IfSunSets Preview
Over the last decade, survival/crafting games have exploded in number and popularity. The genre's mechanics have become so ubiquitous that they find their way into action games like Nightingale or MMORPGs like New World. At the same time, there's also a whiff of obsolescence, as many games are content to recycle formulaic ideas. IfSunSets is a new survival crafting game now in Early Access. Much of this sounds familiar to me, but it has a devilish twist.
Monsters come out at night
Most games in the survival genre place the player in an unfamiliar environment with minimal equipment and supplies, before setting them free to forage and build. The same goes for IfSunSets. After a Kraken attack at sea, your pirate self appears on the shore of a lush and mysterious island. You do what the game (and many others like it) teaches you to do. Satisfying hunger, thirst, and the need for shelter are obvious objectives, so you must gather, find and craft tools, cook food, and build a simple hut. All of these things are accomplished quite efficiently, and there aren't too many challenges at first. Oh, and in the first of many nods to Peter Pan, you have a little fairy companion. She becomes a useful ally, even in combat.
IfSunSets should really be called WhenSunSets because at some point, every hour or so, daylight turns to night and that's when the game reveals its twist. That is, hordes of undead emerge to attack the player. Fortunately, even at the beginning, the player can build some basic defensive structures, such as spiked barriers and crude weapons, to keep the monsters at bay during their five minutes of real-time attacks.
under the surface
From those first hours, IfSunSets expands and deepens. It expands to include a considerable amount of exploration and the discovery of a home fortress, and delves into the number of crafting and combat systems at play. There are NPCs, both quest-giving friends and enemies, and a wide range of monsters and wildlife to hunt and fight. Still, you can't always hide from the night and there is always greater danger in venturing out after dark. In addition to the game's narrative, the catalog and complexity of the crafting systems become quite deep and demanding. Additionally, IfSunSets includes role-playing game-like mechanics, so the player and fairy ally can improve their combat and survival skills.
Some games divide the player's stats into multiple facets of survival and make it a constant task just to take care of basic needs. IfSunSets is quite lenient in this area and focuses solely on hunger, thirst and health. Crafting, exploration, and combat receive most of the attention. The loop feels similar to Conan's MMORPG, minus the PvP elements. IfSunSets can be played in four-person co-op.
IfSunSets comes with all the elements of an Early Access AA title. This means a lot of performance issues and crashes, of course, and some expected features missing. Graphically, IfSunSets is not cutting edge at all. The figure models and animations are its weak points, but the environments are interesting to explore and full of vegetation and wildlife. The game's audio and music are quite discreet.
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At this time, IfSunSets does not support a controller. A really welcome feature is the ability to create custom game parameters. You can dial almost every aspect of the game and mechanics, from the length of the night to enemy density. There is also a game mode where monsters do not appear at night, allowing the player to focus entirely on the story, crafting, and PvE combat.
IfSunSets jumps into a very crowded genre and at first feels very similar to other titles. However, players willing to give it some playtime will enjoy the way it iterates on open-world survival/creation mechanics. There's nothing new under the sun, whether it sets or not, but IfSunSets takes elements from other games and combines them. Fans of the genre who are willing to overlook some early access stutters and rough edges should definitely check out IfSunSets.
Thanks for keeping it locked to COGconnected.
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