Squirreled Away Is a Crafting Game With Lower Stakes
I love games with crafting and survival elements, but find I just can’t devote 20-40 hours to them anymore. There’s only so much time, you know? Also, some of those are best enjoyed with other people, and again that means finding a game everyone can enjoy. While Squirreled Away still can be a little buggy, I really appreciate this being a more tidy sort of title in the genre, especially since the expected commitment and themes mean it’s easier to convince others to try it. As the title suggests, Squirreled Away is a game about being a squirrel. You’re a newcomer who heads to a park and different areas, assisting other animals and building up quaint homes for yourself. This means gathering resources and searching for collectible-like items and materials to fulfill requests, craft tools, and build up a treehouse and furniture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVDxSOmFM7Y&ab_channel=SquirreledAway Part of what makes Squirreled Away stand out among other types of crafting games or ones that would maintain a “new to a wooded area with just your bare hands” title is that it also feels a bit like a comfortable platformer. Instead of harsh tutorials, worrying about your status, or trying to figure things out on your own, Far Seas handles it more like an action-adventure game. The other animals you meet, like the initial squirrels and turtle, aren’t just there for flavor. Their quests are educational. They guide you along the way. So even though there isn’t a major story to Squirreled Away, there’s a sense of structure that really helps the game. It’s still quite freeform. You can take your time. Controls work great, both on the ground, when climbing trees, or when gliding. (I did experience some pretty major camera issues initially when climbing and sometimes gliding, with the camera sometimes still being an issue when scaling trees.) But even though you have the opportunity to take your time and do what you want when you want, having these other animal NPCs to act as quest givers and inject personality help. That also helps a little with the fact that there can be quite a bit of grind in Squirreled Away. Which seems a little unavoidable for these types of games. After all, it’s about gathering resources, running errands, exploring, and crafting. As you build up a treehouse and start aiming for goalposts or quest objectives, you’re going to engage in a lot of repetitious activities. However, getting to also involve other people or take time to interact with those NPCs helps. So does knowing I don’t have a desperate struggle to stay alive. There’s a sense of safety in it all. As long as you play in like 20-60 minute sessions, it seems fine. It reminds me a bit of Little Kitty, Big City. Image via Far Seas There are some minor issues with Squirreled Away that come up! However, the developer Far Seas seems to be handling them fairly swiftly with patches. I actually am avoiding writing this as a review because I’ve seen some issues I encountered get remedied as I’ve been playing. For example, I went through the save file corruption issue and needed to wait for the patch. I experienced an issue with Daredevil the squirrel and his cannon, and which only just got remedied. I’m currently experiencing issues with how things look when I run and staying in a multiplayer session, and sometimes when I go gathering I’ll not get the pebble, berry, or item I was supposed to. I wouldn’t feel right scoring a game from a smaller developer that is clearly getting where it needs to be, even though it isn’t there yet. Maybe it will even fully support Steam Decks in a few weeks or months. Because Squirreled Away ended up packed with potential. It’s a pleasant, colorful adventure that gives us the idea of a survival and crafting game, even with friends, but without feeling the pressures of that type of title. It’s bright, colorful, and filled with personality. Playing in smaller doses to avoid repetition is advised, as is perhaps saving and stepping away for a bit to ensure you have backups in case of bugs. But it’s generally delightful. Squirreled Away is available on PCs. The post Squirreled Away Is a Crafting Game With Lower Stakes appeared first on Siliconera.
I love games with crafting and survival elements, but find I just can’t devote 20-40 hours to them anymore. There’s only so much time, you know? Also, some of those are best enjoyed with other people, and again that means finding a game everyone can enjoy. While Squirreled Away still can be a little buggy, I really appreciate this being a more tidy sort of title in the genre, especially since the expected commitment and themes mean it’s easier to convince others to try it.
As the title suggests, Squirreled Away is a game about being a squirrel. You’re a newcomer who heads to a park and different areas, assisting other animals and building up quaint homes for yourself. This means gathering resources and searching for collectible-like items and materials to fulfill requests, craft tools, and build up a treehouse and furniture.
Part of what makes Squirreled Away stand out among other types of crafting games or ones that would maintain a “new to a wooded area with just your bare hands” title is that it also feels a bit like a comfortable platformer. Instead of harsh tutorials, worrying about your status, or trying to figure things out on your own, Far Seas handles it more like an action-adventure game. The other animals you meet, like the initial squirrels and turtle, aren’t just there for flavor. Their quests are educational. They guide you along the way.
So even though there isn’t a major story to Squirreled Away, there’s a sense of structure that really helps the game. It’s still quite freeform. You can take your time. Controls work great, both on the ground, when climbing trees, or when gliding. (I did experience some pretty major camera issues initially when climbing and sometimes gliding, with the camera sometimes still being an issue when scaling trees.) But even though you have the opportunity to take your time and do what you want when you want, having these other animal NPCs to act as quest givers and inject personality help.
That also helps a little with the fact that there can be quite a bit of grind in Squirreled Away. Which seems a little unavoidable for these types of games. After all, it’s about gathering resources, running errands, exploring, and crafting. As you build up a treehouse and start aiming for goalposts or quest objectives, you’re going to engage in a lot of repetitious activities. However, getting to also involve other people or take time to interact with those NPCs helps. So does knowing I don’t have a desperate struggle to stay alive. There’s a sense of safety in it all. As long as you play in like 20-60 minute sessions, it seems fine. It reminds me a bit of Little Kitty, Big City.
There are some minor issues with Squirreled Away that come up! However, the developer Far Seas seems to be handling them fairly swiftly with patches. I actually am avoiding writing this as a review because I’ve seen some issues I encountered get remedied as I’ve been playing. For example, I went through the save file corruption issue and needed to wait for the patch. I experienced an issue with Daredevil the squirrel and his cannon, and which only just got remedied. I’m currently experiencing issues with how things look when I run and staying in a multiplayer session, and sometimes when I go gathering I’ll not get the pebble, berry, or item I was supposed to. I wouldn’t feel right scoring a game from a smaller developer that is clearly getting where it needs to be, even though it isn’t there yet. Maybe it will even fully support Steam Decks in a few weeks or months.
Because Squirreled Away ended up packed with potential. It’s a pleasant, colorful adventure that gives us the idea of a survival and crafting game, even with friends, but without feeling the pressures of that type of title. It’s bright, colorful, and filled with personality. Playing in smaller doses to avoid repetition is advised, as is perhaps saving and stepping away for a bit to ensure you have backups in case of bugs. But it’s generally delightful.
Squirreled Away is available on PCs.
The post Squirreled Away Is a Crafting Game With Lower Stakes appeared first on Siliconera.
