Lumencraft

About

Lumencraft is a single player and multiplayer survival role playing shooter game with a thriller theme. It was developed by 2Dynamic Games and was released on February 27, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Lumencraft is a top-down view action shooter with tower defence elements. Emerge into the fully destructible environment where light and shadow play key roles. Build your base, dig some tunnels...

Skip User Reviews

75%

Audience ScoreBased on 644 reviews

story11 positive mentions

grinding25 negative mentions

Unique blend of top-down mining, tower defense, and base building that offers a satisfying and addictive gameplay loop.
Highly replayable with a map editor, workshop support, procedural maps, and local co-op features enhancing longevity and fun.
Engaging visuals and sound design, with destructible terrain and dynamic lighting creating a strong atmosphere and immersive experience.

Lack of online multiplayer limits co-op potential; current shared screen co-op is restrictive and may cause frustration.
In early access state with bugs, frequent crashes, clunky controls, and UI/inventory management that can be unintuitive and cumbersome.
Repetitive gameplay and pacing issues in long waves or campaign missions; scarcity of resources and limited turret/enemy variety reduce depth.

story
102 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
81%
8%
The story in the game is minimal and largely background, serving as a basic framework rather than a compelling narrative, with most mission storytelling conveyed through bland text popups and lacking voice acting or deeper lore. Players find the campaign repetitive and slow-paced, often consisting of fetch quests or wave defense missions with limited variety and poorly integrated progression, making it feel more like an extended tutorial than a rich story experience. While some appreciate the gradual introduction of mechanics through missions, many express frustration with unclear objectives, lack of impactful story elements, and repetitive mission design.
- “While Lumencraft does feature a narrative framework centered on humanity's desperate attempt to reclaim the surface world, storytelling takes a largely atmospheric and background role.”
- “The campaign consists of several missions where you explore, defend, and collect materials to set up your base to be defended against the alien minions. After completing the mission, you will unlock minerals used to increase permanent perks to be stronger in the next mission.”
- “The missions are varied and quite carefully crafted with certain approaches in mind, but the game doesn't really care how you complete your goals—just that you do.”
- “The missions are mostly shallow.”
- “No compelling story.”
- “The "story campaign" is just a basic tutorial, don't expect much of it.”
gameplay
99 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
55%
7%
Gameplay in Lumencraft offers a compelling mix of excavation, base defense, and resource management with a strong emphasis on strategic positioning and mobility. While players often praise its addictive core loop, satisfying digging mechanics, and challenging enemy waves, many note that the gameplay can become repetitive and slow-paced over time due to limited progression, lack of variety in objectives, and somewhat clunky combat. The current experience is solid and enjoyable for tower defense and survival enthusiasts, but it needs further content, balancing, and mechanic refinements to maintain long-term engagement.
- “At the heart of Lumencraft lies a compelling gameplay loop built around excavation and defense.”
- “The top-down shooting mechanics emphasize mobility and positioning, with enemies pouring in from multiple directions and exploiting poorly defended areas.”
- “The core gameplay is great, the drilling feels amazing and the upgrade/building system is fun too.”
- “Half the campaign missions are fetch quests, and you never really seem to get to play with all the mechanics of the game.”
- “The gameplay loop can get boring real fast for some people; progression is limited with tower levels and tech, campaign balance is off, many levels feel repetitive, and failed attempts can waste a lot of time.”
- “The mechanics of melee and shooting as a player are clunky, and the combat mechanics need an overhaul to introduce balancing and make fighting actually fun.”
graphics
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
58%
34%
8%
The game's graphics receive praise for their pleasing art style, immersive visuals, and satisfying debris physics, contributing to a captivating atmosphere. However, some users note performance issues, lack of optimization, and limited graphical settings, especially at higher resolutions. Overall, the graphics are visually appealing and enhance gameplay, though improvements in optimization and options are needed.
- “Darkness is not simply an aesthetic choice but an active threat, limiting visibility and heightening the danger of exploration.”
- “The digging is incredibly satisfying and well executed in the graphics department, where debris will either fall to the ground and move around - or with a very powerful drill straight up shoot out of the tunnel you're digging.”
- “- fantastic graphics - isn't 4k 'photo-realistic' rendered and that's a good thing - the art design is exemplary as everything looks both lush and vibrant but at the same time semi-realistic and roughly textured.”
- “The graphics in this game are terrible and optimizations are nonexistent.”
- “Sure, only at 720p with all the graphic settings flushed down to their lowest possible settings.”
- “I understand the game is in early access but if you have your graphic set above 1078x768 you can't even load the game.”
replayability
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
57%
12%
Replayability in Lumencraft receives mixed feedback, with many praising its solid tower defense mechanics, cooperative play, and workshop support that keep it engaging over time. However, several users note a lack of long-term incentives, procedural map generation, and a deeper metagame or campaign, which limit enduring replay value. While some find it endlessly replayable and fun, others feel it falls short without further development or added features.
- “This is a really solid tower defense game with excellent replayability.”
- “Easy to grasp, endlessly replayable.”
- “Overall, Lumencraft is an extremely fun game with lots of replayability.”
- “A solid mining + base defense combo with very little replay value.”
- “It is a shame as if this game had maybe another year of development it might be good and if it was still in early access I would be recommending it but as it is I can't recommend it on anything less than 60% off as these issues make you feel like you are fighting to actually have fun and despite the random map generated modes there is almost no replayability.”
- “No replayability so far.”
grinding
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
96%
Grinding in the game is a mixed experience: while some find it addictive and cathartic with a satisfying sense of progression, many highlight it as slow, tedious, and repetitive, often hampered by pacing issues and broken achievement tracking. The slow resource gathering and prolonged campaign can frustrate players, though the core mechanics and visuals help mitigate the grind for some. Overall, grinding is a significant aspect that may appeal to dedicated players but could deter those seeking a more dynamic pace.
- “Not too grindy, nice sense of progression, reasonable strategy, dig dig dig, upgrade the drill.”
- “The game is fun but quite repetitive. Achievements are severely broken and stop tracking after prolonged play, making grinding achievements frustrating. A major quality-of-life update is needed before it can be recommended.”
- “Campaign is very dull, with long grindy sections between boring base defenses and awkward controls.”
- “I wanted to like this game but the slow mining speed, combined with slow walking speed, poor resource generation rate, and a slow, grindy campaign made it impossible.”
stability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The game's stability is highly inconsistent, with many users reporting frequent crashes, freezes—especially during loading screens and saving—and issues in windowed or borderless modes. While some find it relatively bug-free and running well, the majority experience significant glitches that hinder playability, indicating it is still in an early, unstable state.
- “Great mining/tower defense/arcade shooter mix, and pretty much bug free for me besides one weird campaign crash.”
- “Runs great at 8 watts, sure with mass bugs it slows a bit but there is a lot going on.”
- “On to my review, game runs great.”
- “Really unstable, menu freezes, only playable in windowed mode, game crashes often.”
- “The game freezes on every loading screen in borderless windowed mode.”
- “Saving the game freezes everything.”
optimization
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
33%
42%
Optimization for the game is currently inconsistent, with some players reporting poor performance and stuttering even on high-end CPUs, while others experience generally smooth gameplay with occasional dips during intense scenes. Many users note a lack of effective optimization, though some acknowledge ongoing developer efforts to improve performance over time.
- “No performance related issues.”
- “It's got some very cool mechanics and seems very polished and optimized even in its early access stage.”
- “I did get some performance dips on big waves or when the screen is filled with lava, but I know the developers are working on solving those issues.”
- “Questionable developer attributes poor performance to a player's CPU when the CPU is an i7 12700!”
- “Optimizations are non-existent.”
- “Needless to say this game is poorly optimized and the developer is slapping us in the face attempting to justify it by "bragging" about 60 fps with a four generations old GPU bottom of the barrel GTX 1060.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The music in the game receives mixed feedback; some players find it mediocre or repetitive with limited tracks, while others praise the soundtrack and sound quality. There are occasional audio issues during cooperative play, but overall the music complements the game's atmosphere.
- “Love the soundtrack.”
- “And the soundtrack is great.”
- “Great art, sound, and music.”
- “During remote cooperative play, there is a huge scratching noise that doesn't stop until you completely turn off the music and effects.”
- “The sound quality is really sweet, but the music isn't much as it has pretty much only a few tracks.”
- “Music is... meh.”
atmosphere
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
70%
20%
10%
Lumencraft is praised for its tense and immersive atmosphere, driven by dynamic lighting and a dark, subterranean setting that enhances both gameplay and narrative. The blend of unsettling enemy designs, destructible environments, and strategic elements creates a unique, engaging ambiance that resonates strongly with fans of atmospheric survival and action games.
- “One of Lumencraft’s most striking features is its dynamic lighting system, which is deeply interwoven with both atmosphere and gameplay.”
- “Ultimately, Lumencraft succeeds as a tense, atmospheric fusion of action shooter and tower defense design, distinguished by its destructible environments and meaningful use of light and darkness.”
- “The dark, glowing atmosphere works extremely well with the subterranean theme.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the game's humor clever and well-written, highlighting funny achievements and references that showcase the developers' wit. The humor is appreciated and adds to the overall enjoyment, especially in anticipation of online co-op.
- “Even from the achievement titles on Steam, I can tell the developers are witty and funny.”
- “The game has some funny achievements and references.”
- “Really funny, but I'll wait for the online co-op.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development in the game is subtle and emerges through gameplay mechanics rather than traditional narrative, appealing to players who prefer organic storytelling. However, those looking for deep emotional growth or detailed narrative exposition may find it lacking.
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's emotional impact is primarily driven by emergent gameplay and mechanical challenges, appealing to players who appreciate story development through play. However, those looking for deep character development or rich narrative may find it lacking in emotional depth.
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's monetization is praised for offering genuine content rather than being a cash grab or asset flip, especially notable given its early access status.