Core Keeper vs. Necesse

The question of the title is a question I had myself, and couldn’t find a recent answer for. In particular, I was looking for which of the two to play with my son. Largely because I desperately didn’t want to play any more Minecraft. Hah.

At surface level, both games are quite similar. They are 2D pixel art, sandbox crafting adventure games that lean toward killing bosses as major progression milestones. Both take heavy inspiration from Terraria, albeit with a perspective shift from side-on to top-down.

But they’re not without their differences. Each takes inspiration from other games to expand the range of play it offers.

The answer to which to play co-op with a child is, I think, relatively clear cut: Core Keeper.

It’s better looking — even after Necesse’s recent graphics update — and perhaps most crucially, is simpler without sacrificing depth. Each crafting table or level opens up a limited number of new options, clearly marked between being for gear/progression or as base niceties.

At default settings — and this is important to call out; as both games offer extensive difficulty customisation and world setting options — Necesse is more punishing and requires paying more attention to the ‘survival’ aspects. Case in point: If you go hungry in Necesse, it will kill you — you’ll drain health until you eat, or die. By contrast, while Core Keeper will punish starvation through reduced max hp and damage output, it won’t directly kill you.

OK, but what about for ME?

The inspiration Core Keeper and Necesse have taken from different games mentioned earlier comes to the fore here, I think.

Necesse brings in elements of a colony simulator such as RimWorld or Dwarf Fortress.

Core Keeper instead looks to the factory genre, games like Factorio or Satisfactory.

Necesse’s implementation however is much more fundamental to the game experience. You could largely ignore the conveyor belts, stationary miners and other automation elements in Core Keeper if you so chose. I’m not as convinced that is true of the colony elements of Necesse.

As someone who enjoys both genres on offer here — I view Necesse’s implementation as a win in its favour. It’s RimWorld that you can play as an active character. Now- to be fair, it isn’t all the way there yet. Still on the roadmap is to implement a Settler interaction system (as in, NPC to NPC interactions) that builds so much of the charm of RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress.

Otherwise though, they both seem to be experiences worth having. I’m enjoying my time with Core Keeper with my son even beyond the fact it’s a fun shared experience with him. I’d play it with my other friends too — and in fact, may well might, given one adores anything that allows mining to this degree.

But when it comes to my solo playtime, I’m finding myself leaning toward Necesse.

I suppose if I was to offer up another point of difference that may help you decide though… If you’re looking for a more ‘cosy’ experience, I think Core Keeper comes out on top here. The visuals help, but so does the simplicity I think. There are no ratios to think about, 1 ore = 1 bar. Water your crops once and they’ll take it from there.

Necesse requires a little more thought to its active play. And I won’t deny, some of that just comes from the current UI and discoverability of new recipes and things you can do.

And it isn’t that you can’t have cosy experiences in Necesse, either. Hell, you can design and build an entire settlement with an impressive array of furniture and decorative options.

And lastly, if this matters to you, Core Keeper recently hit 1.0 and while not the end of its development, is in a fairly feature-stable state. You could play it end to end as the developers intended right now. Necesse, however, is still deep in Early Access, with more features yet to come.

It’s already feeling very ‘whole’, but if you’re someone who tends to one-and-done a game and never revisit, you might be better off waiting if you’d prefer the full experience.

Still- having said that; I’m glad I didn’t!