Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal

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Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal is a single player real-time strategy game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Knuckle Cracker and was released on March 27, 2014. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

"Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal" is a real-time strategy game where players must defend their base from an enemy force called the "Creeper." The Creeper is a hostile, flowing substance that covers the terrain and destrovers anything in its path. Players must build and upgrade their base, gather resources, and deploy units to strategically push back the Creeper and complete objectives. The game features a variety of levels, environments, and units to keep the gameplay fresh and engaging.

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Play Modes

Single-Player

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97%

Audience ScoreBased on 3,780 reviews

story279 positive mentions

grinding41 negative mentions

Creeper World 3 offers a unique blend of tower defense and real-time strategy gameplay, where players must manage resources and build defenses against a fluid enemy.
The game features a vast amount of content, including a lengthy campaign, numerous community-created maps, and a robust map editor, providing endless replayability.
The gameplay is engaging and allows for various strategies, making it enjoyable for both casual and hardcore players.

The game can become repetitive after a while, as many levels follow a similar pattern of establishing a foothold and then slowly pushing back the enemy.
Some players find the difficulty spike in certain levels, particularly the Farbor mission, frustrating and feel it detracts from the overall experience.
The user interface and graphics may feel dated, and the text can be too small to read on higher resolution screens, impacting the overall user experience.

story
1,062 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
70%
4%
The story in "Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal" is generally described as simple yet engaging, serving primarily as a backdrop to the gameplay rather than a focal point. While some players found the narrative to be cliché or lacking depth, many appreciated its ability to introduce new mechanics and challenges throughout the campaign, which consists of around 20 missions. The game also offers extensive post-campaign content, including user-generated maps and additional modes, ensuring a wealth of replayability beyond the main storyline.
- “The sense of progression is tightly woven into both the gameplay and the story, which, while not groundbreaking in literary terms, provides a surprisingly thoughtful and philosophical backdrop that frames the game’s conflict in broader cosmic and existential themes.”
- “The campaign is lengthy and filled with handcrafted missions that gradually introduce new mechanics and enemies.”
- “The story is decent too, painting a bleak picture of human civilizations rising and falling to the creeper over hundreds of millions of years.”
- “The entire game teaches you to play one way, then decides at the end of the story campaign to say 'nahhh forget everything you thought you knew now it's a terrible timed garbage mission.'”
- “The story is short, but there are many, many more worlds to conquer if you want to keep playing.”
- “The story is minimal, mostly conversation between the protagonist and his droid/ship assistant.”
gameplay
665 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
59%
3%
The gameplay of "Creeper World 3" is widely praised for its innovative mechanics that blend tower defense and real-time strategy elements, offering a unique challenge against a fluid enemy. Players appreciate the depth and variety introduced through each level, which keeps the experience fresh and engaging, while the extensive community-created content adds nearly limitless replayability. Despite some criticisms regarding graphics and occasional repetitiveness, the core gameplay is described as addictive, satisfying, and well-balanced, making it a standout title in the genre.
- “The gameplay loop is simple but easy to get back into after a long break, and the complexity/difficulty curve appeals to everyone.”
- “The gameplay is so good and the content so plentiful that the value proposition is just too good to pass up even at full price.”
- “The campaign is lengthy and filled with handcrafted missions that gradually introduce new mechanics and enemies.”
- “The gameplay loop feels more like fighting multiple large fires in SimCity 1 than tower defense.”
- “The gameplay loop was the same during each mission.”
- “The gameplay is solid, it's just boring after a while.”
graphics
259 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
63%
9%
The graphics of "Creeper World 3" are characterized as simplistic and functional, often described as retro or reminiscent of early 2000s games. While some players find the visuals charming and fitting for the gameplay, others note that they feel dated and could benefit from improvement. Overall, the consensus is that the graphics do not detract from the engaging and addictive gameplay, which remains the primary focus of the experience.
- “The simple aesthetic works in the game’s favor, as it emphasizes the mechanics over distracting visuals.”
- “Clean graphics, engaging strategy gameplay, and polished to a high shine.”
- “The graphics are pleasant and functional.”
- “The graphics are a little basic and simple, but this is not a big deal as the gameplay is much more significant in this situation.”
- “While the graphics may be on a lower end than that of normal games, it provides hours and hours of fantastic gameplay.”
- “The graphics haven't improved in a relevant way compared to the flash chapters.”
music
158 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46%
45%
9%
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality and ability to enhance the gameplay experience, with many players finding it fitting and enjoyable. However, a common critique is its repetitiveness, as the limited number of tracks can become stale over extended play sessions. Overall, while the soundtrack is often described as great and atmospheric, players frequently recommend listening to their own music after a while to avoid monotony.
- “The soundtrack really evokes the feel of the storyline, and the gameplay is varied.”
- “Above everything else, the music is what really sells this game.”
- “The music fits with the game, giving an adventurous and formidable feel of the unknown.”
- “The music is really forgettable.”
- “The only off-putting thing is that the soundtrack only has 3 or 4 songs and quickly becomes repetitive.”
- “Music is repetitive and generic... it's like 4 tracks on autoplay.”
replayability
138 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
62%
36%
2%
The game boasts exceptional replayability, primarily driven by a vast array of community-created levels and custom maps, which provide nearly limitless challenges for players. Even after completing the main campaign, the availability of additional modes and user-generated content ensures that players can continually find new experiences. Many reviewers highlight the game's depth and variety, making it a highly addictive and engaging title that remains enjoyable long after its initial release.
- “These layers of content create nearly limitless replayability and ensure that players have a consistent stream of new challenges to tackle.”
- “The replayability is through the roof, and if my play time is insufficient indicator, check out the play time of other reviewers; many have me beat by a lot.”
- “With such a diverse set of mechanics which work well together, this game has an absurd amount of replayability considering its flash game roots.”
- “It loses a lot of replayability after you finish the main campaign, but it's still fun to just pick up and experiment with all the different ways you can win.”
- “I was honestly hoping for a longer experience overall, but there is replay value in the form of custom community maps, as well as a random map generator which needs to be unlocked through the campaign.”
- “The campaign itself isn't too challenging, but beyond that there are tens and potentially even hundreds of missions which are playable beyond the campaign, many of which are incredibly challenging in their own right.”
grinding
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
98%
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed feedback, with many players finding it tedious and repetitive, especially in later levels where victory feels inevitable. While some appreciate the satisfaction of systematically overcoming challenges, others criticize the lack of variation and pacing, leading to a slog through missions. Overall, the grinding can detract from the enjoyment, though some players still find it rewarding amidst the monotony.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The big problem is how quickly the game becomes an unbelievably tedious slog, slowly grinding away at every single mission in a similar fashion over the course of far too much time.”
- “They managed to ruin an awesome game by adding unnecessary mechanics and new things, turning it into a grindy mess not in the slightest reminiscent of the older titles that would keep you pinned to the monitor and playing all night long. I played through it for old times' sake, but halfway through it stopped being fun.”
- “Much higher effort than you'd think by looking at the screenshots, but it's one of those games where you figure out what to do in the first minute and spend the next 20 grinding it out without much variation.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its smooth performance and stability, even on large maps, with intuitive controls and solid mechanics. However, some players experience performance issues when deploying numerous units, which can affect gameplay strategies. While the graphics and UI may not be the best, the game's engaging nature keeps players invested despite these shortcomings.
- “Smooth performance as well as interesting levels.”
- “+ Performance and stability are flawless even on the largest maps.”
- “Not only are the mechanics solid, the performance stellar, but the interface is also straightforward, and the controls seem pretty intuitive.”
- “Now, if you are trying for the leaderboards, then get ready to white-knuckle it because there is some serious optimization to be had.”
- “While I enjoyed this game very much, my biggest complaint is that the performance suffers when you have too many units built, which hampers my preferred turtle/juggernaut strategy.”
- “My only criticism would be that the custom maps are a bit limited in size, but then I understand the need to keep performance stable on older platforms.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
80%
60%
The emotional aspect of the game is mixed; while some players find the gameplay addictive and reminiscent of childhood joy, others criticize the storyline as boring, leading to a lack of deeper emotional engagement. Overall, the game evokes feelings of cleverness and nostalgia for many, despite its narrative shortcomings.
- “I had a lot of great moments playing the game that made me feel really cool and clever!”
- “It made me feel like a kid again.”
- “The emotional depth of the story is lacking, making it hard to connect with the characters.”
- “I found the emotional moments to be forced and unconvincing, which detracted from the overall experience.”
- “Despite the game's beautiful visuals, the emotional impact fell flat and left me feeling disconnected.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
Overall, the game demonstrates solid stability, running smoothly on a variety of systems, including older hardware. While some users report minor graphical glitches, the game has not experienced crashes or freezes, contributing to a generally positive experience.
- “It's a unique game, easy to learn, and runs great on just about any CPU.”
- “Besides being an interesting tower defense game, it runs great on my old laptop with Xubuntu!”
- “A big plus is that it runs great on weaker machines.”
- “The game offers some nice graphics and environments, although there are some ugly glitches here and there.”
- “It's never crashed, it's never frozen without external conflicts, and it doesn't even have glitches.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The atmosphere of the game is characterized by a blend of an engaging soundtrack that enhances the storyline and a unique, albeit convoluted, sci-fi setting. While the user interface and sound design may detract from the experience, the overall atmosphere is still considered intriguing and immersive, contributing to the game's appeal.
- “It provides some interesting atmosphere.”
- “Not held back by a functional but ugly UI, dreadful sound, and a plot that’s heavy on both elegiac atmosphere and sci-fi nonsense; Creeper World is, simply, a masterpiece of gameplay design.”
- “The soundtrack is quite decent as well, and at times adds to the atmosphere of the storyline.”
- “That way, the player would appreciate the songs even more, and it brings a more exciting atmosphere into the game.”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
75%
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed feedback; while some users appreciate the absence of mandatory microtransactions and find the current pricing reasonable, others express frustration over irrelevant advertisements for new releases that are not compatible with their operating system, leading to a negative experience.
- “Microtransactions for a good cause.”
- “Since at the time of this review, CW4 has not been released yet, all 4 current games are available for under £60 with no required or life-changing microtransactions, so I definitely would suggest getting it if you like these.”
- “So I got an advertisement for a game I cannot play on my OS and lost a game that I'd paid for.”
- “☐ Microtransactions for a good cause ”
- “It added an advertisement for their newest release, which is also Windows-only.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is noted as a standout feature, with players finding it both funny and engaging, despite its unconventional genre. The game's interesting concept contributes to its comedic appeal, making it a memorable experience for those who invest time in it.
- “Funny game with an interesting concept.”
- “I have spent so much time on this game... it's not even funny.”
- “Creeper World 3 is one of those funny little games that don't quite fit any established genre.”

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20h Median play time

196h Average play time

15-216h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 23 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal is a real-time strategy game with science fiction theme.

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal is available on PC, Mac OS, Windows and Linux.

On average players spend around 196 hours playing Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal.

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal was released on March 27, 2014.

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal was developed by Knuckle Cracker.

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal is a single player game.

Similar games include Creeper World 4, Particle Fleet: Emergence, Infested Planet, Creeper World, Creeper World 2 Anniversary Edition and others.

Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal

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