The thing that bothers me most about games like Vampire Survivors is when the scenery on the level you’re playing on might as well not be there. Developer Vision Party must feel the same way as I do, as the indie dev’s new roguish game, In Woods, is full of destructible scenery.
This isn’t a review because I probably only spent an hour or so playing, however, I did want to write about it today because In Woods made a really positive first impression when I booted it up last night.
In a nutshell: the music is nice and playful, everything looks low-fi but still somehow cute, and the game has a focus on interactivity and physics which, frankly, is all too rare in this little sub-niche of gaming.
What is In Woods all about, then?
If you’ve not got around to playing Vampire Survivors by now, then what you need to know about it (and also In Woods) is that it’s a game where you’re constantly being chased by a huge mob of enemies. As you hack down more and more of them, you earn experience that lets you level up and learn powerful new attacks, making you increasingly dangerous as the screen fills with chaos.
In Woods’ early game is actually paced quite differently to most survivors-likes, in the sense that at first you’re given time to cut down a few trees and smash up the odd gold-filled vase that, for some reason, are littered around the forest . Everything is slow to begin with and you’ve got to utilise your environment carefully, using trees and rocks to slow the advance of the mob. It’s a bit more tactical than I was expecting, but it was also those additional considerations that hooked me in.
You start off slow, with two main attacks to alternate between (although you can stick on auto-fire). Things get a bit more chaotic and fast-paced when you level up and it’s not that long before all sense of physics goes out the window as you’re able to simultaneously swipe in front and behind, throw axes and fire arrows, again simultaneously, as well as pick up wood, gold, and other such precious treasures.
When it’s time to level up, you’re given a range of fairly traditional upgrades to make, but at times you’re also invited to craft additional bonus items using the materials you’ve been gathering. It’s a neat trick that puts resource gathering at the forefront of your thinking and stops this being a mindless hack ‘n’ slash. It does feel a bit cozier than most games of this ilk.
Getting lost in the In Woods
There are four levels as far as I can tell, with three that you can unlock by completing objectives on the initial maps. On top of that, there are also loads of different characters to unlock, and each one offers a different playstyle. There are also different modes to play through once you’ve beaten the boss at the end of each level.
I’m not suggesting that In Woods is going to be the next big thing in the genre, but I do think it’s sufficiently different and well made that fans of Vampire Survivors et al should give it a closer look. It doesn’t have the flashy graphics that help some of its rivals stand out in what it becoming an increasingly congested niche. In fact, despite not making the strongest first impression, the low-poly visuals did end up turning me around.
While it’s currently only available on Windows PC, there’s certainly room for it to grow. I also think it’s quite reasonably priced for what it offers – here in the UK it’s £4.29, for example. There’s a lot to appreciate in this deliberately slower-paced survivors-like, and I’m glad I gave In Woods a chance because I very nearly didn’t.
As stated above, In Woods is out now on PC Steam. I played via access that was provided by the developer, so thank you for that!
