This one has been on my radar for a little while now. While it’s been in early access for quite some time, I felt it was time to check it out. While this game has a heavy focus on building, I thought I'd check out the survival aspects first.

This game starts without you having a map or compass. Those are things you can craft later. I thought it would be fun to go over what I look for in a location when playing a new game.

The biggest fear in situations like these is setting up camp somewhere and then getting lost and not finding it till you have rebuilt elsewhere. So, while there are a couple of key things I'm looking for in a place to set up. Having some landmarks that stand out to me is critical.

I also noticed that in my first moments of this game is you get a decently sized inventory. There is also no carrying weight. So, you can carry massive stacks of wood logs, rocks, iron, and so forth.

That is great news for me. As I am no longer looking to try and build next to a dense forest. Instead, I'm simply looking for a place that has enough trees to get me set up for a little while.

I also discovered this game has caves. As someone who loves to spend way too much time in caves in games. This suddenly became something I wanted to have near me if possible.

With this being a survival game. Having easy access to food and water is also going to be important. I’d later find out there is no lake on the island I ended up being on. As a result, I'd have to work out how to turn seawater into drinking water (thankfully, it was rather easy).

Naturally, as I went around not need to worry in the short term about filling up my inventory. I started to harvest some logs, rocks, and sticks.

The game starts you off with a basic gathering tool. I noticed after inspecting it that I could not see the exact durability. It was showing signs that it would break at some point. Not wanting to be in a bad situation. I made sure to have enough supplies to at least craft another one when the time came.

After exploring for a bit, I found a location that had a cave and was next to the ocean. Having the ocean to one side of me would make it rather easy to refine my camp in the short term. Even better, I could see off in the distance another landmass. Making it even easier to refine this spot. While I was not 100% sold on the area yet. It deserved a better investigation of the surrounding area.

Normally, I want to find the biggest mountain I can in an area and set up near some water. There were, however, no mountains here. Thankfully, I found something else that gave this area a bit of unique terrain.

There ended up being a bit of a raven between two mountains. While I would have loved it if it had gone further back. It would give me an easy way to follow back to the sea and where I wanted to set up.

While I would have liked to have set up in a flatter area. It ended up being rather easy to level an area to build on. So that condition ended up not being something that needed to be taken into consideration.

While I considered wanting to search a bit longer. As I felt no need to rush. It suddenly started to rain. So, I started to set up some shelter and a crafting bench to get started. Hiding in the cave till the rain stopped was also an option, and one I'd enjoy taking from time to time as well.

After a while, I ended up getting too cold to want to keep working into the night. While I did build a fire and do some other things. That only helped warm you up for a short while, and this area was a bit light on trees. So, I ended up using my shelter to rest for the night and skip ahead to the daytime.

At the very least, I got a decent start going. I even had some of the iron I had smelting in a forge I built. This would end up unlocking some more crafting options, such as an anvil. That, in return, would allow me to craft even more things, like better tools.

The rain in this game can get insane. It’s like being in a hurricane, almost. You get high winds that are blowing the grass. Thick, heavy rain that reduces how far you can see while also making you cold. Then you have some amazing lighting going on around you. While the weather seems to be a bit heavy-handed handed it’s amazing to watch.

While it would not take long to deforest my area. I was looting quite a lot of tree saplings. If I had to carry back in a limited fashion any wood I was gathering. This would have been quite an undesirable location. However, that did not matter. This ended up being a decent spot for my needs.

One thing that would take a little time to get used to is the controls in this game. Did not feel as natural as other games I've played. It’s clear that other recent survival games I was playing had an impact on me pressing the wrong keys, as they were a little different in this one.

This game also has a couple of steps involved when wanting to do things. Such as when you need leather. You need to hunt and get the hide. Then you need to craft a station to set up the hide on. Then you use a knife to remove any animal hairs.

While this was quite a simple process compared to something like making paper for maps. It was interesting to see quite a few little systems in some places. With more complex things, you just click a button, and you suddenly have crafted a new piece of gear or weapon.

Building things looks like it’s going to be a huge part of this game. The level of customization I noticed while exploring some menus got my attention. While such things I’m not known for. It looks like a lot of fun I'll be having in that aspect of the game.

First, however, I need to get myself more set up. It was so tempting to build a small house and try and move all my crafting stations into it. They are not exactly small. The good news is they can all be picked up, so I won’t have to destroy and rebuild them indoors once I get a proper house setup to live in.

Final Thoughts

While this game has survival aspects. Things like wood and water are more on the casual side of things. It was rather nice not worrying too much about getting enough food and water for the first couple of days. Some fruit I ended up picking while exploring provided just enough to get me through those times. So, I could focus more on getting the basics set up for progressing into better tools and armor.

Information

Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about ASKA.

Disclosure: This content was written during early access.