Stormforge Review – Braving the Storms

Stormforge, developed by Roboto Games, is a complex game set in a fantasy world where magical storms have not only devastated the land but also transformed its wildlife, making exploration considerably more dangerous. This richly detailed open-world survival-crafting RPG features base building, character progression, and boss encounters. And then there are the storms. Oh, they’re quite the doozy. Designed to be much more than environmental hazards, they become essential trials on the path to becoming stronger. How willing are you to venture straight into the danger? More on that after the trailer!

There’s Something in the Storm

Our adventure takes place in Sorana, a procedurally generated world scattered with ancient ruins, abandoned settlements, and the remains of enormous stone Titans. Our main objective is to explore this troubled land, gather resources, and use improved equipment to confront the magical corruption. Along the way, we’ve noticed that most activities follow the traditional survival-crafting formula: wood, stone, and other materials are collected, a base is established, and crafting stations are constructed to prepare for increasingly dangerous expeditions. However, character progression is closely tied to clearing magical storms, which function much like dungeons without the usual walls and corridors.

Each storm, you see, occupies an area filled with hazards and corrupted enemies. Tornadoes actively pursue you, hurling environmental objects through the air. There are also lightning strikes, toxic clouds, and bursts of fire. A combination of these hazards can make reaching your objective quite dangerous. But if you persevere, and we hope you will, somewhere inside all this chaos lies a cursed crystal protected by a magical shield.

Destroying the shield generators grants access to the crystal, although alternative approaches are also possible, and you’ll still have to contend with the creatures guarding it. Once the crystal is destroyed, the storm disappears permanently, and that’s the part we loved the most. All that’s left behind is some sweet, sweet loot in the form of magical resources and skill points. It’s a wonderfully realised idea: rather than simply enduring a natural disaster until it eventually dissipates, we have to fight our way through it. There’s a clear objective behind all that danger, and, as we’ve mentioned, clearing a storm directly contributes to character development. We do have to admit that there are only four storm types available at launch, and as fun as they are, we would have loved to see a few more. Hopefully, that changes as the game is still in development.

We hope you don’t think that staying away from storm locations means you’re safe. Oh, no, no, no. Larger Chaos Storms travel across the world, threatening settlements and forcing you to seek shelter. To protect a base, you must place a crystal pillar that generates a magical shield. We saw a somewhat similar concept in Dune: Awakening, although approached from a sci-fi perspective. Unlike in Dune, however, you can disable these roaming storms through the world settings if you’d rather concentrate on exploration and construction.

Building a Place to Call Home

When it comes to base building, we had a ton of fun constructing our own settlements piece by piece or renovating existing abandoned houses. Six building sets are included in the Early Access release, and you’ll be pleased to hear that round walls and floors are available right from the beginning. Well, we actually don’t know why that would please you, but it certainly pleased us, so fingers crossed it does the same for you. And no, we don’t have a particular fondness for round walls, although… ahem…

The construction system offers standard snapping, advanced snapping, and free placement. There’s also the ability to overlap structural pieces, which provides considerable freedom for anyone interested in creating something more elaborate than a rectangular wooden cabin. The tools are quite powerful, and while other games often leave us with little more than another wooden cabin to build, here we were able to come up with some genuinely interesting designs. Those round walls sure do wonders…

To make things more practical, crafting stations can access materials stored inside chests within the crystal pillar’s radius. That means we don’t have to repeatedly search through containers and transfer resources into our inventory whenever we want to craft something. It’s a very neat and much-appreciated feature. Another nice touch is the quick-stack function, which automatically deposits matching items into storage, while repairing equipment costs nothing. Durability is still part of the game, but you can disable it entirely if it strikes your fancy.

These conveniences are particularly welcome because we’re reaching a point where we’re getting rather tired of the substantial amount of time required to gather resources and maintain a home. We’re fond of crafting and construction, but constantly reorganising an inventory is hardly the most exciting way to spend an evening.

Fighting, Exploring, and Becoming Stronger

In terms of exploration, we have three biomes at our disposal. One is a grassy vale, another is a forested, hilly, and densely wooded region, while the last, and harshest of them all, is the Ember Canyons. We read that the world covers 75 km² and contains more than 100 points of interest. From what we’ve seen, including all the ruins, dungeons, and settlements we’ve visited, we certainly believe it! And it’s not just a numbers game or a world that’s big for the sake of being big. Many locations look fantastic, and exploring them is a joy. It feels like a genuine, detailed world filled with interesting things to discover.

Reaching distant locations involves more than simply travelling on foot. We can construct boats to explore other islands, use gliders, acquire mounts from a merchant, and establish portals for fast travel. Mount options include the Thunderhoof, Mistwolf, and Galewing.

Combat features melee weapons, bows, shields, and magical equipment, with dodging, blocking, and stagger attacks providing additional tactical options. Blocking only protects against attacks coming from the front, while magical weapons consume mana rather than conventional ammunition. It’s a simple but enjoyable combat system that requires some thought and strategising. For example, some enemies possess abilities that make them immune to damage while in mist form. Others can escape using miniature tornadoes or teleport out of bow range. These are interesting complications because simply attacking isn’t necessarily enough. Some encounters made us pay close attention to when an enemy could actually be damaged, while others, such as the teleporting deer, made ranged hunting considerably more dynamic.

Currently, there are three bosses, and defeating them grants crests used to unlock character classes. Speaking of which, we have five classes to choose from. It’s great that we’re not restricted to a single specialisation, as the system allows skills from unlocked classes to be combined. There are more than 100 skills, including over 20 active abilities, providing considerable room for experimentation. Yup, that’s a lot of experimentation.

An Adventure Still Under Construction

We played Stormforge solo and enjoyed it that way, as we’re more interested in immersion above all else. However, you can also play cooperatively with up to eight people and complete quests together. Chests found in dungeons and ruins provide individual loot, so friendships won’t be ruined over who gets the rewards. To make matters even better, we’ve noticed that Steam Workshop integration and a built-in level editor are available too. So, if you feel talented enough to put something together, please let us know about any additional locations, equipment, enemies, or custom rules you’ve created. We’d gladly feature them in one of our future articles!

A Promising Storm on the Horizon

Our score: Early Access Game

Game: Stormforge
Developer: Roboto Games
Publisher: Roboto Games
Platform: PC (Steam)
Genre: Open-World Survival-Crafting RPG
Release Date: November 10, 2026 (Early Access)
Players: Single-player, Online Co-op (1–8 players)
Reviewed on: PC
Price: $19.99 USD (€19.49 / £15.99)
Official Website: https://www.robotogames.com/