Almost four hours after purchasing Forager for one of my children, I’m still playing the same ‘test run’. Thankfully, I was on my own at the time, so I was not being pestered for a turn. So why was I so absorbed in the game? Well, it’s a bit of a grind fest and entirely open-ended. There aren’t conventional missions to complete, but a series of tasks to finish however you wish. Forager is a sandbox type game.
You begin on a small island, and it is suggested that you build a furnace. Now, this isn’t a tutorial, and in all honesty, you could probably bypass this and do whatever you want instead, though it’s a good starting point. The furnace and also the forge are fundamental structures you build early on to craft items or materials – whatever it is you are constructing at the time.
A bit of a fusion of Minecraft, Stardew Valley and Zelda (more on that later), you harvest (or forage) materials to craft something new. For example, you can cut down trees to build bridges, rocks to collect coal and gems and harvest materials such as fibre, which can be used to make threads for clothing and constructing glass bottles.
The first steps would be to upgrade your main tools, which are the pickaxe, shovel and bow. Further on, you can upgrade your clothing, which doesn’t change your appearance but can improve attack power and movement speed. However, as you progress, you unlock a wealth of new items to customise your character. From fedoras to sombreros, butterfly wings to quivers – there’s a lot to choose from.
It is entirely down to you how you wish to play. There is no urgency in the game, so on this basis, I found it very relaxing, and I could do everything at my leisure. Your character has health in the form of hearts, which can later be upgraded to a maximum of 10, so if attacked, your health will go down. When it goes to zero, it’s game over. Interestingly, though, you return to the same spot with the same items and stats as when you died. A bit peculiar, as you don’t really die.
With your health and energy taken into account, you don’t need to engage with that many enemies, and when you do, combat is almost effortless. There is the option to craft a sword, but even late in the game, I’ve never needed it. The pickaxe or bow is more than adequate, though you can later build droids that will attack enemies for you. Some artefacts follow you around, such as lighting up dark areas or attacking skeleton or demon mobs.
Some of the puzzles in Forager are quite difficult and not remotely logical. You can, of course, skip them (which I did on occasion), but the rewards are usually worth it. I must admit a couple were a little tricky, so I looked up a solution on YouTube. While I thought this game was out at the same time across all platforms, it’s been available on PC for some time, so there is an accumulation of videos that saved the day.
While it’s not difficult to collect a resource or craft it, sometimes it’s a simple case of locating the item in the first place. Early in the game, I found that I needed bone, and I couldn’t locate or craft it. However, after purchasing a few lands, I eventually bought a land infested with gravestones and, within a matter of minutes, had more than enough supply. This also applied to sourcing sand. It took an age, but once I upgraded my shovel, I had more than enough.
Despite the rewards, it can seem never-ending at times, what with the grinding and no real purpose to the game other than the experience. I’m a fan of this and am thoroughly enjoying the game even in the later levels. As you progress with some of the harder puzzles, you are awarded a seal to confirm you have completed it. There’s no benefit to playing, but it’s quite enjoyable to see that I have unlocked almost all of them – a small sense of achievement.
I see myself playing this for a few more weeks as I near completion. That said, there is a roadmap on the menu indicating that there will be a lot of upcoming DLC. According to the developer, this will all be free. Taking that into account, once the DLC is available, I’ll be playing this again for months on end. Forager is surprisingly one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played so far this year, and if you can do with the grind and not have a driven narrative/purpose, hopefully, you’ll love it too.
