After over 45 hours of solo play, it's quite clear to me that the game is going to be something that provides enough of an engaging experience to be one of my favorite open world base building and crafting games given the fact that the terraforming, ecosystem management and traversal features have the depth necessary to meld well with the rest of the gameplay elements.

While there are still some QoL areas worth short-term improvement and some more balance related considerations when it comes to resource harvesting and general itemization, as a roughly 1 week Early Access experience, it's definitely been more positive than negative. This is especially true given the three patches the team has rolled out in that time to deal with a good chunk of the issues reported by players so far.

They certainly have their work cut out for them in terms of cranking through the roadmap they have laid out for the next 18 months or so. But at least for now, I'm not concerned at all that they will make the progress needed to give solo players more than their money's worth with this title.

For more of my granular or detailed observations you can check out the comments for the review as well as my guide.

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From the eyes of someone playing singleplayer and skipped the account setup/login and went straight to playing the game:

Looks to be a fairly promising open world base building and crafting game with a strong focus on terraforming and world building. If you've played or watched gameplay of Planet Crafter and Wildmender then you'll be pretty familiar with the core features. Right away you'll notice that there's more combat than Planet Crafter and more creature interactions than Wildmender.

Magnificent art style producing amazing visuals for the buildings, landscape, flora and fauna.

Starting quests as you interact with the crew that crashlanded with you on the island are pretty straightforward and naturally walk the player through the steps to start re-establishing a vibrant colony. You'll feel a lot like a gardener and builder more than anything else, with combat and exploration mixed in.

Excellent traversal mechanics by allowing the player to climb objects and creatures, ride mounts while also providing a glider for long distance elevation based journeys. After all, what better way to enjoy looking at the life you are restoring to your ancestors' homeland than by slowly gliding over it from a birds-eye view!

Terrain and landscape variation are quite expansive as there's towering cliffs and stone formations as well as flatlands and deep oceans.

Allows creature taming, non-violent resource collection and other interactions besides just killing fauna for resources. In addition, these creatures occupy the land, sea and air regions of the game world.

Bow fishing instead of your typical repetitive timing-based mini-game!

Presence of the Withered as a looming threat that needs to be dealt with in order to fully restore all the regions of the island.

Feature rich roadmap that appears to have either a new region, biome, or other major feature coming out every quarter as well as eventually offering offline mode and enhanced co-op.

Can play in singleplayer without setting up or linking to an Epic Games account.

Nice sort of "little things" occur as you play. For example as you harvest certain flora little creatures will pop out and run around doing their thing. When you plant seeds, similar things happen as well.

Currently requires a link to Epic Games for peer to peer multiplayer.

Limited character customization.

Not the kind of co-op that supports dedicated servers where multiple players can enter the game and immediately start playing and progressing with each other. Rather you can essentially visit someone else's world and perform most of the actions that don't involve influencing the ecosystem directly.

When building a village, the structures are pre-fabricated, so you won't be in control of individuals walls, floors, the roof, etc. You also won't be able to walk inside most buildings.

Colossal trees and several core buildings for each village type can't be moved or removed after they have been placed. Make sure you choose wisely!

At the very start of the game you can encounter aggressive little wither spiders (hit pretty hard relatively speaking) that can kill you before you finish making your first tools. You can easily outrun them and the death penalty is just teleporting you back to the village with about 1/4 health. You can heal from eating berries and roots, so shouldn't be that big a deal.

[h1]Current Take on the Game[/h1] After over 45 hours of solo play, it's quite clear to me that the game is going to be something that provides enough of an engaging experience to be one of my favorite open world base building and crafting games given the fact that the terraforming, ecosystem management and traversal features have the depth necessary to meld well with the rest of the gameplay elements. While there are still some QoL areas worth short-term improvement and some more balance related considerations when it comes to resource harvesting and general itemization, as a roughly 1 week Early Access experience, it's definitely been more positive than negative. This is especially true given the three patches the team has rolled out in that time to deal with a good chunk of the issues reported by players so far. They certainly have their work cut out for them in terms of cranking through the roadmap they have laid out for the next 18 months or so. But at least for now, I'm not concerned at all that they will make the progress needed to give solo players more than their money's worth with this title. For more of my granular or detailed observations you can check out the comments for the review as well as my [url=https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3369002638]guide[/url]. [hr][/hr] [h1]Initial Take on the Game[/h1] [b][i][u]From the eyes of someone playing singleplayer and skipped the account setup/login and went straight to playing the game:[/u][/i][/b] Looks to be a fairly promising open world base building and crafting game with a strong focus on terraforming and world building. If you've played or watched gameplay of Planet Crafter and Wildmender then you'll be pretty familiar with the core features. Right away you'll notice that there's more combat than Planet Crafter and more creature interactions than Wildmender. [h2]Noteworthy Features[/h2] Magnificent art style producing amazing visuals for the buildings, landscape, flora and fauna. Starting quests as you interact with the crew that crashlanded with you on the island are pretty straightforward and naturally walk the player through the steps to start re-establishing a vibrant colony. You'll feel a lot like a gardener and builder more than anything else, with combat and exploration mixed in. Excellent traversal mechanics by allowing the player to climb objects and creatures, ride mounts while also providing a glider for long distance elevation based journeys. After all, what better way to enjoy looking at the life you are restoring to your ancestors' homeland than by slowly gliding over it from a birds-eye view! Terrain and landscape variation are quite expansive as there's towering cliffs and stone formations as well as flatlands and deep oceans. Allows creature taming, non-violent resource collection and other interactions besides just killing fauna for resources. In addition, these creatures occupy the land, sea and air regions of the game world. Bow fishing instead of your typical repetitive timing-based mini-game! Presence of the Withered as a looming threat that needs to be dealt with in order to fully restore all the regions of the island. Feature rich [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2178070/view/6256157311436324906?l=english]roadmap[/url] that appears to have either a new region, biome, or other major feature coming out every quarter as well as eventually offering offline mode and enhanced co-op. Can play in singleplayer without setting up or linking to an Epic Games account. Nice sort of "little things" occur as you play. For example as you harvest certain flora little creatures will pop out and run around doing their thing. When you plant seeds, similar things happen as well. [h2]Other Observations[/h2] Currently requires a link to Epic Games for peer to peer multiplayer. Limited character customization. Not the kind of co-op that supports dedicated servers where multiple players can enter the game and immediately start playing and progressing with each other. Rather you can essentially visit someone else's world and perform most of the actions that don't involve influencing the ecosystem directly. When building a village, the structures are pre-fabricated, so you won't be in control of individuals walls, floors, the roof, etc. You also won't be able to walk inside most buildings. Colossal trees and several core buildings for each village type can't be moved or removed after they have been placed. Make sure you choose wisely! At the very start of the game you can encounter aggressive little wither spiders (hit pretty hard relatively speaking) that can kill you before you finish making your first tools. You can easily outrun them and the death penalty is just teleporting you back to the village with about 1/4 health. You can heal from eating berries and roots, so shouldn't be that big a deal. [h3]Overall though, if the terraforming and world building aspects appeals to you, then Towers of Aghasba is certainly a great candidate to try out. However, depending on your requirements for offline and/or co-op gameplay it may not meet your standards until later in 2025.[/h3]