Pathless Woods is a cute cozy co-op survival game with vibrant settings.
Pathless Woods was developed and published by AniYa Games Studio, the game will have players embarking on a cozy survival journey in an open world inspired by ancient China’s heritage, pathless Woods will have players gathering resources, cultivating crops, and building homes of their dreams while defending all they have build from marauders.
Starting the game you will first have access to the land of guidance this is where players will learn the basics of the game. Your character is instructed to wake up having been asleep, once awake this is when players will be shown how to move around and how to move the camera, making your way forward you will come across lanterns, these lanterns will explain simple instructions on how to get around and do certain actions, such as jumping, or sprinting and the more needed actions such as single gathering or bulk gathering.
The lanterns act as your in-game hints when it comes to certain actions and will explain more about how the game and the UI work such as bringing up your crafting table or moving through your selection bar located at the bottom of your screen, within this bar players will be able to quickly select tools, food, or resources without having to go into the item bag which can be used to store more items when the players quick select bar full of items.
Making further progress players will come across a small plot of land, which has food and wood from here the game will explain the survival aspect of the game, being the first and most important would be the hunger icon which much like in The Sims will indicate the hunger level of the player’s character, the lower the satiety of the character, the hungrier the player will be when this bar is too low the character will gradually start losing HP.
The second most important icon would be the water icon. This icon will affect stamina, restoring stamina will require hydration, the same consequences will apply when dehydrated, and players will slowly start losing HP, however, both can be avoided by drinking from ponds or consuming food.
Next on the list of things to learn would be to craft your tools which can be crafted in the crafting table which can be brought up by pressing Z on your keyboard or by selecting the icon on the upper left of your screen. Once you have crafted your first tool which happens to be an ax you are free to chop trees that might be blocking your path forward.
Crafting can be done one of two ways, players can choose to craft single items or bulk craft using as many resources that are available for the specific items. When it comes to chopping trees or picking at rocks, players will have to hold down the action button, which will prompt a slider bar to appear.
while the action button is being held two bars will slide towards each other. Once they have reached the center of the main bar letting go of the action button will stop them, granting the character a critical hit, if they go past each other and get further away from each other the less of an impact they will have on the tree or rock you are trying to break or chop down.
Once you have made it through the tutorial world and learned all you need to learn to build, farm, and survive in this game you will be free to create your own world much like Minecraft minus the square nature, just a lot prettier. Creating a world will consist of giving your world a name, the world ID, the connection method, and how many players you would allow which goes up to four players max, and being able to toggle friendly damage between players.
Once you have selected your settings for your custom world you will be able to select your character. The first option is between the male character you played with in the Land of Guidance named LiangPing and a female character named QiaoEr, the descriptions of the characters will also be displayed explaining a bit of background and traits such as selecting LiangPing whose traits consist of “Iron Body” which allows the character to have incredible damage resistance in moments of peril, and “strong spirit” which will allow the character due to his inherited bloodline grants the character a strong physique.
Once you and your friends have made your selections you are free to explore the open world and cultivate a thriving community between the four of you or if you have turned on friendly damage split up creating your own factions.
Pathless Woods also features a day and night system, which will also affect the player’s spirit when in the dark so make sure to craft a light source while you’re crafting your home base, along with a moisture meter and a few other handy things being in your own world will also further explain how to craft homes and items for the home such as a beds chairs and other basic necessities.
The world of Pathless Woods is yet another cozy couch Co-op life and farming simulator that houses very vibrant and rich ancient aesthetic theme, the game has a vast selection of crops, trinkets, and recipes, along with other extracurricular activities to be done. Unlike most sandbox games which ride on the generic cutesy art style, which emulated games such as Animal Crossing, Pathless Woods makes more of an effort to be a game on its own incorporating a more lenient theme to ancient Chinese culture.
Pathless Woods blends its environments and aesthetics remarkably well with agricultural gameplay, from beautiful cherry blossoms to its meadow and other environment the game’s world itself shows a tranquil and serene world mainly meant for relaxing despite having to defend what you have built, the game is a delight to explore and loot of all its hidden mysteries and lore.
Pathless Woods takes away the repetitive feeling of farming and evolving your habitat by adding some much-needed activities such as quests, events, and activities, aside from farming which unsurprisingly is the main wedge of the game’s overall experience. The other activities which are available include fishing, taming, and exploring ancient ruins that run deep into the roots of a lost civilization, as far as content in the game goes there is an incredible amount of things to do and see.
Pathless Woods‘ music and sound effects are tranquil, and not repetitive giving a relaxing feel to the overall experience of doing any activity. The game’s building aspect gives a lot of room for creativity making your habitat completely your own, from building normally to maybe building around trees you can literally have trees growing out the middle of your living room should you so choose.
Survival in Pathless Woods is for the most part easy only having the player needing to pay attention to the bars that indicate hunger, and hydration, Pathless Woods is definitely more of a fun experience playing with friends and makes cultivating the environment and habitats faster with teammates.
Pathless Woods is a bit of a slow burner which for the most part is fine, given that the core gameplay elements entail foraging, planting crops, and repeating the same four or five activities several times over in order to make headway on some architectural development.
Pathless Woods carries and delivers a wholesome message that further illustrates the importance of preservation in a world that’s as equally filled with tyrannical issues in its divinely beautiful natural environments.
From ancient architecture to ancient farming techniques such as altering the path of water to water your crops, it is an amazing experience for those who enjoy agricultural survival games.
Overall Pathless Woods is a beautifully fun experience with tons to do and although it’s a slow-burning experience, the game is not one to be rushed through, the world is your oyster and how your world comes out is up to your creativity and ideas build villages with friends or survive in the solitude of your own beautifully build worlds it’s honestly a great game to play.
