Stylish game with a confused tone and shallow gameplay
User Rating: 5 | Drake Hollow PC
When I first booted up Drake Hollow, I liked that there was a slightly grounded tone to the opening cutscene. A very real situation of someone who is facing too much of modern reality and just wants to escape it all. You then get the tutorial that takes you through the core gameplay loop: explore islands, collect loot and materials, build items for your camp and then take care of your Drakes. This is the beginning of the rest of the game. This is a survival game where you need to keep the Drakes (small plant like creatures) alive by finding food, water and materials to build up your camp so that they can grow their own food, get their own water and make their own entertainment. Each of these elements need to be kept in check lest your Drakes die of hunger, thirst or boredom. You will be given quests to direct you to the end of the campaign but it seems to always amount to make more things for the Drakes and make your way out to further parts of the procedurally generated map. I did not finish this game, so I cannot say for certain what the end is like, but it became tedious long before finishing the first area. The core gameplay is just stressful at first and then becomes a monotonous job: go out to a new island, clear it of all enemies, corruption and lootable objects, return to your camp, feed and hydrate the Drakes, build whatever you need to progress or keep the Drakes alive, rinse and repeat. The combat is the only element outside of the core loop to offer anything for gameplay and it is nothing to write home about. Light and heavy attacks, charge attack for AoE damage and ranged attacks for flying enemies. There is a paltry levelling system to improve your damage and survivability but it did not seem insanely useful. Overall, not a great game for solo play. Might be fun in multiplayer but otherwise would not recommend playing this.
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