Castle Story

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Castle Story is a single player and multiplayer strategy game. It was developed by Sauropod Studio and was released on August 17, 2017. It received neutral reviews from players.

An epic adventure awaits you in Castle Story, a strategy game where you command friendly creatures called Bricktrons. Have them explore, carve, dig and gather resources from vast, spectacular floating islands, reshaping the voxel-based world to your desire! Design and build any structure you can imagine! From mighty and legendary castles to sprawling Bricktron villages. Beware, your Bricktrons w…

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53%

Audience ScoreBased on 5,053 reviews

story111 positive mentions

stability347 negative mentions

The game has a charming art style and enjoyable soundtrack.
Building mechanics allow for creativity and customization in castle design.
The game offers multiple modes, including sandbox and invasion, providing varied gameplay experiences.

The game has been abandoned by the developers, with no updates or fixes since 2018.
AI pathfinding is poor, leading to frustrating gameplay as units often get stuck or fail to follow commands.
The game lacks depth and content, making it repetitive and limiting long-term engagement.

story
606 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
77%
5%
The story aspect of *Castle Story* is largely criticized for its absence; many players note that despite the game's title, it lacks a coherent narrative or campaign mode. While the game allows for creative building and emergent storytelling through player experiences, it does not provide a structured storyline or lore, leaving players to create their own narratives without any guidance. Overall, the consensus is that *Castle Story* feels more like a sandbox experience than a game with a meaningful story.
- “One of the game’s most admirable qualities is how it fosters emergent storytelling.”
- “The game doesn’t impose a strong narrative but instead encourages you to create your own story through your successes and failures—watching your castle fall, rebuild, and stand tall again can be unexpectedly emotional.”
- “Castle story is a game where you get to express creativity by building, use tactics by defending and just all around have a good time.”
- “For a game called 'castle story', there is neither a story, nor is there any reason to build castles.”
- “The game is called castle story, has no narrative; it's mainly a broken sandbox with no need for castles, you simply build a wall there's no need for anything more!”
- “Castle story is a lackluster and at times needlessly frustrating experience that will just make you want to crave more with no hope of it ever delivering.”
gameplay
581 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
67%
9%
The gameplay of Castle Story is a mixed bag, with many players appreciating its unique blend of building and real-time strategy elements, but often criticizing the clunky mechanics and poor AI. While the game offers a charming art style and a variety of modes, including sandbox and invasion, it suffers from significant pathfinding issues, bugs, and a lack of depth in gameplay, leading to frustration and repetitiveness. Overall, while the core concept is engaging, many players feel that the execution is lacking, making it difficult to recommend without reservations.
- “While it draws inspiration from classic god games and RTS titles, Castle Story establishes its own identity through its distinct art style, slow-paced but rewarding gameplay, and an emphasis on creativity and survival.”
- “The floating island maps are beautifully crafted, with rolling hills, cliffs, and narrow passes that naturally shape gameplay and strategy.”
- “The core gameplay involves harvesting resources, constructing a base, and defending against waves of hostile creatures called corruptrons.”
- “For a building game, the mechanics are so clunky; it's a terrible game.”
- “The game concept is good, but the building mechanics are so frustratingly bad that it almost gives me a panic attack while playing.”
- “The gameplay is very simple, but it has a refined-looking design, something that appeals to me.”
stability
352 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
1%
99%
The game's stability is a significant concern among users, with many reporting frequent freezes, lag, and various bugs that severely impact gameplay. Players describe the experience as frustrating due to unresponsive AI, pathfinding issues, and a lack of updates from developers, leading to the perception of the game as abandoned or unfinished. While some find enjoyment in the core mechanics, the overall consensus is that the game remains too buggy and unstable for a satisfying experience.
- “This game runs great on any Linux distro I've thrown at it, both with NVIDIA and AMD graphics, and on my one dual-booting PC, it runs better on Linux than Windows.”
- “Runs great in the beginning.”
- “I'd recommend coming back in a year's time to look at this game; it might be bug-free with okay AI.”
- “I would love to enjoy this game but it is not properly optimized and freezes every 3-5 seconds.”
- “It had potential to be truly great but it's a buggy mess that was abandoned ages ago.”
- “This game is a buggy mess and will never be actually finished.”
graphics
294 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
55%
4%
The graphics of Castle Story are widely praised for their charming voxel art style, which combines a colorful, cartoonish aesthetic reminiscent of LEGO and Minecraft. Many players appreciate the game's unique visual appeal and smooth animations, although some report performance issues and lag, even on high-end systems. Overall, while the graphics are considered a strong point, they are often overshadowed by gameplay mechanics that some find frustrating or underdeveloped.
- “The game features a charming voxel art style that gives it a unique and visually appealing look.”
- “The graphics are colorful and cartoon-like, with a charming aesthetic that fits the game's whimsical tone.”
- “I love the art style; it can be challenging at times, but the visuals are great and charming.”
- “When I first saw this game online (like 3 years ago) I really liked it, the style, the idea of a game itself with cartoonish graphics, etc. However, when I launched the game I was met with a lot of bugs, like a whole lot of them.”
- “The graphics are average, the story is not yet finished, and the gameplay is less than stimulating and agonizingly slow.”
- “It's clear the graphic students who founded this game dramatically over-promised and under-delivered.”
optimization
225 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
58%
31%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting frequent freezes, stuttering, and significant performance drops, especially when managing larger groups of characters or during intense gameplay. Despite some improvements over time, many users still experience severe lag and bugs, leading to frustration and a diminished gaming experience. Overall, the game is considered poorly optimized, making it challenging to recommend, particularly for those with lower-end hardware.
- “The voxel engine allows for impressive simulations and real-time modifications to the terrain, but it also introduces some performance issues as builds become more ambitious.”
- “While it isn’t without flaws—particularly in performance and AI reliability—it’s a unique experience that offers a refreshing blend of creativity and tactical planning.”
- “The developers have clearly put endless hours into what originally looked like a fairly doable task, but turned out as a development nightmare (performance, AI, pathfinding, UI).”
- “The game is poorly optimized; when too many Bricktrons need to think about what to do at a time, the game will often freeze for a few seconds even on good hardware.”
- “The performance optimization is bad.”
- “The game performance is absolutely atrocious.”
music
73 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
58%
35%
7%
The music in the game is widely praised for its relaxing and beautiful soundtrack, enhancing the overall atmosphere and gameplay experience. However, many users note issues with the music's frequency and variety, often experiencing long silences between tracks or repetitive loops that detract from immersion. Overall, while the soundtrack is a highlight for many, its execution and integration into the gameplay could benefit from improvements.
- “The soundtrack is undeniably fantastic!”
- “The sound design is also well-done, with a relaxing soundtrack and satisfying sound effects that enhance the game's atmosphere.”
- “The music is amazing to listen to and the game is just extremely fun to play, fighting off waves after waves of enemies in the single player whilst also getting to build a castle of my own design is extremely fun and I would very much recommend picking up this game to give it a try.”
- “While sound effects play regularly, the actual music will play for a short time and then stop.”
- “There may be several minutes of silence between the short songs that play.”
- “Not only is the music and sound effects bad, but the options don't work (as most of the things in the game) so even set at 0% the music still plays.”
humor
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
95%
5%
The humor in the game is frequently highlighted as a strong point, with players enjoying the quirky characters, funny graphics, and amusing physics-based interactions. Many reviews mention the comedic elements of gameplay, such as the antics of the "bricktrons" and the humorous glitches that occur, contributing to an overall lighthearted experience. However, some players express frustration with the game's unfinished state, suggesting that while the humor is enjoyable, it may not be enough to sustain long-term engagement.
- “Not only is this game fun, it's also very funny because of the characters in general.”
- “The amount of things you can do to each other with a physics-based destruction system and building system that takes care and precision is hilarious, and downright addictive.”
- “The team has done an incredible job making these characters lovable and funny while retaining a smooth animation and an art style that makes the game so much more appealing.”
- “The people who made this game waste a lifetime sneak-peeking new content which will be on hold until you die and making unfunny jokes and memes on Twitter.”
- “I always laugh when I see 'game development is too slow,' but honestly, it's not funny; it's sad.”
- “But it can pause the game very briefly, and that is why I have stated the game isn't quite there just yet, but it's so close it's not funny.”
grinding
52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
8%
88%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being excessively tedious and frustrating, with players often feeling overwhelmed by the need for constant micromanagement and repetitive tasks. Many reviews highlight that the game's mechanics can become clunky, leading to a sense of boredom and a lack of engagement, particularly during mid-game. Despite its potential, the overall experience is marred by the grindy nature of gameplay, which detracts from enjoyment and can make players feel as though they need "a second life" to keep up with the demands.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Now building is a little unique; you have to build your structures one brick at a time (you can click and drag, so it's not tedious), which means you can end up with a stronghold that can take multiple hits of explosive barrels.”
- “The game is beyond tedious and is purposely made overly complex to give an illusion it is something it is not.”
- “Had great potential but gameplay is tediously grindy and was abandoned by the devs.”
- “Unfortunately, a lack of polish and some significant UI and AI problems make its main game mode tedious and frustrating, and the overall product feels like it wasn't quite ready to come out of early access yet.”
replayability
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
60%
11%
Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag; many players appreciate its fun mechanics, multiple game modes, and creative building aspects, which contribute to significant replay value. However, some users express frustration with the game's current state, citing issues with playability and a lack of content, leading to concerns about its long-term replayability. While there is potential for a more engaging experience, the game's development progress has left some players disappointed.
- “I've sunk hours into this game and still enjoy it; it has two solid PvE game modes to enjoy and lots of maps for replayability.”
- “Castle Story: fun, strategic, dynamic... it has a lot of replay value with the multiple game modes, the variety of maps, and the different play styles.”
- “Overall a great game, plenty of replayability; one of the most unique RTS games I've ever played. Even to this day, I'm still figuring out how this works, and I've had it for years.”
- “No replay value.”
- “The game is rather empty with no replayability and 1 map for each mode... which there are two of.”
- “With the problems, and low replay value, I can't recommend this game.”
monetization
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization aspect of Castle Story has been heavily criticized, with many users labeling it a blatant cash grab. Reviewers express concerns about the game's quality and the developers' commitment, suggesting that it lacks substantial content and is unlikely to progress beyond its current early access state. Overall, players feel misled by the advertising and believe the game is not worth the investment.
- “Kinda fearing a cash grab with this game.”
- “This has all the markings of a cash grab, and is not worth the money in its current (most likely permanent) form.”
- “Beside being an alpha, it's a poor excuse for making a quick cash grab from the community.”
emotional
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the game emotionally engaging, as it allows them to craft their own narratives through the ups and downs of building and defending their castles. The heartfelt connection to the characters and the creative potential of the building mechanics evoke strong feelings, despite some frustrations with gameplay mechanics. Overall, the emotional impact is highlighted by moments of triumph and loss, making the experience resonate deeply with players.
- “The game doesn’t impose a strong narrative but instead encourages you to create your own story through your successes and failures—watching your castle fall, rebuild, and stand tall again can be unexpectedly emotional.”
- “Amazing game that has you feeling emotional about the little guys.”
- “Even in its early state, I found so much to love about it, ranging from the blueprint system to the task management; everything just came together in a way that made me feel marveled at the game.”
atmosphere
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
29%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its relaxing soundtrack, satisfying sound effects, and charming art style, which together create a fun and playful environment. The cute characters and dynamic day-night cycle further enhance the immersive experience, while unique mechanics like the "lights out" mode add depth and challenge to the atmosphere. Overall, players find it effective for stress relief and engaging due to its vibrant and varied settings.
- “The sound design is also well-done, with a relaxing soundtrack and satisfying sound effects that enhance the game's atmosphere.”
- “It is very good for relieving stress with the little cute characters and the beautiful atmosphere.”
- “The characters are cute and the day and night cycle is very atmospheric.”