Can you survive if everything is made out of cardboard? That question is easy to answer under usual circumstances but CardLife is anything but “usual” and I’m here to tell you why this online game has the potential to be a firm family favorite.
Created by FreeJam Games who also developed Robocraft Infinity, CardLife is a first-person survival game in a persistent world built entirely out of cardboard – from the clouds in the sky all the way down to the dirt in the soil I thought I was prepared to see a lot of cardboard but I didn’t fathom the entirety of it until I logged into every cut-out detail evident straight away at the character creation screen.
CardLife is pure magic in its humble cardboard beginnings. You log in with nothing (as you do survival games) and can immediately set out to make sure you have all your tools or risk being slaughtered by mobs such as wolves, imps, and goblins just to name a few – also made from cardboard. The pace for hauling yourself around the world of CardLife is fast and done with ease as you use up your stamina, however – in early access currently the environment is experiencing render delay so you may need to exercise extra precautions or find yourself fall through terrain while you literally look through mountains. Lighting is the only other major issue I am experiencing after updates to servers addressing lag ability. Accidentally stepping into holes on the ground that are very deep making it pitch black inside so it’s impossible to get out. The only solution I’ve found so far is to just wait for death from hunger and respawn running back to the same spot to where your items remain, just be sure not to fall in again!
At the other end of the scale, lighting is also beautiful in CardLife with their latest update being the addition of night and day cycles.
Navigating the games user interface is straightforward as developers focus to make CardLife friendly for all ages including children but what might smack folks on the forehead in disbelief is the dot-to-dot crafting system in place which encourages you to draw every piece of equipment you will ever use, as well as your housing components.
This is when CardLife goes from being a cute cardboard caterpillar to being a next level genius butterfly!
Not only are you drawing your style into existence but CardLife is very much a mod-creating-centric game that has the potential to put it up their with all the major titles that offer similar content without the unique cardboard aspect though I admit my drawing with a mouse skills are absolutely shocking making me curious if CardLife will be playable on devices that can use a pen but what about the building part you ask? It’s child’s play like it’s meant to be.
Next to all of this ingenuity, the combat in CardLife is a lot more fun than I thought it might be. Straightforward but not too easy. Every mob in game looks great making me wonder how creative the community will become as possibilities truly are endless. I can see families enjoying this game together for hours on end! CardLife is captivating, especially to anyone who grew up getting excited by boxes that would be turned into play time components to cut out, sit or draw on.
Did I mention cardboard? So much cardboard and it’s brilliant!