Krater

Krater is a top-down action-RPG from Fatshark set in a post-apocalyptic version of Sweden, which is genuinely one of the more interesting setting choices you will encounter in the genre. The world has collapsed, civilization has retreated underground into a massive crater (hence the name), and you manage a squad of scavengers trying to claw their way through its dangerous depths. On the surface, the pitch sounds solid: real-time combat, squad tactics, light crafting, and a pulpy dieselpunk aesthetic that leans into Nordic folklore and wasteland weirdness. For about the first two hours, that promise almost holds. The squad system is where Krater tries to carve out its identity. You field a team of three characters, each filling a rough archetype - a brawler up front, a support medic, and a ranged damage dealer. Characters can be permanently injured or killed, which is supposed to inject tension into every encounter. In practice, the injury and healing loop becomes more of a resource tax than a meaningful decision point. You spend a lot of time managing medkits and waiting out recovery timers rather than feeling the weight of tactical loss. The combat itself is clicky and serviceable but never especially satisfying. Skills are few, cooldowns are long, and the enemy variety dries up faster than the Swedish tundra in July. The progression system exists, but it does not reward curiosity the way a good RPG should. Character builds are shallow, and after a few hours it becomes clear that the "depth" on the box is more of a puddle. The loot system generates randomized gear but rarely produces anything that feels exciting to find. Quest design leans heavily on fetch structures and map-clearing objectives with minimal narrative payoff - which, for someone who genuinely cares whether the writing rewards a second look, is a consistent frustration. There are threads of a more interesting world buried in the text logs and environmental storytelling, but Krater never commits to pulling them out. Fatshark would go on to make Vermintide and Darktide, games that understand how to make repetitive combat feel kinetic and rewarding through enemy design and moment-to-moment feedback. Krater predates that evolution, and it shows. The game launched with significant bugs and performance issues that patches addressed over time, but the underlying design was not patched into something fundamentally more engaging. The co-op mode, which lets a friend drop in, adds some genuine fun to the experience simply by making the chaos shared, but it does not fix the pacing or progression problems. Krater is worth a curious look if you are a Fatshark completionist or you have a specific itch for obscure post-apocalyptic settings with quirky cultural flavor. The Swedish wasteland aesthetic has genuine charm, and there are moments where the tone clicks into something almost special. But as an RPG that rewards long-term investment, it runs out of ideas well before it runs out of map. The 52 Metacritic and mixed Steam reviews are, unfortunately, not wrong here.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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