The demo of Slumbering Woods took me on a mysterious and imaginative journey. I met unique local residents and explored a really cool environment. So fun!
The Backstory of Slumbering Woods
I played as Chunya, a small, cute creature of indeterminate species. I was travelling with my team of pack birds (which are like tiny pack horses!) when a storm took us by surprise. I lost my team as well as my gear. I came upon an isolated village and asked for help. The locals weren’t able to help me much because their village was recovering from a long-past climate catastrophe. There were rising swamps as well as invasive mosses and mushrooms taking over. I was told that if I helped them heal their village, they would help me to find my pack birds and continue my journey. I’m a helpful little creature, so of course I agreed to do so!
The Look and Feel of Slumbering Woods
The world of Slumbering Woods was hand-drawn and very imaginative. There were many interesting creatures, plants and landscapes for me to explore. There were paths for me to follow and a cave for me to explore. Sometimes my route was blocked by water. In that case, I was able to throw some floating ferns in the water to make a temporary bridge. These bridges are helpful but won’t last long, just a few game days.
Slumbering Woods is an open-world 2D game, my favorite type!! I was able to explore anywhere I wanted, provided the path was not blocked by some invasive species.
There was also a cave in Slumbering Woods. Sometimes when my path was blocked, I was able to detour through the cave. There was a sign at the entrance saying it was dangerous, that it was for experienced explorers only, but I didn’t see anything dangerous during the time I played. Inside the cave it was very dark with glowing minerals and crystals. I think that area will be explored more thoroughly in the full game.
The Gameplay in Slumbering Woods
I often need extra handholding when I begin a game. Slumbering Woods had a tutorial that taught me what I needed to know as I needed to know it, so I was not overwhelmed with too much information at once. I have to admit, though, that I was a bit confused trying to do a couple of the game mechanics. I’ll bet that’s a ME problem! After about 30 minutes of gameplay, I figured everything out and was totally immersed in the game! I played for over an hour and a half and wish I could have played longer, but sadly, the demo ended. You should be aware that the demo does not have a save feature, so plan at least 30 minutes to complete the demo if you play fast and as much as 60 minutes or more if you play slow like I do!
In Slumbering Woods, I met a mushroom scientist named Kreeta. She taught me a bit about mushrooms and asked me to bring samples for her to study. In order to heal the village, she’d like to find the needs of the various mushrooms as well as developing their spore recipes. The game is a self-described “mushroom adventure”, so there’s a lot about mushrooms in it. That’s cool! I believe the mushrooms in the game were invented; they had really interesting names and properties. Some of them were blocking my paths so I was given the task of catching cute little bugs which like to eat that particular species of mushroom. I also had to clear a path of wood debris by throwing a certain variety of mushroom spores on it. And I was given a sickle to help cut down the invasive, spikey Bramblemosses.
There were so many things for me to do during my time in Slumbering Woods!! Besides what I’ve already mentioned, I could collect berries, craft items, learn about bridges that need repairing and help a lot of NPCs. It seemed that my progression was not totally linear; I had some latitude in the order in which I completed quests. I like that!
My Tools in Slumbering Woods
I was given a great set of tools to help me complete my quests. I had a journal which summarized all the dialogues I had with NPCs, a map, an inventory, crafting recipes and information about the items I’d collected so far.
I think I liked the dialogue summaries the best. These entries reminded me of details which I may have forgotten.
Final Thoughts
Slumbering Woods was a cool, visually interesting adventure and it seems I could play most any way I wanted. The gameplay was relaxed, with no combat, nothing stressful. I could choose to sleep if I wanted to advance time and maybe make a mushroom grow faster with no consequences. In the full game there will be timed quests to add the challenge of time management, but the consequences of a missed deadline are still very minor. I did have to maintain my energy but I could either eat or go to sleep to do that. There was so much more to the demo than I described, including relationship building with the NPCs; I could go on and on! But I think I’ll let you try the demo and discover the rest for yourself.
The demo for Slumbering Woods is available now on Steam; the full game does not have a release date yet. I’m looking forward to playing it when it’s available.
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