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Whiskerwood is an upcoming colony sim that has actually piqued my curiosity. It’s deliberate for a launch later this yr, and Hooded Horse supplied us with an early peek on the demo for us to take a look at. This demo comprises a vertical slice of the content material that will probably be out there on launch when the sport comes out in Early Entry, and there’s greater than sufficient on this preview to sate your urge for food.
Whiskerwood is one other twist on the basic metropolis builder style, and whereas I say it differs from Timberborn fairly a bit, the affect is there. As a substitute of rising a gradual empire of hard-working beavers, you’re broadening the mice kingdom in a New World island colony vibe, hounded by the tyrannical cat overlord. Developed by Minakata Dynamics, there may be some unbelievable manufacturing high quality right here, and I got here away from my time with the demo excited for the principle launch.
The island colonisation brings some attention-grabbing challenges out of the gate. Whereas the islands fluctuate in sources and dimension, constructing area will all the time be restricted. A cool characteristic in Whiskerwood is the flexibility to construct upward in direction of the skies or dig deep underground to create a cavernous dwelling that dwarves would envy. Assets are important to survival, like in most metropolis builders, however much more so right here due to the dearth of freedom. It is a nice mixture of difficult gameplay that’s simple to be taught however arduous to grasp, and the tutorial helps get gamers began. There’s some nice voice performing on show, too.
The gameplay loop is what you may count on from the style. You have to develop your budding colony whereas managing sources, area, and meals, whereas being attentive to the fats cats that come to gather taxes each few days. Quests come by means of thick and quick, and I recognize the development system on show.
One factor I’ve grown to desire with my administration sims is having sense of accomplishment. Sandbox modes are pleasing sufficient, and I imagine each citybuilder ought to at the very least take into account them as a separate possibility. Nonetheless, I’ve discovered that I get extra enjoyment when actual stakes are concerned in growing a colony.
Alongside the usual sport mechanics for citybuilders and alike, Whiskerwood requires cautious administration of logistics and provide traces. Like Timberborn and video games like Factorio, automated financial networks develop into very important for survival, particularly later when problem ramps up. It’s important to take note of the format for the very best optimization, steadiness dozens of commodities, and survive the very important local weather situations. I really like the dynamic gameplay Whiskerwood has supplied me up to now, and this demo is prolonged sufficient for gamers to get an ideal feeling for the sport.
Whiskerwood is playable on the Steam Deck with some stable controls and UI scaling out of the field, though efficiency leaves a bit to be desired. To maintain a secure 30FPS on my LCD Steam Deck, I needed to decrease all settings to low with FSR enabled and a High quality preset. Fortuitously, the sport nonetheless appeared fairly good even with these settings, however it’s clear that Whiskerwood wants some optimization beneath the hood. These are promising indicators, nevertheless.
To sum issues up, Whiskerwood has exceeded my expectations after which some. I went into the preview hoping for a stable expertise, however with the large quantity of competitors within the style, citybuilders must set themselves other than the pack to seize my consideration. Whiskerwood appears like somebody made a scrumptious sandwich between Passable’s automation and citybuilders like Towards the Storm, and I’m now an official convert of the almighty Whiskers.
Whiskerwood may be wishlisted on Steam.
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