Pathless Woods by developer and publisher Aniya Games Studio—PC (Steam) preview written by Valerie with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
At the time of writing this preview, the game wasn't released yet. So, without further ado, here is what transpired during my playthrough. I won't spoil the story, but I will tell you about the fun I had with building, collecting resources, and learning all about the tools and weapons I would need at the beginning.
What intrigued me at the opening screen was access to the user manual. I did a full read through of it to find the manual was comprehensive. If I was stuck anywhere I could see tips and tricks as they were presented in the short tutorial which might or might not make it into the release. There are popup information windows as you hover over an item in the game as well. Back to the manual, I did find one typo and a missing image as you can see in these screenshots.
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Next up you get to creating your character which I found a little disappointing in that all you were given to choose were male or female and the color of the outfit you were going to wear. In case you didn't guess, I'm not a girly girl. I like to wear pants. *laughs*
Another thing is, I love building games, which is part of this open world survival game. The survival part is evident throughout as you progress through the story. There is a day / night cycle and creatures about too. The build screen has two parts to it. The first tab is crafting and the second is the build screen. They are accessed by different keys, Z and X respectively.
You do have to defend your property, and crafting weapons and armor from the resources you collect advances your story progression as well as leveling you up. There are areas where the environment is hazardous to your health. There are invaders you have to fight off, so having strong weapons helps in both your leveling and the story progress.
Let’s see, we have our home, resources aplenty and there is food. Food you can gather and you can grow! When you harvest some of the plants you get some seeds! Of course there are the usual hazards around when you have a full garden, but that adds to the survival aspect of Pathless Woods. Managing your health on a couple of levels really opens one's eyes to the whole of surviving in this ancient time period of China.
One thing I noticed in the building of my home is that there wasn't much for a flat roof. I had corner pieces, rectangle pieces, but not a flat square. So, my roof on my three by three square didn't have a center flat piece as you can see here. I guess I still build large as I like my space and room to move. In this game it makes it easy to place more inside. I guess I should look up some Chinese architecture too!
Definitely a lot of cultural flavor throughout the game with graphics reminding me of another game I play, Astroneer. The colors are vibrant, and the hot spots for activating or accessing stuff are not one bit finicky.
This game has the happiest of music that I would jump a few times as I was collecting resources. Definitely of the ancient Chinese culture as this game was developed by Aniya Games Studio from Guangdong, China. A big shoutout to you two for making an awesome game and Thank you for allowing me to write this preview.
On a final note, as I
didn't get the chance to play with other players, I am so looking
forward to that. If you like games like this, go out and get it.
Pathless Woods has hit all the right buttons for me with building,
survival, coop, open world (lots to explore as yet), and farming!
Score: N/A
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