Steampunk ARPG Crystalfall Enters Early Access, But Not Without Some Kinks

A while back, I tried out CRG Studio’s steampunk ARPG Crystalfall during Steam Next Fest. I wrote about that experience in detail, but the general gist was that it didn’t do anything incredibly groundbreaking, but that it was a fun game that did pretty much what you’d expect it to within the confines of its genre. It ended up being one of the top 50 games downloaded during Next Fest and was added to players’ wishlists over 120,000 times.

Today, the game is available in early access. No, it’s not the pay-to-play kind before launch. You can download it for free now. That said, there have been some hiccups. Since going live, the game has accumulated quite a few negative reviews. The most relevant complaint to players in general is probably going to be the repeated ones about server issues, with players stating that the servers can’t support the number of players trying to access the game.

Another repeated complaint is that the game asks players to put in an email address so that a login code can be sent, something that players are stating ties into the Xsolla payment system the company is using. Beyond that, there’s a complaint about the game being labeled as MMO when it’s not. That last one may have more to do with Steam’s categorization systems than anything else.

There is good news, though. A post on the game’s Steam page indicates that the servers have been scaled to support the number of players trying to get in. It won’t be perfect as there’s a problem on the backend hosted by Google, but the company is working with Google to fix that.

And on the topic of the email login, the same post states that it’s being removed because it wasn’t meant to be part of the process anyway. It was apparently something for internal use.

Hopefully, those things address player concerns.

As far as the launch and related celebration go, the dev team is hosting weekly challenges that players can take part in and earn Credits to spend in the game. There will be events running for the first three weeks of Early Access, with winners announced on Mondays. And if you enjoy the game enough to invest in it, Founder Packs are available as well.