ASKA bravely dips its toes into the expansive survival and crafting genre with a Viking aesthetic. But the reliance on building a community and managing villagers separates it from the pack, often mitigating tedium as its own mechanic that players can manage.
ASKA made the tedious act of survival a strange thrill, evolving into a surprising game of city management and viking raids.
My time with ASKA‘s Early Access build came on the fringes of Summer Games Fest 2024. The deluge of games is always a bit frightening for someone like me who wishes to have their thumb on as many zeitgeist-worthy games and attractive indies as possible. But one thing I noticed during the number of various conferences was the sheer amount of management, crafting, and survival games. It seemed like a requirement to be considered a “cozy” game was to have some element of one of these genres.
Blame Minecraft. Blame Fortnite. I don’t care. If your game has an interesting hook, it can break through that ceiling and separate itself from the pack.
I approached ASKA with some hesitation, worrying it might lose itself in the pack. Comparison’s to 2021’s Valheim in terms of its viking trappings made me wonder what ASKA would offer other than a higher fidelity experience. Additionally, there have been few games I’ve engaged with during their Early Access periods, usually opting for the full, mostly polished release.
When my viking heroine crash-landed on the shore of some randomly generated beach, I knew what needed to be done. I gathered strange glowing blue stones seemingly containing the souls of vikings, referred to as Jotun Blood. I collected bits of stone and sticks, berries from nearby bushes. And I turned around to look at the ocean just in enough time to see the gargantuan monster responsible for downing my ship in the opening cutscene disappearing into the background, seemingly an actual asset of the game and not a baked-in element.
“Sooooo, am I going to fight that guy?” I thought.
Based on what I had gleaned from ASKA‘s preview trailers, it seemed like a possibility. The loose end goal of the game being the player’s ability to develop and foster a thriving settlement of villagers who move out into the world in search of resources that will keep them safe from attack and prosper through the ever-changing seasons. Sprinkle in some fantastical beasts in need of killing and that is a comforting–if expected–mechanical loop for the genre ASKA primarily settles into.
While some players may enjoy being literally thrown to the wolves and work to figure things out themselves, I enjoyed ASKA‘s constant step-by-step tutorialization. But this wasn’t conducted in a manner of showing me what controls did what. Instead, the opening bits of the game literally ask the player to do basic tasks like collect resources, build a campfire, craft tools, and eat. Each goal gets its own fanfare, empowering players and treating them to a kind of leveling up, making what is often a bland or rote process become more exciting.
ASKA‘s approach didn’t strike me as particularly brutal, one like Don’t Starve where death is an early inevitability because players are constantly at a razor’s edge of survival. With the touch of a button, the player character shoots out a ringed scan that highlights any kind of resource that can be harvested or interacted with. This isn’t to say that the game’s visuals are muddy and mask obvious things like flowers and bushes and stone. Rather, it’s a useful tool to streamline the process. Player’s are asked to build a campfire within the first few minutes, which acts as a kind of temporary home base. Is there anything wrong with being able to scan that direct area near a point of safety to maximize gathering?
Depending on the kind of player you are, any game like ASKA is going to require a bit of acclimation towards learning the ropes of menus and shortcuts. As a primarily console player, I have some sea legs when it comes to mousing between player storage menus, inventories, and crafting recipes. I noticed that, while ASKA is dense with menus and shows the player a good amount of items that can’t currently be crafted, those menus and toolbars are just big enough to be legible without looking clumsy.
Being in Early Access, it’s hard to determine how many iterations the User Interface will go through especially when player feedback begins to pour in. But by my account, I didn’t fight a war of attrition learning how to simply survive a summer evening in ASKA. However, that process does become a bit more complicated as new mechanics become introduced.
Developer Sand Sailor Studio has seemingly nailed the basics of remedial survival in ASKA. The HUD readily identifies thirst, temperature, hunger, exhaustion, and the inventory pouch at hand. Doing a quick scan for resources allows the player enough time and knowledge to, in a pinch, take a drink of water from moister pockets in the ground or chow down a few berries to last another day. Chopping down trees and mining rocks isn’t a lengthy process of watching bars fill up. In about a half an hour of landing on the beach I felt like I had stripped a good chunk of land of most its resources and that’s a satisfying feeling.
But there are also some clever implementations of gatekeeping more advanced ore or materials. A short tree is easily chopped down while a tall one takes more time or a better axe to make quick work of. That tangible sense of growth and the tendrils of what lies in wait serve to push player curiosity deeper into ASKA‘s crafting and survival elements.
However, if ASKA was at this stage all about building incrementally better shelters to brave the viking wilds, it would be less fascinating and more par for the course. The game is certainly visually appealing with its lush foliage and bright colors when appropriate. Gloomy greys and blacks creep in at night or in dangerous areas where creatures may prowl. But what is that true extra step that will push a player into becoming obsessed with the loop in ASKA?
My biggest surprise came when ASKA transformed from a survival game into a full-on village management sim. While I wouldn’t go calling this Sid Meier’s ASKA, Sand Sailor Studio integrates what is most often a lonely, solo experience into one that benefits most from its communal trappings.
Yes, players have the ability to play ASKA cooperatively with others. Players can group together to lead attacks on enemy lairs or work together to build homes and crafting stations. But for a player like me more interested in managing the populace without the interjection of others’ whims, ASKA introduces the ability to direct the numerous vikings that come to plant roots at your growing village.
Players first call a new recruit to their settlement by collecting Jotun Blood and summoning them with Odin’s Eye. When a new NPC arrives, players have the ability to assign them roles based on their random stats. Need a hunter? Gatherer? Crafter? Assign those tasks to someone else! That’s what building a viking community is all about, right? But the process isn’t that simple. ASKA gives these potential citizens desires and preferences. NPCs may enjoy being out at night rather than during the day. Another may prefer fighting over the relative safety of gathering wood or cooking.
Players can also equip villagers with weapons, armor, and better tools to increase efficiency. Those planning on leaving the village for long stretches can even assign patrol routes or gathering routes that keep the village’s economy and safety going. Yet these aren’t one-note characters that players view the stats on, give roles, and then forget. Villagers’ mood and status can be monitored so that the player can be made aware of their satisfaction. These helpers will leave if their needs are not being met but the more time they spend in the village, they may have certain buffs or desires that make them more useful for a different role.
For me, this is the element that elevates ASKA‘s gameplay loop above similar titles. At times, I likened it to Cult of the Lamb–but partially because if the player dies, they can sacrifice a villager to come back to life–based on the two major halves of the game’s mechanics. While the game can take a performance dip when villages start to grow in size and density, I fully expect this to be ironed out over time.
But more importantly, the act of being able to have NPCs partially act as tailored babysitters for my budding town alleviates a massive point of my contention for survival games. Eventually, I get to the point in games like this where the long slog from my base to the deeper stretches of the map feel more like chores and grueling treks. Have I brought enough? Am I going to be raided and unable to get back in time? Is there a teleporter?
In ASKA, I have to worry less about my actual home base because it is being taken care of by NPCs in my stead. After a point, I don’t want to spend hours of time in a game having to gather basic materials to process and refine them. I want to spend even less time waiting out any crafting time. And instead, mechanics introduced in the game will save me from that process and allow me to fight and explore. That isn’t to say players who enjoy the building and management aspects are left out. In fact, those players will have even more time to concentrate on perfecting the ideal visual of what they wish their viking settlement to look like. For nearly any kind of player, it’s a win.
Despite my outpouring of appreciation for the management simulation of ASKA, there is definitely room to grow. I think it may take a bit of time before NPC AI gets to a point where players don’t have to micromanage it as much. Pathing can feel off at times when watching patrols. I noticed occasionally a villager might require a specific item they already had and weren’t performing their specific action. It never truly bothered me but I can imagine villager interactions becoming increasingly more complex and offering dialog options, quests, and potential relationships.
A large portion of my time in ASKA was spent trying to perfect the general loop of maintaining a proper settlement. No days really felt like a waste and I didn’t risk my life going out in combat before I truly felt ready. The game is fairly generous as it begins in summer, slowly trickling into late fall and winter where hunger and warmth are the least of a player’s worries.
Combat certainly didn’t blow me away. There’s a framework here for hacking away at foes with melee and ranged weapons. There are blocks and dodges as well to provide a feeling of survivability but right now, it is not the most complex aspect of ASKA.
Players may certainly wish to explore deeper into the world and face more challenging enemies but that is also done in conjunction withe the survival elements of the game. Killing enemies offers materials used to make clothes, repair structures, and build better things but it may be difficult to strike that balance in a first playthrough. I managed to reach the winter months in ASKA my first time around but had grown my village to a point where I was not familiar enough with navigating the villager menus and making sure we were fully stocked for the arduous season ahead.
There is a definite feeling of Sand Sailor Studio enforcing the survival nature of ASKA first and foremost. Being able to grow a village over time is the important key towards making that process easier for the player and making some of the grind more automated.
What I’m ultimately curious about as ASKA expands during its Early Access period is how the game will tantalize players who want more than to literally just last through the years. Does there come a point where players build such a domineering amount of stuff that they monopolize the map and conquer any threat? Will there be deeper story beats that play into the viking aesthetic? I already saw hints at magical and fantastical monster encounters that were extreme challenges I wasn’t prepared for. But it’s easy to see that so much more can be added to the game in the meantime.
ASKA is a promising survival game, one that bucks the trend of countless others in the genre. June 20, 2024 marks the game’s debut into Early Access and developer Sand Sailor Studio has promised major content additions that will grow ASKA‘s scope. The ability to manage villagers and eliminate some of the late-game tedium present in so many crafting experiences gives the game a definitive edge. And in the months to come, I have to say I’m extremely excited for what ASKA has to offer.
