Portal Knights is an open-world sandbox crafting RPG where we must embark on epic quests, build an awesome base, and slay the forces of evil to reunite our shattered home world.

The core mechanic of the game is that we break things around us to gather resources used to craft items that range from miscellaneous furniture to magical weapons.

We progress through the story by building portals that teleport us to different areas with new NPCs, harder monsters, and more problems. We gain experience by killing these enemies and get to pick which stats to upgrade whenever we level up. And with three classes, spells that can be crafted or found, and both ranged and melee weapons, there’s a good amount of variety.

But Portal Knights isn't just a mining-focused Minecraft clone, as it stands out by leaning heavily into its fantasy RPG design. We can even acquire deeds to build home bases on empty lands.

The game is definitely best enjoyed in the LAN co-op mode, as the single-player feels somewhat empty and underwhelming despite its vast and open design. The NPCs that offer fetch and slay quests can be picked up and carried to other worlds, but most end up being nothing more than shops where we dump the stuff we don’t need.

The crafting system is impressively huge but a little tedious with its multiple menus and forging tables. The game is also definitely meant for controllers, as the touch controls are pretty hard to play with.

Portal Knights is a $4.99 premium game with a few $0.99 iAPs for cosmetics.

Flaws aside, Portal Knights is a well-made and fun action RPG. And if you enjoy building-focused games, you can easily put lots of hours into discovering everything it has to offer.