Since Minecraft and the sandbox survival boom of the early 2010s, the genre has continued to morph and expand, Towers of Aghasba being its latest offering. Where some survival games have leaned more towards horror (The Forest) and others have delved into mythology (Valheim), there are some common tropes throughout, one being a feeling of isolation. Wandering across Aghasba can sure feel lonely at times – albeit in a mysterious, enchanting way – yet one of this game’s highlights is how lived in the game world feels.
You wash up on its shores accompanied by myriad members of your tribe, the Shimu. You’ve set sail from Lehorra on a quest to restore the Shimu’s ancestral homeland of Aghasba, pursued by a sinister force known only as the Withered. Instead of having you fend for yourself and create your own emergent survival odyssey, Towers of Aghasba features story-driven quests that help inject its world with colour and character while showing you the ropes.
Ropes are pretty handy, actually, as are sticks, stones, and other basic materials you begin to gather. In true survival sandbox fashion, these can be combined to create basic tools such axes and shovels that then allow you to extract an increasingly diverse array of components and turn those into even more advanced tools and so on. This gameplay loop is near enough set in stone though Towers of Aghasba offers plenty of refinements and deviations to keep things fresh.
One of the Towers of Aghasba’s unique features is its focus on nurturing ecosystems. It’s fair to say the Shimu are a little miffed when they discover that their homeland is nothing more than a dusty, arid wasteland and not the bountiful paradise they were promised. Thankfully they’ve brought a giant magical seed with them that, when planted, births a colossal tree surrounded by verdant green pastures. With it comes new resources to sustain the Shimu as well as various forms of wildlife.
Needless to say, taking care of these ecosystems is vital, but just to emphasise that, a gruff-voiced seedling instructs you to plant seeds, feed animals, and fend off the Withered. In doing so you’ll earn Amity, a nature-infused energy that can be spent on expanding your ecosystems further while also serving as a very loose morality mechanic. Positive actions, such as tending to a wounded animal, will grant Amity whereas hunting that same animal will deplete it. Instead of trying to force players to avoid negative actions, Towers of Aghasba accepts that a balance must be maintained – skinning a Beetlepup is nasty work, yet the meat, hide, and bones will give life to the Shimu.
Hunting, as well as other forms of combat, are fairly simple in this early access version of the game. After establishing your first settlement, you are given a spear, a bow, and a handful of arrows, perfect for fighting the spider-like Withered that can kill you in a couple of hits if you’re not paying attention. Melee attacks are bound to a single button with the added ability to dodge, whereas ranged weapons adopt familiar aim-and-shoot controls. It’s not terribly dynamic, but it serves its purpose with scope for more advanced forms of weapon to appear later in the game.
Navigating Aghasba is similarly straightforward when starting out. You’ll quickly notice just how uneven the terrain is with its many small mountains and valleys though your innate climbing skills will make short work of them. You can stick to just about any surface as well as Spider-Man (or Link), ascending so long as your stamina bar doesn’t run out. It’s well worth breaking from the beaten path and exploring as Aghasba hides many secrets to uncover.
Going back to the Shimu, they’re not exactly the sort to sit back and let a young wanderer do all the hard work. In this early access build, they won’t actively help gather resources, craft, or join in combat, but they will build (once given the requisite materials) and offer valuable information, usually via tutorial quests. Within a couple of hours of starting, you’ll have a bustling village and the blueprint to all sorts of upgrades and add-ons including tents, campfires, storage bins, and even a farm. While some survival game fans relish in building their basecamps brick by brick, being able to plop down a prefab settlement removes some of that tedious busywork.
Towers of Aghasba is an approachable gateway into the genre that doesn’t hold back on features while introducing some quirks of its own. Its mystical setting is also deeply alluring, inviting you to unearth ancient secrets while restoring life to Aghasba’s derelict landscape.