SolarPunk Switch 2 Review

SolarPunk Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2

I don’t mind a good sandbox survival game here or there. There’s something so satisfying about building up resources, creating an epic base, and taking on incredible monsters in order to save the world. Solarpunk, by developer Cyberwave, doesn’t do that. Instead, it simply asks you to build a better one. What’s it like? Farm some berries, build your airship, and harness the power of the sun as we review Solarpunk for Nintendo Switch 2.

Solarpunk takes away the high stakes found in most survival games and opts for a much cozier experience, letting you manage your thirst and hunger while leaving your floating island free of anything that wants to kill you. This floating island setup becomes the core point of progression, but we’ll get to that soon. Solarpunk starts off fairly standard, collecting resources, crafting crude tools, and farming food. You have the standard crafting bench alongside a research bench, which is used to unlock new recipes and expand your tech tree. What I really liked about the tech tree is that not every unlock is purely functional, with some recipes simply adding decorations that help give your base a little more personality.

The crafting actually works quite well, and once you build a crafting hammer, you can create structures limited only by your imagination, similar to games like Ark. You place foundations, select different wall types, roofs and stairs, and can easily build multi-level structures, provided you have enough wood. The early hours of the game might keep you entertained simply building a place to call home, but after a while, cabin fever starts to set in, and you’ll want to unlock the nitty-gritty of the game by researching solar panels and power generation, and this leads to Solarpunk’s biggest weakness.

You see, the biggest problem with Solarpunk is its progression, which is tied to some extremely frustrating mechanics that could easily be improved from a gameplay perspective. One early example is collecting enough cotton to unlock your airship upgrades. You’ll scour your starting island for cotton, hopefully finding two or three seeds, then plant them, wait, water them, wait some more, and eventually harvest them, producing another three seeds before repeating the whole process again. This is made even more tedious by having to water your crops two or three times a day, and because each crop only produces a single seed, you’re stuck with very limited resources until much later in the game when you unlock the ability to craft seeds yourself. Thankfully, this process becomes much easier once you unlock your second airship upgrade, allowing you to discover more islands with additional seeds, while also eventually gaining access to irrigation, but getting to that point is a long-fought battle.

Your airship is another major form of progression, only allowing you to travel within a limited radius when it’s first built, before expanding your reach to more distant islands with each upgrade. I actually didn’t mind this system all that much because once you unlock power generation and some automation, the game becomes considerably more interesting. I found myself building automated drills powered by solar panels to gather copper and iron, flying between islands during the day to collect resources, smelt ore, and expand my network of solar-powered mining outposts.

Eventually, you’ll unlock batteries, and that’s when I felt the game really took off. Alongside them come switches, logic gates, and a whole range of automation options that let you start building a proper self-sustaining base. There’s something incredibly satisfying about watching the sun rise each morning, your wall of battery packs slowly recharging in the daylight while your sprinklers spring to life, knowing the power network you’ve spent hours building is finally doing exactly what you designed it to do. I initially thought the automation was missing one final piece, wishing I could transport iron directly from my drills to my furnaces without making the trip myself. As it turns out, I just hadn’t progressed far enough. You’ll unlock transport drones, which can move resources between your different stations automatically, creating an almost Satisfactory-style gameplay loop as your production lines begin feeding into one another. Watching your network slowly come to life is incredibly rewarding, and it’s easily where Solarpunk is at its strongest. All of this culminates in a gameplay loop that’s enjoyable and perfectly serviceable, but one that eventually gives way to tedium once you’ve unlocked everything.

All of this is brought to life with a simple yet effective visual style that reminded me a little of games like Blue Prince or Botany Manor. It isn’t trying to push realistic graphics or show off what the Switch 2 can do, instead opting for clean environments and bright colours that perfectly match its optimistic world. Despite its simplicity, there are plenty of small details that help the world feel alive, with grass gently swaying in the breeze, chickens wandering around, and the changing light throughout the day giving each island its own personality. I also really liked the way Solarpunk blends nature with technology. The solar panels, batteries and automated machinery never feel out of place, reminding me a little of Bastion from Overwatch, where technology exists alongside nature instead of replacing it. As your base grows, you slowly transform your floating island into a network of renewable energy, automated drills and transport drones, yet it still feels peaceful rather than industrial. Perhaps my favourite visual touch, though, is how clearly the game communicates everything happening behind the scenes. Power lines glow blue when they’re operating correctly, changing to orange whenever there’s a break in the network, making it incredibly easy to trace problems through your base without digging through menus. It’s a small detail, but one that removes a lot of the guesswork from managing larger builds, and it perfectly complements the relaxed nature of the game.

All of this runs at a smooth frame rate, aiming for 60fps and rarely faltering despite having a lot going on. Even as my islands became covered in solar panels, automated drills, batteries and transport drones, I never noticed any significant drops in performance, making it a very enjoyable experience on Nintendo Switch 2.

For my Solarpunks looking into accessibility, there aren’t many options to speak of, so as always, I recommend doing a little further research to see whether Solarpunk suits your individual accessibility needs.

At just under $33 AUD, there’s a lot of cozy survival here for fans of automation and building a better world. Unfortunately, a lot of the best parts are hidden behind frustrating progression and some painfully slow waiting mechanics, which is a shame because players who stick with it are rewarded with a surprisingly deep automation system featuring transport drones, wind turbines, batteries and farming that’s just as much a joy to watch as it is to play. I think giving players the ability to craft seeds from the very beginning, rather than locking it behind the halfway point of the game, would go a long way towards fixing the pacing without taking away that sense of progression. Solarpunk is still a great little game that scratches that survivalist itch for players who aren’t looking to fight to save the world, but instead want to build a better one.

Sp, What’s it Like? SolarPunk is like Ark, crossed with some light Satisfactory, minus the threat.

In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.

Enjoyed our SolarPunk Switch 2 Review?

✨ Support What’s It Like? Want to help keep this independent Nintendo outlet running? Here are a few ways you can support:
🌐 More Nintendo reviews and guides: https://www.whatsitlike.com.au/
☕ Buy me a Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/whatsitlike
🎥 Join the Patreon for behind-the-scenes content: https://patreon.com/u102681944