Animalkind Early Access, Initial Impressions

I have an Early Access game to share. Animalkind is an island builder where you play as an adorable animal. Choose a corgi, a tabby, or a raccoon, and give them a special color palette before jumping in.

Animalkind is all about creating a relaxing island for animals. That starts by gathering parts of an ancient mech suit. You know, to get around the no thumbs thing. Once you become bipedal, you are all set to explore the island and take on quests from the magical portal. 

Just like normal sandbox games, you start by collecting twigs and rocks to make basic tools. You can also find strange cubes scattered around that can be fed to the portal. Aside from this, you just do the tasks asked of you. 

If you are someone who likes the vibe of building up an island, but want to share the journey with someone, you’re in luck. Animalkind can be enjoyed as a complete solo experience, or with up to three friends! If you decide to invite friends to your island, they can pilot their own mech or dangle from yours. 

The Mech

The mech is a core part of the game. Without it, you can’t use tools or gather materials. But you can’t do everything in the mech; if you want to talk to any of the villagers, you have to hop out. 

If the plain colored mech just isn’t your style, you can change it! The mech is a vital piece of the game, so you have to make sure it fits your style. And don’t worry, the paint job is waterproof, so float across bodies of water with your mech. 

The Portal

The mighty magical portal is what calls you to the island; it answers all the questions and guides you on your adventure. This is also where you level up your island. Those odd cubes mentioned earlier can be given to the portal and slowly increase your experience. 

Each level gained means a new part of the island is unlocked, and the store gets more items. The portal has its own supply shop for blueprints. Most of these blueprints will be indoor and outdoor furniture. Once you get past the immediate tutorial, you unlock a tent and a small animal bed. This is when you get the first taste of decorating in Animalkind. It’s not much at first, but it quickly becomes apparent that you can customise your space to your liking. 

The portal shop, where you can purchase blueprints to craft at the workbench, is where you find your furniture. And oh boy, is there a good variety. Clips on the Steam page show sets of furniture for everyone, which I love. I’ve seen too many games that push customization, but only have two options to pick from. 

Building Up The Village

The main appeal of the game is to create a beautiful town that you and the other animal villagers want to live in. You start with little means, a small tent, and a tiny bed. Then, after some time and hard work, you can make a home for yourself and the other animals on the island. The Early Access version included two villagers, an owl to help guide you, and a squirrel who becomes the local shopkeeper. 

The Steam page shows so many other regions with adorable animals to recruit, and I can’t wait to get ahold of the snowy region. With all of the design options, I’m so excited to make homes specifically for each animal. Not only can you customise the inside of each house, but you can also lay down paths and terraform the land to make the perfect town. 

Exploring

At the moment, we have access to three levels of the island. The base section, a beach area, and a bit of mountain. When the game fully releases, we will gain access to so many more biomes. At the moment, I was able to get through all the sections in under four hours, and read that the main story takes roughly an hour to complete. Hopefully, this will extend once 1.0 releases, but if you want to jump into the Early Access version and sink a weekend, you might be disappointed. 

A lot of your time will be spent grabbing sticks and rocks to make your basic tools. Once you have that, you can slowly work your way up to better quality tools. You can craft the basics like: an ax, a pick ax, and fishing rods. If you roam around enough, you can easily craft all of your items and get food for cooking. Berries are all over the place, and fishing ponds are abundant.

Fishing is an odd mechanic. You can toss your line into the water near a fish shadow, and once they bite the line, you move your mouse to align with a moving arrow. I’ve seen a lot of fishing mechanics, and I think this is one of my least favorite implementations I’ve seen. It just feels clunky and awkward, and even though I typically love fishing in these types of games, I don’t want to go near the water here. 

Issues

There were a few things that I didn’t love, and I’m hoping they can see changes in the full release. Because this is Early Access, and nobody expects perfection at this stage.

The mech is a core part of the game. You can’t do much without it, but it has a battery pack that needs charging. In the beginning, you can’t charge it; there is no option. Once you unlock the tent, you can charge the mech while you sleep. The problem starts when you are only halfway through the day, and your mech is in the red. You can only sleep at night, so you have to waste time before you can get back to work. I really hope they introduce a charging station so I can recharge the battery at any time of the day. 

The tutorial leaves a lot to be desired. I am someone who doesn’t love tutorials, but there needs to be basic instructions on how to use mechanics when not adhering to universal standards. I ran into multiple moments where I would try to find a tool or interact with something, and it didn’t work how the average game would. So an easy-access menu with instructions would be amazing. 

One thing that starts as a good thing is the fact that the quests never piled up. They came up one by one and never overwhelmed me. The issue occurs when you realise you are doing bare basic tasks and they become repetitive and boring. 

This game was fun, and I see a lot of potential, especially for people who love crafting games and cute animals. I think the Early Access is lacking and might turn some people off. I really hope I can come revisit the game in 1.0 and see what it has to offer.

Score: 2 out of 5

Platform: Steam (Desktop)