Into the Emberlands has finally been released. The game, released on January 20, boasts a unique art style and intriguing gameplay. But does it hold up? Is it worth checking out? We’ll help you decide here by telling you what the game does well, and where the game is lacking.
Starting with what was done well, the art style is quite good. It has a cute, cozy vibe that I really enjoy. It helps give the game its own unique flare and helps it stand out from the crowd. While the art style isn’t the most interesting out there, especially in the modern gaming space, I still liked it a lot.
The gameplay is decent. The bulk of the gameplay is resource management, especially with managing your embers. Once you are out of range of the village, your embers start to drain with each step you take. If you run out of embers, you become lost and start over with a new character. This forces the player to plan where they move and how they will be able to maintain their embers. Besides this, there are plenty of other materials for players to manage. I think the way the gameplay loop is handled not only makes it more interesting but also helps tie it into the narrative and sell the story to the player.
The game also has a good chunk of content for players to enjoy. There are a total of 13 camp upgrades for the player to unlock as they traverse through several distinct areas. Collecting the materials needed for these upgrades can take quite some time. This lets players chip at progress piece by piece and keeps them coming back to the game. You can get several hours of content out of this, and the game is less than $7. For the content in the game, I think that is a great value that will allow players to have fun for a cheap price.
Now I need to talk about the problems with the game. For starters, the game is very repetitive. The gameplay never really changes as the game progresses, and in general it’s way too simple. It’s always the same gameplay loop: explore outside the village, collect the materials, find lost Knacks, rinse and repeat. While more mechanics are introduced as you explore new areas, they only build off the established mechanics and are usually only there to make the game more difficult. That in itself is fine, I just wish more diverse mechanics were present in the game. Doing the same thing over and over gets tiring, so diversifying the gameplay would help alleviate that repetitiveness.
The game can be very frustrating to play at times. This is mostly a problem when you run out of embers. While I liked the resource managing aspect of the game, the way running out of embers is handled is infuriating. If the counter hits zero, you become lost and have to start the game all over. The only thing you keep is your village level, that’s it. Any materials you had? Gone. Any Knacks you’ve found? Gone. All the upgrades you had? Gone. You lose everything besides the level of your village and the missions you’ve cleared. Even better, there is no way of getting any of it back. The map resets when you become lost, so you have to start all over. Some players may be fine with this aspect of the game, but all it did was frustrate me. It would be better if there was a way to recover at least some of your stuff. Maybe if you find your last explorer out in the world, you could choose some materials and upgrades to keep, then lose the rest. That way, even if you do become lost, you can at least have a way to get back on your feet. For me, it would make the game much more enjoyable.
My biggest gripe with Into the Emberlands, however, is how glitchy and buggy the game is. There were multiple instances during my time playing the game where I encountered bugs. They were usually visual bugs, like loading screens popping up strangely, or menus text overlapping with default text, and while these don’t affect gameplay, they make the game look less polished. For a game that’s in its 1.0 release, it still feels like a beta. It almost feels like it was rushed. Besides the visual glitches, though, there were a few glitches that actually hindered my gameplay. While I was playing on my controller, using the metro station to fast travel caused my cursor to disappear. The only solution was to move the mouse for it to reappear. Another issue I ran into on controller was trying to use the tools. Sometimes breaking rocks and cutting down trees just didn’t work, I would have to use my mouse. The bug I encountered that hindered me the most, however, was when I tried to use one of the weeds found in the Petalogist’s realm. I planted it in the ground to restore my embers, but it didn’t work, which caused me to become lost and forced me to start all over. Glitches like that made the game more difficult to play and overall made the experience much less enjoyable.
Into the Emberlands is a cute game with some interesting gameplay mechanics and a decent amount of content for players to enjoy. With that said, I can’t recommend the game to everyone. The gameplay can be frustrating at times, specifically when you become lost, the gameplay can get quite repetitive, and most importantly, the game is buggy and less polished than a 1.0 release should be. If you like the art style and gameplay looks interesting, maybe give the game a try. There’s a lot of content in the game for a decent price, so there’s a lot of value to be had. However, this is an easy pass if it doesn’t interest you. The gameplay doesn’t vary much, and with all the frustrating gameplay and unnecessary bugs, it may be best to just stay away.
Into the Emberlands is available now on Steam.
The Review
Into the Emberlands
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