Demo code provided, with many thanks to Speldosa Interactive.
Muri: Wildwoods is a fantastic cleaning game! It’s calm, beautiful, compelling and very polished. It’s just plain fun. I loved it, I hope you’ll give it a try.
The Backstory of Muri: Wildwoods
I played as Pelle, who is a Muri, which is an invented creature. It’s a cross between a mouse and a fish!! The name Muri is from Muridae, the Latin name for the rodent family, and it’s impossibly cute! Its head looks like a mouse, but its tail reminds me of a fish. Pelle is part of a group of friends called Teamsqueak. They travel individually to corrupted islands and restore them back to life by cleaning them. A lovely concept!
When I first arrived on the island I was going to restore, I noticed a large white bird in the sky, but it had dots of black corruption on it. Turns out that bird was called the squark, and it was the main reason I was sent to this particular island. Corruption had sullied the island as well as the squarks that lived there, and my job was to clean and restore both the birds and the islands.
The Look and Feel of Muri: Wildwoods
In the beginning, the island had a lot of dirty areas, aka corruption. There were mounds of black gunk on the ground as well as on the very imaginative plants nearby. I was led in my adventure by the corruption. Once I cleaned up an area, I could see corruption nearby, so that was where I should go next. But if I wanted, I could backtrack and just walk around. That’s nice!
As I cleaned each individual item, I heard a very satisfying popping kind of sound. There will be over 1000 items to clean in the full game, and it’s a lot of popping fun! After I cleaned an entire region, all the plants became colorful again. That’s almost as satisfying as the popping sound!
The restored areas are bright and colorful, and the plant life is unique and really neat to look at! The soundtrack is soft and calm; the entire game is very chill to play. I enjoyed it a lot!
The Gameplay of Muri: Wildwoods
There’s purposely not a lot of UI on the screen, and it works well for the game. It really doesn’t need much in the way of instruction. The main gameplay loop was restoring nature with my water gun-type cleaning tool.
Muri: Wildwoods is a 3D open-world game, although I was guided in my journey by the trail of corruption I had to clean. There is no day/night cycle, no need to sleep or eat, and no energy levels to maintain. The game autosaves, which I always appreciate. I spent over 2 hours playing the demo and had a great time. All told, it was very relaxing; there was no pressure at all.
On the right-hand side of the screen, there are sometimes chat messages sent by my fellow Teamsqueak members. Sometimes they are just sending messages with no real importance, like if the plant they received is still doing well. But often they give valuable guidance on the gameplay, such as teaching me that I can adjust the nozzle on my water gun. (Wide spray covers a lot, but narrow spray reaches farther). In this way, they replace the UI that would otherwise clutter the screen. These text messages stay on the screen for just a few seconds, but can easily be accessed in full through the very helpful Muri Watch. The watch also features a refresher of the game controls, as well as a sketchbook and my wardrobe options.
I found a variety of corrupted areas in Muri: Wildwoods. Some areas had black blobs on the ground that shook like Jell-O when I tried to clean them. I thought they were amusing! Some of the corruption was on the walls. All of it was very satisfying to remove.
But some corruption was also on the local wildlife, including the Pixies. They were cute little creatures that were hidden all over the demo, and they were hidden well!! I was told there were 8 in the demo, but I only found 3 of them. It’s possible that in the full game, there will be an indicator of sorts that points players to hidden Pixies that have not been found. I’d like to see that! I could pet all of the lovely, imaginative creatures that I found and cleaned, and I also sketched them in my sketchbook. Really, this game was charming in so many ways!
There are also spots where our Muri can rest; they have a mark on them to indicate this. When they sit there, the game cycles through many peaceful cut scenes of the local area. I imagine my Muri is reflecting on what they have accomplished and possibly meditating to get some rest. But these spots do not have to be utilized, it’s just a fun extra option. Have I mentioned I really, really liked this game?
Final Thoughts
I’m a big fan of the game developers, Speldosa Interactive. This is the third time I’ve played one of their creations. All were all excellent, so I was very excited to be invited to play the demo of Muri: Wildwoods before it released. I previously played their free game, Project Shoreline and also the playtest for Muri: Wildwoods. Both were similar to the demo I just played; in fact, they were all building up to the full game of Muri: Wildwoods.
You can read my article about Project Shoreline here and my article about the playtest for Muri: Wildwoods here. The gameplay in the playtest was very similar to the demo I just played, but the storyline and locations were different, so that was cool for me. It was like a completely different game. The devs tell me that some of the content from the playtest will be used in the full game. I’m glad, it had some great mechanics and locations that were not included in the demo.
Their studio is also women-led. As the CEO told me, “Our team has women at the forefront, we have a female CEO, one as Creative Director, and one as Art Director. We also have some gender queer representation. Half our founding team is women and non-binary, which is a very good number in the games industry and something we’re very proud of.” How refreshing!
I have truly enjoyed each and every Speldosa Interactive game that I’ve played. They are all polished and very engaging while also being chill and cozy. I encourage you to try the demo for Muri: Wildwoods and also give Project Shoreline a try. Both are free and will provide you with hours of joy. The full game of Muri: Wildwoods is coming soon. I can’t wait!
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