I love survival games. There is something about having to fight your way to the top after starting with nothing that I really relate to. As an avid Ark player, I needed something to keep my mind off their recent controversy, and Smalland, by developers Merge Games, fills that spot comfortably. In Early Access on Steam, this Fern Gully fantasy ticks all the right boxes for a survival, base builder game.

The tale begins with you as part of the woodland Vanguard and your sprite Queen is gravely ill. You must venture into the dense forest realm and find her a cure before it is too late. Being small in stature and protected by the ways of the Sacred Owl, you must battle through the lands of aggressive and agitated creatures, bending them to your will to assist in your journey.

I found the story a little slow as it doesn’t really push you in a certain direction to progress, which is both good and bad as you can do your own thing, but you can also forget what you were supposed to do. It doesn’t really give you time to invest yourself in the plight of your Queen or the realm in which we reside.

The overall gameplay of Smalland is simple, but like most survival games, has some complicated elements. You start with the bare necessities as you collect resources to survive. Surviving will mean building shelter and managing your hunger, while also avoiding all the creepy crawlies that want to make you their lunch.

Resources, some found in very treacherous places, will be required to build encampments, structures, equipment, and muchly needed weapons. Upgrading your equipment will also mean branching out into danger to find rarer and harder to get resources. These resources can be used at various crafting tables with recipes or blueprints.

Building different structures with materials collected is also needed, making for some very impressive design work and allowing for some creative structures. Smalland is a typical survival experience in that sense, but it all just feels so fresh.

Controls are typical too, with equipment from your inventory being bound to number keys, with 8 slots in total, and movement is as simple as WASD and mouse. Keybindings can be fortunately changed, and even more surprisingly, straight off the bat, it is compatible with controllers.

Building on the controller is quite cumbersome at times. While the controller was great for running and combat, I preferred to actually use a combination of my keyboard and controller. This allowed for changing to other weapons a lot faster than with the controller needing to bumper across to items, but it is great that you can customise your play experience to be as comfortable as possible.

The game also includes taming. Taming creatures is not as complicated as some survival games like Ark, with a very rudimentary employment of beating it to within an inch of its life and then forcing it to eat your food.

It’s not as interesting or challenging as I had expected, but it is fun once you claim your mount as your own. It ties in with the Fern Gully feeling so well, especially once you can bounce around the woodlands on your very own grasshopper.

You can create online multiplayer servers for up to ten people. This was where the real fun was to be had. Exploring with a friend is never dull and great for those times you may need an escort back to your bag when you die to that gecko just one too many times.

The combat feels pretty balanced at the moment, as each upgrade to your weapon makes you feel stronger. You can dodge, slide, light, and even perform heavy attacks on enemy bugs and critters. The bow and arrow, particularly, is a fun weapon to equip, but most weapons need constant watching as they damage over time.

The graphics are impressive, with season changes bringing different splashes of coloured hues and moods. Winters bring miserable snow storms with snowflakes, while the gorgeous summers bring vivid greens and showers, and the graphics run well on ultra through a 3060 TI.

There is a muted glow as the sun darts through the trees and snowflakes flutter to the ground. The character models are also pretty interesting in detail, with the creatures in particular. The grasshoppers look like they have been straight plucked from a garden.

The audio too complements the visuals with great environmental sounds. The swishing of the wind and thunderstorms rumbling into a crescendo really paints a fabulous atmosphere. I do find the creature sounds could be a little more interesting, but who really knows what something that small really sounds like. Another missed opportunity is the lack of voice acting. With a bigger budget, this would have rounded out the whole experience very nicely.

Smalland is an incredibly fun time for a game still stuck in early access. It is quite hard to score since their roadmap has so many more interesting features promised in the future. I very much look forward to watching this game develop over time. Back to the forest I go.

Written by: Stacey