-voting a bad game on the principle that it was poorly created by an indie developer is idiotic. This game has "charm", but shadowed by horrible design flaws. The decision making process of this indie team is not ripe with much experience in the genre, and it shows. Indie or not, the game has deserved the negative overtone. Please understand, for the love of God, worshiping indies neither makes you look smart, cool, compassionate or generous; you look like an ass-hat, and you're killing both metacritic and lowering the bar of excellence in game production across the board.… Expand

My only complaint is the combat......I just felt like it was a little clunky, unintuitive but that wasnt so bad. The reason I gave it a 5 is the simple fact that the combat is just plain repetitive. I like everything else about the game, enough so that I would have given it an 8 or a 9. But the same old grindy feel just killed it for me.

After all those patches, to fix all those bugs, and all those crashes, the game finally became soooo worth buying. I can honestly say that this is the most charming game I've played in my life, and the gameplay is fantastic as well. A truly engaging story, and fantastic nature to explore. And the extra that makes it a 10/10 is the town designs, and the brilliant music throughout the game. So to sum up, it's really really worth buying, I would easily have spent double the money to get this game.… Expand

This game surely has got, a potential, but at this moment, and its really quite some time after the premiere it's unplayable piece of crap...

My overall imopression is like that - BUG BUG BUG. I can't even get into the settings screen because I'm getting kicked! Game itself has fine gameplay, creation of the world, great music, interesting fight etc. but you can't enjoy any of it because of the technical issues!

So I feel robbed. I possibly have a very nice game which could be a lot of fun, but I can't get to it because of BUG WALL.… Expand

Why is it that games like Diablo, WoW and Torchlight get so much praise, and this game gets criticised for having repetition and grinds? Sure, it could have been FAR better, and the gameplay is lacking slightly. But the game has such a unique style, it's pleasing in both aesthetics and audio, and the combat feels great.

Very fun, addicting and at times hilarious game. Graphics are outstanding and on par with most big budget games. I look forward to expansions and a sequel.

Krater is a unique take on the post apocalyptic theme set in Sweden, following some sort of devastating war or event that has changed everything. The story elements are pretty vague yet it gives you enough to push onward and start your adventure.

There are many things i want to say in this review without making it too long but trying to get my point across.

as it stands Krater isn't complete, the current game is the first of a three part story, which sets the stage for what very well may lead to a gripping conclusion. You start off with a rag tag bunch of characters, the game uses the basic trinity roles system that is Tank, Healer, Dps. Its a tried and true system that works well in RPG's. after learning the basics you'll be flung out on your first quest to start ranking up and finding items.

The game doesn't opt for a traditional gear setup that you see in the likes of wow or skyrim, instead it has its own system of implants and boosters that complement each characters stats, when your characters rank up, they unlock more slots for both. It does make for some interesting configurations, you can have a health heavy buffer tank, or a flimsy yet powerful DPS, the variety is rather vast for what is currently in game.

You will find out quite quickly that your starting party will not make the final cut and losing characters after 6 consecutive deaths will permanently end that characters existence, after the 4th death, characters gain a permanent debuff that is well, permanent, they can range from any kind of reduction to stats from what i've experienced its percentage based and in some cases can severely hamper any given character, thankfully you can buy characters constantly through the numerous hubs dotted around the nicely crafted world map, which has quite a few locations to explore.

Back to the character for one moment, your starting party will eventually cap themselves at rank 5, but thats not the end, rank 15 is the current cap for each character but starting characters will need to unlock this with money and newly added boot camp NPC's, its a bit of a money sink but its not a big deal.

without giving away any thing else ill try to wrap this up, the game could use some more depth, if you want to compare this game to other games like fallout and dungeon siege which are good contenders because not only are they older they play nearly the same way, you level up, you grind gear and you complete missions its a good addition to the genre what i have come to feel is that, when comparing the game to others, its better to realize that what this game does, and doesn't do is all part of its uniqueness, if they had copied lots of random elements from other games it wouldn't feel unique it would just be a clone.

I'm giving the game an 8, because the potential is there, the developers are very keen on hearing player feed back and they are hard at work at implementing features that players want to see, I have rarely seen such dedication to a fan base which is great knowing that it will continue to grow and get better.

overall the art direction is awesome, the sound is nice and for the most part is really is a fun game, I've placed at the writing of this about 50hrs into the game and still want to keep looking for extra rare items to beef up my party.

there are a bunch of lessons Krater can learn from similar titles, but hopefully they keep the game as unique as possible so it doesn't end up playing like a clone of something else.

I am happy with my purchase it was definitely worth the asking price and I am eagerly awaiting the next iterations.

a couple of the bigger flaws would be that, questing, like all RPG's becomes a bit repetitive after a while, there isn't an insane amount of depth compared to say, dungeon siege 2, but what you get in the package along with the constant updates that are planned, I feel that the current score of 54 is far too low and this game should be at least a 75 working its way up to a 8 or even an 85 when all is said and done.… Expand

I picked up Krater a couple weeks after release. It made me want to keep playing for 20 hours, completing all of the quests and finding many of the secrets. It was quite rough around the edges and, judging by the patches, should probably have had 1-2 more months of work on it. But it was easy to look past its faults and enjoy the genuinely fun gameplay.

Where do I start? Let's just say that after FORTY+ hours of play I have a long way to go and this is one of the best games I've played in 30 years as a gamer. Do yourself a favour and ignore the critic reviews altogether as they were clearly made on the unpatched beta. The game still has some minor rough edges in that there seems to be an annoying thing where the camera will randomly jump when you are scrolling (I believe it's an auto-centre issue) and you can't delete unwanted characters. This said, fatshark's commitment to continued development and community awareness are probably the best I've EVER seen with responses on the forums to almost every new observation idea or issue. The game itself is packed with secret areas quests and encounters that you simply wont see until you have invested a fair bit of play time - and it's pretty clear that all negative reviewers didn't do this at all. You will become emotionally attached to some characters and when they eventually die you may feel sadness or regret but there are always better ones to come if you don't give up. Any game which can provoke an emotional response in this way and still provide many many hours of gameplay and replay value should be up for some serious awards. Even without the planned co-op, which at this time remains inactive, Krater is the quintessence of "hidden gem" and "diamond in the rough". I continue to recommend it to all my fiends and anyone else who will listen and when the minor issues mentioned are sorted and co-op is added this is an easy 10/10 for anyone's money.

*edit* Fatshark - do yourselves a favour and re-submit the game for review to "critics" and you will eventually reap the rewards of your superb and continued good work because as things stand the current, and completely inaccurate, metascore is damaging your sales and recognition.… Expand

24/07/2012. I understand that the initial Critical Reviews had some condemnation for certain aspects of Krater at its release but those most cited problems have since been fixed leaving most Critical Reviews with little more than a "I don't like this game" kind of sound to them. Personally I am enjoying the game for its entertaining graphics, simple game play, and developing content. Hearing that the game's developers are planning further content (sequels?) gives me even more to look forward to in the future. If you enjoy 3rd-person RPGs with focus on action then give this game a look.… Expand

I don't typically write negative reviews but I had to do so with this game. Graphics are nice but controls need to be improved. The game play gets old fast with the same maps being used over and over. Finally, I'm not a hard core gamer and just like to play casually without constantly dying. Even on casual mode, I'm constantly getting killed simply by exploring just a little past the first town. So I found myself constantly running circles on the map around the first town and still ended up getting killed. I'm a strict ARPG fan and not a fan of strategy games, so perhaps I'm not properly controlling each of the 3 characters. Who knows. Unless they make a "super casual" difficulty level or properly teach novice players how to control the characters better, this game will find its way to my "junk" labeled game pile on Steam. Pity.… Expand

I don't understand the hatred professional review outlets have piled onto Krater; it's an incredible experience, and very refreshing. The story is forgettable, so don't come into it expecting a novel; the world is passable, too. But the humor, gameplay, and RPG elements are all brilliant. It jokes about itself and RPG's in a general a *lot*, and the system for upgrading each character through implantation allows for unbelieveable customization. The game is inexpensive fun- and *hours* upon *hours* of that fun...! Just make sure you've installed the latest graphics drivers for your graphics card, and you'll be spared any glitches or problems. Once Co-op hits (as the developers are working hard at releasing it!) I'm certain Krater will become a staple of online gaming.… Expand

Better than Diablo 3 that's for sure! Don't listen to those idiot reviewers, most receive money to review a game favorably. Krator has man great things going on with it. It has a great Post-Apocalyptic feel about it, campy funny humor, SQUADS!, permanent stupidity leads to permanent injuries and so on. I love it and continue to play it. It is also currently for sale on Steam! www.drunkenheroes.com… Expand

150 words is not enough to actually give out a review about this game, so i will give you a link to what i think http://sergentthrifty.blogspot.se/2012/07/krater.html

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing Krater. I am no where near completing it , but I have enjoyed every minute of playing it . I think the developers got it right with this one. I actually feel for my characters when they get a permanent injury. I cant say that for any other game I own. It is definitely a game you need to spend some time on learning the controls as it can get hairy in a fight with multiple enemies , but once you get it down you will have a blast .… Expand

This game needs work, at least the team was nice enough to say it was still heavily being worked on but I've had fun so far, as far as all those "professional" reviewers over there, they are the same morons who gave Diablo 3 enough sterling reviews for an 80+, compare that to the user score and the luls rush in.

I really like this little game. Hacking and slaying with three different characters (instead of only one) - each one gifted with 2 special abilities - is somewhat "strategic" and therefore interesting (not so much in the lower levels but more and more later on in the game). With an interesting setting, many cities and dungeons to discover, a small crafting system, weird dialogues and a portion of crude humor this budged title has conquered my heart. If you like torchlight with a tactical twist - GO BUY IT!

P.S.: I admit that the game has been released to early. Some polishing is still to be done. Yet I can not understand the reviewers that call the game boring because you hack and slay and loot though a not so interesting story. Isn´t this the same in Torchlight and Sacred ect.?!… Expand

I've read a lot of harsh reviews around the net and find this a bit saddening, not the usual love being spread for Indi developers. I have not experienced the bugs that others have, however i chose to wait a couple of weeks post release before buying this game and have not had any game breaking glitches or interface errors. Apparently at first release it was absolutely awful, and perhaps this is where the disparate reviewer and user scores are coming from, reviewers likely to have sought the package as early as possible to compete for release. I submit that these fellows ought to play it again and re-review. v1.05 was released today i believe. Metacritic Version Control, that might be nice.

There is something creepy and beautiful about this game, the music is infectious, i found myself still hearing it in my head whilst at work, in the shower etc. Insanely beautiful. The graphics are soft and gorgeous and the play style is nicely balanced so you can progress at your own pace in combat and return to base to lick your woulds should you step a little further into enemy territory than you ought to have. The only thing I dislike about this game so far, and I say this as a thoroughly hooked Krater-addict just before i'm about to hop back into it and do some more slaying - I wish there was more back story. But having read that there will be DLC and more games in the series - I can only pray this comes to fruition.

Loot drops, varied bad-guys, loads of missions and locations and a constant pressing interest in gaining more power so you can explore further out without having your face handed to you (3 times).

Spoken dialogue is pretty much non-existent, but that's par for the course not the exception, and irrelevant for the style of game. Excel spreadsheets with hammers and knives, that's the ticket.

I couldn't quite understand the level 5 cap when i began, but it' has been modified to a 15 cap with increments of 5 levels that you are able to obtain from a particular type of NPC. Even at 15 levels it seemed small - then it dawned on me, you simply continue to upgrade your characters slots, the leveling is really just a "quantity" slot cap, not a character quality cap - but you're not restricted to re-allocating your slots in any way you like and each upgrade has multiple levels, each level has perky increments. This unfortunately overlooks the underpinning gamer psychology that prompted marketing types to ram "Achievements" down everyone's throat like a giant pocket evacuating lozenge.

One of the most addictive and fresh games I've come across, easily worth 4 times the asking price, please don't miss out on it because a few critics happened to take a peek before the cake was fully baked. :)… Expand

Had really no expectations going into this game, it was the first game I decided to purchase on Steam; the controls are very easy to pick up (ability wise, there are only six) if you have ever played any other RPG or MMO for that matter (i.e. Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft). What is not so self explanatory is boosters [character upgrade], implants [also a character upgrade], or map progression (of you don't pay attention, you will get lost). Along with implants and boosters not really being explained to you in the beginning, too much focus is put on collecting money ($20k to get the level upgrade for A SINGLE character? Seriously?) and mats to make these said implants or boosters rather than leveling, also the leveling is extremely easy and you will hit the cap very quickly provided you have money to make the upgrade (cap level is fifteen). Character customization does not exist in this game besides the upgrades (lame). On another note, I would of really liked to see more than just six abilities (between 3 characters, 2 each) or at least a co-op.This game does have a good amount of bugs. The game can become VERY monotonous if playing for extended amounts of time due to the nature of the quests, which is basically going to a different city to talk to someone, going in a cave to kill someone, or going in to a cave to retrieve something (literally every quest is one of those 3). After all this being said, the game does look quite well and you must keep in mind it is only a fifteen dollar game [you get what you pay for!] This is an OKAY fifteen dollar game and would of been a great ten dollar game.… Expand

Updated review (had 3 of 10 before): After the v1.04 patch I find the game much more stable and after the remove of the level cap on the characters I enjoy it more. Still some flaws though, but not any big ones. I wish it was a bit less repetitive maybe. The developers said in a press2play.tv interview that they took a lot of inspiration from the Diablo series when creating Krater, therefore it's natural that Krater will be compared to Diablo III (which I haven't played). Of course it's not the same game, but Krater and Diablo certainly have a lot in common.… Expand

First of all, I'd say this game tries to combine three things; 1. Diablo game(s) 2. Dungeon Siege 3. Fallout's post apocalyptic'ness. At first it feels bit odd, some key things in controls can be misleading. Biggest thing is that at times it feels you don't have good enough visibility what's ahead, no matter how you turn the view around. But it's so simple that "just move the mouse to direction you want to see" and ... yes, you can scroll pretty much as far as you want to. Sounds simple enough, yes, but I still tend to forget this after some 5+ hours of playing the game. Which feels ackward even to admit.

But as you get the hang of controls, the game is rather nice and there's lot of things to do. Especially the way you can craft both items and your squad members deserves extra mention. Just one hint without spoiling the game experience; don't get too attached to your squad members.

What I would have wanted the game utilise more, is the "post-apocalyptic atmosphere". At times as you are going on in diablo/dungeon siege style, you can forget it's supposed to be post-apocalyptic environments instead of just another fantasy environment. The characters and dialog moments have strong post-apocalyptic vibe (with some nice humour too), but that's pretty much all about post-apocalyptic setting, unfortunately. Actual gameplay has very light post-apocalypticness to it.

Extra points for very good & enjoyable soundtrack, which improves the atmosphere big time. For the cheap price at Steam, it's a game well worth getting.… Expand

+ Great setting Not a Diablo clone God mix of mechanics - its not just point and click Good value for the price - i got 20 hours played now and still enjoy it - The game had its issues at launch but the developers seem to be working hard to sort those out (several patches since release) The tutorial sucked - needed to search forums for guidelines on how to best fit implants and boosters in my characters.… Expand

After I got a hang of the controls and how the abilities and upgrades work, 'Krater' has been a lot of fun. A downside is that the game was not really ready for release, due to some bugs and features that are being fixed and added with regular patches, but the fact that the patches are pretty regular since the release mitigates that a bit.

For $15 this game is a heck of a lot of fun, and either the 'professional' reviewers are hating on this game for some unknown reason or they just have some pretty unrealistic expectations. Great graphics, fun gameplay with a good amount of strategy, humorous dialog and story, regular content updates and patches and some pretty interesting game mechanics make this game MUCH better than what some of them are rating it.

Of course, some of the reviewers bashing 'Krater' also think that 'Diablo 3' is fantastic, so take what they say with a grain of salt.… Expand

I saw this game on steam the day it came out. Pirate-bayonly had "Anal Krater" so I bought the game. It didn't launch. it crashed instantly. So why am I giving it 10/10? The next day, a patch comes out, crashing is fixed, and a content update. I played it. 10 minutes in, it crashed. Most fun I've ever had. The developers are working like crazy to continue patching the games flaws, and at this point it's nearly bug-less.… Expand

Krater is a really refreshing take on action rpgs, leaving the old generic fantasy setting behind alone makes the game refreshing. Whole atmosphere in Krater is awesome to say the least, who knew post-apocalyptic Sweden would be so crazy ? it has that indie feeling to it.

I like how Krater deals with repetition in action rpgs, instead of grinding gear now you have implants (permanent stat boosts), boosters (skill enhancements), weapons and gadgets (which might be almost anything). And by having you control characters instead of 1 and great crafting system it really furthers away from a traditional action rpg scenario. The fact that some "professional" critics dared to compare this to Diablo 3 is mind boggling, Krater and Diablo 3 are two different games.

Some say there are a lot of bugs, but honestly I didn't encounter any at all, maybe few minor glitches here and there ,but it's nothing that would hold you back from experiencing what Krater has to offer.

I definitely recommend buying soundtrack edition, because soundtrack is absolutely awesome. Collectors edition however doesn't really offer anything else besides the soundtrack and early access to a mutant healer for your squad, which is kinda disappointing since Krater ,as I've mentioned before, has an extremely cool and interesting setting.

I'm only giving this 9/10 because it seems like it got rushed a bit and there's no multiplayer ,yet.… Expand

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games (but mostly the worst). First the good. Post-apocalyptic motifs are about as fresh as zombies and vampires at this point, but Krater takes a lighter approach. The characters are goofy and the settings are colorful. The world is alive and kicking in a Beyond Thunderdome sort of way. Now to the bad. Mind numbing gameplay. The combat system, upgrade system, and questing, are all so straight forward and simple that it quickly becomes an exercise in brainless repetition.… Expand

it looks good, it feels good, its worth the money. Honestly I think that this might end up in my top5 games of 2012. This game has already kept me playing longer than diablo 3 has.

I have no idea what critics have played, but they havent played krater, for example, gamespy says krater is not epic and in the same breath says its too hard, wait what, you say epic = endless waves of 10 hp cannon fodder?.

This game is so beatifull (make sure you have dx10/11 supported card), its actually better looking game than diablo 3 or torchlight 2 on my rig. 9/10 dungeon crawler, must buy for 14 euros, you wont regret it.… Expand

I've written a review for this game three times now, and Metacritic has failed to save my score/review. So this one will be short and to the point. Krater is a unique and interesting game that offers several elements that most aRPGs do not. On release, its feature set is not complete as it is expected to be a year from now, and Fatshark should be commended for their continued support for this title. You can expect to get anywhere from 14 to 20 quality hours out of the game as it stands now. Customization options for your three character party are not limitless, but have a wider-than-expected range for a smaller title like this. There's plenty of humor, references, and color to be found in this game, and the graphics/aesthetic are top notch. DirectX 10/11 only, so sorry WinXP users.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. TL;DR Interesting ideas Many are unnecessary as implemented The others feel like forced padding None of them seem to be balanced Play D3's Inferno difficulty or Path of Exile ----- I bought this game at launch, and was immediately frustrated by several bugs (hidden key bindings that couldn't be fixed, alt tabbing causing unrecoverable issues, fog of war resetting when changing implants..) that were fixed rapidly. So kudos to the developers for fast response. To date I have 11.4 hours played, and beat the main storyline. The idea of the mechanics in this game is solid, but the implementation leaves much to be desired. Lies about enemy models: Part of the reason I bought this game was a claim of not just re-skinning all the monsters in the game. In my play time, pretty much all enemies behaved the same way.. maybe every hour or so I would see something different (a stun, or an acid pool) but for the most part everything behaves the same way with a very limited number of attacks. There is little graphical variety in enemies, and what may be there is hard to discern because of the angle of view. This also highlights a weakness of the whole encounter system: rarely will you fight more than 1-4 enemies at a time. The same patterns of groups will appear over and over and over.. it's just boring. The only interesting fight was the last one, and that was anti-climactic in its own right (because the game isn't stand-alone complete, story-wise) Team building: I know they are coming out with a boot camp that will let you upgrade characters, but unless you can also convert to the mutated versions of the classes this will be a mostly-useless feature. Each class has an alternate version with abilities that are just better in every way (e.g.: basic medic has a channeled HoT, and a single target heal with a cast time. Mutant medic has a fire-and-forget HoT buff, and an aoe heal with a cast time.) Because there is no boot camp right now and I did not want to waste my time buying and upgrading new tiers of heroes, about 2 hours into the game I simply ran to the center of the map and purchased level 15 heroes and tier 4 stat recipes. I wasn't using any guides or spoilers, it just seems fairly obvious that the giant capital city next to the glowing crater would have the best stuff for sale. If I was starting a new game I'm sure I could do this even faster. Level 4 items take the same ingredients as 1-3, they just require 4 of them - and give a proportionate boost per ingredient (level 1 is +5, 4 is +20). So there is no reason not to build them. The recipes were quite cheap. An hour later my heroes were all at max level. That means for nearly 3/4 of my play time, my characters did not intrinsically advance. They got better upgrades and weapons, yes, but I think the experience system is basically useless. Difficulty: This is the easiest ARPG I have ever played. The penalty for being knocked down in Normal difficulty is effectively 100 Kr to heal, which is nothing. You can always teleport out of a dungeon so if you stick around long enough to accumulate an injury, it's because you chose to. The only other challenging option (to gain a full injury each time you're knocked down) is just asking to add pointless fluff time to your game as not all injuries can be cured. Anyway, once I bought my level 15 guys I never was knocked down. One application of my medic's aoe heal puts everyone to full, and his heal over time fully heals every second. No worry about limited resources, as these heals don't even have a cooldown. Because all packs are small and similar, I never had to vary my strategy.. within two cycles of cooldowns on my dps and tank, every enemy squad I encountered was defeated. The skill system: I love the idea of customizing skills and having flexibility to add different effects to each power, bending class boundaries, etc... but I swear that Krater doesn't actually want this to happen. For example: I put 5 healing buffs on my dps's basic power that is never on cooldown. He had maybe 600 hp, and I would see it heal him for 15-20. I put 3 healing buffs in my medic's aoe and it heals everyone for 400+ hp. I put stat buffs on my tank's aoe attack.. they last 15s. I add some implants to increase his buff duration... the buffs still last 15s. I put added damage enhancers on my medic's HoT ability... nothing happens. It is entirely possible that I simply do not understand the fundamental mechanics of this game... but it is so easy that I didn't have to do any additional exploring or experimentation. I give everyone defense/stamina, and strength for the dps/tank, focus for the medic, and my team steamrolls everything. Intelligence is worthless. Bottom line: If you're looking for a serious challenge, I would suggest diablo 3's Inferno difficulty. If you''re just looking for an ARPG with fun and interesting mechanics, I would go for Path of Exile.… Expand

The professional reviews for this game are absurd. It's fun, addictive, well supported (thus far) and very promising. A lot will depend on Fatshark's continued support and followthrough, but even as it stands now there is no way in hell this game deserves an average of 38.

Game Journalism indeed.

Krater is a game that tries hard to be unique but fails in the important aspect of fun gameplay. From the first minute you enter krater you are doing what you will be doing all the game long, the repetition in this game is so extreme that it's difficult not to question the mindset of the devs. You will collect loot, "level" up your soldiers, learn crafting recipes and complete quests. All this would sound fine if it weren't for the fact that there is no substance to any of it. The level up system is kind of weird as you don't get better by just leveling up as you need to insert implants to raise your stats, your level determins the amount of implants you can use but it quickly becomes very basic as in fill out your soldiers with implants and then slowly replace them with better ones. The crafting is the basic "collect this and that and press a button" although there is a lot of recipes in the game to somewhat save it. The questing is the run of the mill MMO type quests and you will get bored of the same old "go kill" or "go fetch" quests that plague the game. Also important to notice is that all exploration is pretty much useless, yes you will find all these locations on the world map ( which I love btw) but they are all so empty, there is no real need to go into any of these unless you have a quest in there since you can clear them out without finding any special.

Sadly I could go on about Kraters short comings but right now I have better things to do. I'm not gonna say straight out "don't buy this" but I would spend my money else where and maybe grab it in the future when there is more content.… Expand

GOTY. This game is just amazing and I've yet to play a game this fun this year. I didn't like Diablo 3 at all and Krater fills that void. Co-op is coming soon which will improve this wonderful game.

Great game, even if they are still plenty of bugs n stuff. FatShark is putting out steady patches since release though and promises free DLC and in a few weeks they will have coop in the game which is a big part of the reason I bought the game. No idea why the critic reviews are so low this game is a diamond in the rough.

I honestly dont understand the professional critics on their review of this game.

I mean to hold a $15 to the same standards as you do $60+ game not to mention this is an indie game and not in dev for 12 years.

My opinion is that this is a great game, a classic for sure. While it does have some bugs and issues with simplicity the dev team are very active and attentive. It has aspects of many classics and blends them well together to create a fun dynamic world to play in.

Shame on these "professional" reviewers for harping on this fine game for no other reason than that it didnt send them toys and free trips to openings.… Expand

After the great disappointment of Diablo 3, finally a great game. And at a ridiculous price! New ideas and willingness of programmers to follow users. Pay attention to how the media are trying to discredit this and other similar games, paid by Blizzard

I like it, well worth $20 (collector's edition)! Running it on Windows 8, got it through Steam. It actually reminds me a lot of the old syndicate game (not the current suckage), or even wasteland to a certain degree.

Please be aware that this is not a Diablo-clone or Diablo-like.
If you go into the game expecting Torchlight you are going to be disappointed.
The game is a mix of ARPG and action-RPG, squad-based, which treats your squad-mates like loot. There is also an X-com angle to it in which you do not have a main character but rather hire mercenaries to compose your squad.
Krater has many great ideas and takes the ARPG in a different, unique direction.
There is no point in comparing it to anything that is out right now, because there isn't anything like it.
For the price this is a must-buy, thats why the 10/10.… Expand

Fantastic, game. Superb graphics, interesting story, fresh mechanics, awesome atmosphere and really good music. Worth more than $15. Must have for all RPG fans!

This is a great game! Some write about a lot of mistakes, but it looks like they played in the beta version, I have absolutely no problem. If you like unusual stories, this game is for you. She is much prettier Diablo. Krater has a great soundtrack and design. Must have for anyone who remembers the good old fallout.

I've jumped through hoops for three days to get it to run, but it won't create a direct3d window correctly. Check their support forums before you buy.

My particular problem is one where the swap chain gets resized to 0 by 0 (probably due to a bug in their software since everything else I run on my machine works just fine). I've updated drivers, updated directx, updated dependencies, reinstalled the application, and so on. I have a HD 6950 which seems to pop up a lot in their support forums. They have patched three times since they launched a few days ago and each patch seems to break the game for more players. Fortunately its been broken for me since day one and I'm not on a rollercoaster of working versus broken, its just plain broken all the time.… Expand

This game is awsome. The keybindings are a bit off and i run into alot of bugs like quests that you cant turn in or complete, resolution problems, mouse aiming problems... anyways the developers launched this to early, its like it wasent even tested... Theres no online play "yet" and it feels like playing a beta game because theres so many bugs, id give this game a way lower score because of these issues and the reason i cant is because this game is awsome, for what you can play... they update it it seems every day so im sure the bugs will be worked out and online availiable at some point, i hope soon. Every company should know never launch a game when its not ready, its been out now for 3 days and its definately not ready for a launch, but for what you can play it has a lot of potential. way better than Diablo 3… Expand

I have no idea what game these professional reviewers have been playing. Krater is most likely the cheapest extreme fun and entertainment I have ever gotten. This game is way different than most everything else on the market, and in a good way!

Not only that, but from the looks of it, the developers are heavily invested in getting this game to be the best it possibly can, with patches hitting daily so far, adding content, fixing bugs, and implementing suggestions from the users.

This game is not for everyone, but 2/10 is just plain ignorant, especially with the reviews AAA titles are getting these days.… Collapse

This game is enjoyable to say the least. It's unique and refreshing in a game genre that is flustered with generic copies. The take on this game, in a nutshell, is akin to a hack-n-slash but with various elements that you don't normally see in the genre. For example, a large roster of characters to play from, an interesting, to say the least, crafting system, and a pleasant not so often setting. I'm actually surprised by the 'professional reviewers' who reviewed this game because this game is fun. For those who enjoy Diablo style hack-n-slash, borderlands art style, and the original fallout's traveling system. For those who would enjoy a combination of these elements, ignore the naysayers.… Expand

Hailing from Swedish Developer, Fatshark, Krater is one of those games that is assumed to fall into the category of arpgs that merely take concepts from the Diablo series and repeats it without adding anything new. Fortunately, it does more than copy something that works. Rather, Krater mixes ARPG with the tactical prowess of RTS games by having the player control 3 squad members at once. This aspect of the game brings forth interesting scenarios by mixing up the squad between 4 classes and 2 races. General Points:

- For a $15 game, Krater deserves a good look, with content that reaches up to 40+ hours of game time with only a single playthrough, which says a lot about the game in terms of replay-ability. This does not yet include the heavy amounts of loot and squad permutations in the current build of the game.

Gameplay:

-While the game falls short on certain areas like characters only having 2 skills and a release that feels rather rushed, they are all justifiable negatives that weaves along the game to create a different experience from what most people are accustomed to when it comes to playing the more 'traditional' ARPGs.

-Characters only having 2 skills is due to having 3 units at once, summing it up to 6 per squad. Each skill can also be customized through the use of skill boosters as characters unlock more ranks. These boosters can affect each skill differently, and the amount of variety of skill customization is plenty enough to encourage players to experiment. A regulator (ranged character) may have an area of effect slow that can also heal allies inside of it, or perhaps one that damages enemies on top of slowing them. It can even buff allies with defense boosts or damage boosts, or a mixture of all three. - Admittedly, the game does feel unfinished with the lack of online multiplayer and a lack of settings options. The game's release day was mostly a success, with isolated bugs and problems that plagued an extreme minority of the player base, and even then, patches were released 2-3 days after with added sound settings and bug fixes, showing the developer's commitment to creating and improving an amazing game with great potential. -Considering the game comes from an indie developer, Krater's design structure feels looser when compared to other AAA titles. This means that Fatshark treats the game more like a Free-to-play than an end product by constantly improving it with the help and feedback from it the community with the promise of more free and paid content coming soon.

- The traveling aspect of the game also feels reminiscent of other rpg games that involves moving around a world map with random encounters. While it may feel slow at times, it does give players a scope of how large the world is, and will be (when the next 2 parts are released). This allows for an impressive perspective that games like Diablo 3 lack. It shows the players what and how much can be explored whilst allowing for the freedom to go where ever the player wants to go, even at the beginning of the game(Including the risks of encountering high threat level monsters). Dungeons are not constrained by having to play through the story in a linear fashion, and the map randomization keeps dungeon crawling fresh.

Presentation:

- Graphics are beautiful and can be run even with half decent hardware. The art style and the presentation of Krater is both humorous and attractive. The populous wearing gas masks, rusty and worn down cities built from scrap, and the monstrosities that litter the game world truly give that post-apocalyptic vibe the game was going for. Simultaneously, however, it also adds the colorful atmosphere that most, if not all, post-apocalyptic games lack. Thus, Krater is presented in a unique tone and style not seen in other games.

- The occasional voice-overs and quirky characters in Krater makes for an interesting story that captures my attention. While it did have a rather generic and unimaginative start, the game quickly engages the player by showering the surroundings with lore that is familiar yet new. Final Note:

-As with all indie games, Krater deserves some patience and support, since it lacks the same amount of funding that games like D3 had. Even then, it can still stand on its own against the top dogs of the industry. I find it rather difficult to go back to games like Diablo and Trochlight now that Krater it out.… Expand

The game is a farrago of innovative, rote, and poorly executed elements, leading to a fun yet frustrating, and ultimately average, experience. There's a max level cap of 15 for each character in your squad, and leveling (or increasing rank) only opens up implant slots for a character and its abilities; there's no distributing stats or upgrading abilities outside of implant mods. Essentially, the character development is based entirely around random loot drops. This is somewhat annoying considering that characters must be recruited (coming with max ranks of 5/10/15), each having different base stats, coupled with the fact that character/ability mods can't be removed from them. Itemization is particularly disappointing, no armor at all, just weapons, character/ability mods (implants), crafting materials/blueprints, (re)usable items, and "valuables," the last of which only exists for selling. They should have been merged with crafting materials, so that you face a strategic choice in whether you keep or sell them, they're pointless otherwise and don't even add "flavor" to the world. Crafting is pretty much standard, which although is OK, it could have been better if you could experiment with different items to find recipes, influence item bonuses by using different materials, etc. It just feels like a missed opportunity.

Skill system is innovative yet disappointing at the same time as well. Race and class determine the skill itself, and other variation is only added through mods to it, somewhat like Path of Exile. Unfortunately, the mods are items and are fairly generic (bonuses to damage, healing, etc.), though what is interesting is that you can combine a healing bonus mod to a non-healing skill to make it heal. There's no way to qualitatively change the abilities though, e.g., change the base ability itself, give a melee skill a ranged component or make a skill do elemental damage (the concept of which does not even exist in this game). Combat is engaging and enjoyable, though the hectic pace of fighting and lack of basic skill variety mean that you'll likely end up mindlessly mashing hot keys most of the time. The game sorely needs pausing functionality or slower combat to maximize its strategic potential. Having access to all 3 characters' abilities at once though is a brilliant idea, but it could have been capitalized on so much more. Pathfinding isn't the best, but it works well enough. Enemies are all essentially the same, though, and usually don't require much strategy beyond standard procedure. Nothing except different damage, health, name, and visual representation distinguishes them. Overworld map is cool, again another great idea. You travel between different locations with random encounters in between, and it's pretty much entirely open from the start, though there's no level scaling (another plus) so you can't travel too far. Story and dialogue are unengaging and uninspired, and the voice acting is abysmal, both of which are really unfortunate given how fresh and different the setting is. Character development is lacking entirely, since player characters are randomly generated and replaced throughout the game (there's permadeath too, though it's a bit hard to have that occur). It's a big world, but there's just not enough incentive to explore it given that the characters don't have anything permanent for the player to develop and the gameplay becomes too boring after a while to maintain continued interest. tl;dr Try it if you like new things, don't expect anything amazing, and the game feels too unpolished.… Expand

I'm thoroughly enjoying Krater. It hails from the same dungeons as Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II but brings it forth into the new generation of games. The soundtrack is brilliant, there's elements of Vangelis in there from Blade Runner and quite a lot of (I'm assuming the developers favourite) Swedish artists on there too playing in the Bars and towns, it sets the atmosphere brilliantly. It can feel a little grindy, especially when your characters just died in a dungeon and you need to recruit and train up new ones, but aside from that, the game is fun, light hearted and epic all rolled into one. I'm looking forward to seeing some more of the game in my next play.… Expand

Played it very shortly last night. Although many, many games are vying for my attention, I couldn't pass up this impressive looking Indie. Boy, so far I am not let down! Love the look and feel of the game and it's offbeat sense of humor. I specifically enjoy the use of distance blur-effects. The art style somewhat makes up for repetitive content. Also I like the fact that the setting is reminiscent of games like fallout and rage, but much more colorful. And it's set in a post-apocalyptic Sweden, which is always a bonus. ;-) Gameplay wise it is too early to tell, but it looks promising. I love this kind of ARPG and I was actually looking forward to this rather than D3, which IMHO is shamelessly overpriced. I hope they will implement the online co-op soon, as I am eager to find out how this will effect gameplay.… Expand

A refreshing game-- refreshingly vibrant post-apoc setting, refreshingly "mercenary" take on ARPG character development conventions, and refreshingly challenging compared to a few other ARPGs I could name.

This game is very original and well thought out. the main map works like fallout 1 and 2 with random encounters and event sites and cities. The main party is 3 players with literally 20 or more people you can higher and upgrade, deep characcter customization, players can be injured or die permanately, lots of micro, end game is a huge randomized krater.... the art is fresh... enjoy this and path of exile more than torchlight 2 or diablo 3 by far.… Expand

The game looks really good. The gameplay takes a while to grow accustomed to, but it gets fun after like 2 hours of using it. Only down side is the game takes a while to pick up with customization, but it does get there.

Great atmosphere and such a unique apocalyptic setting makes this a joy to play. Some nice humour and funny one liners from the characters. Add in great graphics and sound, especially the music, and you have Krater - an awesome action RPG! Well done Fatshark!

The skill system could use some workout but it is a polished and enjoyable postapocalyptic actionrpg. There are not so much around, so you must play what you get.

Boring.
THe setting is not bad, and the gameplay gets a pass, but the lack of RPG elements, NPCs are all the same, and the writing is nothing special.

The AI is really rudimentary, you will have more fun playing Diablo 1, by far . Also a real time party based, doesn't really leave room for much. Probably the speed will cover mose AI problems

This is everything good that DIablo 3 is not. It has both online and offline play, but it doesn't force you to always stay online (you can play it fine without an internet connection). The game promises that it can merge your offline play character to an online play mode. First impression after playing a few minutes of the game: "How the frak can a game that cost me 15 USD look so freaking gorgeous!". Seriously, this is one of the best looking games in this genre. I was so amazed that I can actually rotate the scenes and zoom them in. The controls are awesome as well, and there's a promise of an intriguing story - not the tired uninspired trash Blizzard fed us with D3. I haven't gotten more than 15 minutes into this game and I'll probably update the rating/review as I go along but gaddamn - buy this game already! It is SO worth it!… Expand

I was interested in this game for the entire time it has been on Steam, I entered in the beta, loved it. Now that it is released I'm very glad to say that it is awesome. It delivers in every single way possible, great for classic CRPG lovers. Its art style is very unique, and adds a certain flavor and mood that you'll always cherish. A very memorable game, with fun gameplay and elaborate areas to explore that all have a purpose in the game's "fun" factor. I highly recommend getting this top-down open-world role-playing epic.… Expand

Great top-down ARPG, to me it feels a little like a cross between diablo / torchlight and baldurs gate. The title is surprisingly polished considering it has come from an indie developer and some of the larger devs out there could do with taking note of how this team has not hidden away their product before release and has taken onboard player feedback during its development (I very much liked the fact that pre-order players got access to the game in its beta stages). Even now the devs are working on further polishing the game, adding content and developing an on-line co-op mode. considering the low price of this game (£11.99 on steam) you are getting a lot of content (I believe 30-50 hours for a play-through) and a game that gives many full-price titles a run for their money. This year has seen some impressive indie releases and this is definitely one of the best of them.… Expand

I bought this some time ago and have played it in beta. The game is great and if you like games such as Fallout/Diablo/Xcom, this is something to check out.