Into the Emberlands - Early Access [Impressions]
Clear the miasma to restore your village in this cozy roguelite adventure.
Into the Emberlands. Credit: Tiny Roar / Daedalic Entertainment
Into the Emberlands is low-stakes roguelite adventure where you must explore outside the safe bounds of your village to rescue villagers and collect resources so you can restore and grow your town. The game has a cute, colorful style, with quirky characters and creatures; its friendliness underscores the fact that the game is focused on exploration and has no combat.
You begin in your small village, joined by only a few fellow Knacks. In the center there’s a huge candle where the Ember burns, a light that protects your village from the dark miasma that surrounds it on all sides. As the Lightbringer, you have an Ember Lantern that can also clear miasma and protect you for a limited time when you venture outside the village. Each step you take, ember in your lamp is consumed; run out and you’re lost, forced to restart with no upgrades, though the progress of your village is saved.
Into the Emberlands. Credit: Tiny Roar / Daedalic Entertainment
The core loop consists of leaving town to explore, in order to find other Knacks and resources, returning before your lamp runs out of ember, then using what you brought back to complete quests or rebuild structures in your village before heading back out. If you complete a set of quests, you can upgrade the Ember at the center of your village; the village will grow, new quests will become available, and the map will be randomly regenerated.
The fuel of your lantern is the push and pull that you must deal with during exploration. Since every step you take brings you closer to oblivion, you need to plan carefully, noting where items or encounters are along your way so you can refill some of your ember as you run down, so you can return to town safely. I was always tempted to venture just a little further, not always properly calculating the risk. Completing quests or trading with creatures you meet outside of town can upgrade your lantern to give you a longer lifeline, but you only keep the upgrades as long as you stay alive. Getting lost in the miasma means you start from your baseline again. This also goes for upgrades to your inventory size, coin string size, and any items you’re carrying.
Into the Emberlands. Credit: Tiny Roar / Daedalic Entertainment
Your movement is counted by grid squares. You select a square to move there and interact with whatever is occupying the space, so the controls are rather simple. Likewise, you can select a tool from your inventory, such as an ax or a pickaxe, and then select a grid square to use it there.
If I’m being honest, I found the game to be a bit underwhelming. I would have liked the story to have been a bit more fleshed out, with more characters and dialogue, especially since there is little tension to hold my interest in the actual moment to moment gameplay. As you expand your town, you also have no control over its layout or choice over how it’s upgraded; it would have been nice to be able to exercise a little creativity in its evolution or decide how to specialize its facilities to aid in your exploration. As the game stands, there just isn’t enough variety within its loop and I didn’t get any satisfaction out of exploring and uncovering more of the world because it would reset after every village upgrade phase. There’s little or no benefit to learning paths as you get farther.
Into the Emberlands. Credit: Tiny Roar / Daedalic Entertainment
My favorite thing about the game was its visual style. I appreciated how colorful it was, and I liked the way the game’s 3D world was rendered with solid color fields and subtle gradients, almost like cel-shading but without the outlines. It’s a great look.
I hope that during Into the Emberlands’ Early Access phase, the developers expand the game a bit to make it more engaging. According to its Steam page, the game will be in Early Access for 6 to 8 months.
Into the Emberlands is available now for PC via Steam Early Access.
Played on: Steam Deck
