Did *THE CUBE, SAVE US* crash right at EA launch? Its Steam positive review rate is only 20%!

I finally booted up my PC on Saturday afternoon, originally planning to see if there were any new rabbit holes worth diving into lately. But the moment I came across THE CUBE, SAVE US, its reviews immediately made me back off a little.

This new zombie-themed extraction shooter just launched into EA yesterday. Judging by its current Steam page, it’s already sitting at “Mostly Negative,” with over 1000 reviews and only a 20% positive rating. How should I put it—this is basically not a “wait and see a bit longer” situation, but more of a “keep your wallet tightly shut for now” level of warning.

Based on player feedback, the negative reviews mainly focus on two issues: first, the economy system isn’t very well designed; second, the servers are laggy. The former directly affects the core positive feedback loop of an extraction shooter—if you grind hard for half a day and the rewards still feel off, it’s like working overtime on the weekend and then having to pay your own travel expenses on top of it. It’s hard not to get frustrated. The latter is even more immediate: this kind of game is already highly sensitive to disconnects, lag, and latency, and once the network experience falls apart, all that tension just turns into pure misery.

That said, the game isn’t completely without highlights. Some players who left positive reviews mentioned that its PVE content is actually somewhat interesting, and the character designs are fairly appealing. In other words, it’s not that the foundation is completely unsalvageable—it’s just that in the current EA version, the parts that most heavily affect the experience happen to hit players right where it hurts.

For office workers like me, the scariest thing isn’t that a game has flaws—it’s when it eats up your time and still gives you no positive feedback. I usually scroll through reviews on the subway, and on weekends I only really get a few hours to sit down and play. If I have to wrestle with the servers the moment I log in, and then get disgusted by the economy system on top of that, then the time cost is worse than overpaying for expensive takeout.

That said, EA does mean the game is still being adjusted, so it’s not impossible for it to turn things around later. But based on its current Steam performance—over 1000 reviews and only a 20% positive rating—THE CUBE, SAVE US still feels a bit far from being “worth jumping into right now.” Especially for players coming for the core extraction-shooter experience, I’d recommend waiting for future updates and seeing if the servers and economy system can at least be brought up to an acceptable level first.

If you’re really into the wasteland zombie aesthetic and don’t mind being an EA tester, then it may still be worth keeping an eye on the community’s sentiment; but if you’re like me and measure your gaming time by the hour, with cost-effectiveness as the top priority, then my advice is simple: don’t rush to buy it. Wait until it can first deliver on the basic promise of “being playable smoothly.” After all, the weekend is only two days long—there’s no need to spend money just to make yourself miserable.