Eden Rising Supremacy Review: Free To Try

Eden Rising is an action, crafting and tower defense game developed by Nvizzio Creations and Meridian 4. It is available on Steam for $24.99 but also features a free to play version. This Review was conducted by Joseph Pugh.

Overview

Eden Rising is a neat hybrid of genres. It features online co-op, in addition to single player, and this is where the game shines the brightest. However, this is one of few times I’m going to come out of the gate telling you not to take my word for it. Eden Rising features a free to play version and in it, you can play through and explore three of the areas of the game. If you play on a server whose host owns the full version, you can access those features. You should really go check it out for yourself! This review will be a little shorter than normal for that reason.

Anyway, Eden Rising is a third-person action game. You can perform melee combo attacks and special attacks with a variety of weapons and you have a teleporting dodge to get out of danger. You will be exploring various large areas to gather materials and unlock new technology to craft new weapons and armor to help you defend the crucibles.

Eden Rising Tech Tree Screen. — *There are multiple expansive tech trees to progress down.*

Gameplay

Crucible sieges are the core of the game. You can craft and build turrets and activate a siege when you are ready. Once it starts you need to defend the crucibles (big techno pillars) from waves of monsters. The better you perform, the higher your score, the more nanochips, and links you obtain. Links are the key to actually progressing through the game while nanochips can be spent on unlocking new technology, turrets, and other boons.

Exploration is important because you not only need to gather materials from the wild and from various monsters, but you need to find outposts and protect them from sieges. Doing so grants you extra links but more importantly new craftable weapons and armor. You also need to track down modules used to upgrade the crucible. You can upgrade its power allowing for more turret placement, or make little material farms or factories that produce stuff for you over time.

*Combat is flashy and fun, each weapon has its own feel, strength, and weakness.*

You have an upgradable power limit which dictates how many turrets you can place, as each one has its own power cost. There is a large variety of turrets that are effective against different enemies types. Interestingly, you have a personal power level that allows you to bring and place turrets with you in the wild. It is much smaller than the power of the crucible, but the added strategy is nice.

Weapons and armor are crafted via their own individual trees in a manner that reminds me of Monster Hunter. You can for example craft a spear that deals electricity or go down another path. There is a variety of weapons as well. They range from slow but heavy hitting hammers, glaives that strike multiple enemies at once, spears that deal great single target damage and even ranged blasters.

*The core loop revolves around tower defense and taking on waves of foes in a siege.*

Different types of armor provide different benefits. Some are more protective but impact your stamina, while lighter ones don’t drain you but aren’t as effective against attacks. I personally appreciate that there were multiple overall world difficulties you can change. There are settings for solo, group, and tribe that affects the sieges themselves. The graphics are quite nice and the art style is very colorful.

Many of the enemies have varied attack patterns and learning when to dodge can be key to fighting them. I personally wasn’t a fan of some of the actual visual design on some of the enemies, but that is a minor gripe. The actual combat is a little lightweight but fun and the variety of weapons adds some spice to it.

Eden Rising weapon crafting screen. — *Each weapon type has its own tree, you need to collect materials and kill monsters for their parts to craft them. It reminds me of Monster Hunter in that aspect.*

If you die you do drop what you are carrying but you can retrieve it. This actually seems a little pointless, you unlock telesite towers around the map that you can teleport between but also can spawn at. Retrieving your bag usually takes less than five seconds. Losing sieges is rough, but I would have liked to see a little more consequence for dying in the wild.

Verdict

Overall Eden Rising is a solid well-designed game that is really fun to play with friends. Its a nice blend of crafting, action, explorations, and tower defense. There is a lot to unlock and the tech trees are big. If the idea of it appeals to you, it is worth the money. But why not jump into the free to play version and decide for yourself?

A review code of Eden Rising was provided to Gideon’s Gaming by Nvizzio Creations.