Drake Hollow Review
Like so many weeks before it, this week in America was bad, but it was also bad in a weirder way than usual. Probably the weirdest bad thing to happen was that a bunch of terrorists were stopped from organizing a coup in Michigan. I think if we lived in a less nightmarish year, this would’ve been far more shocking, but we live a the year where cops can murder people and get away with it because they have money and power, at least most of the time. Yet another weird bad thing to happen this week was the murder of one civilian by another because the first asked the second to put on a mask. And, of course, gruesome violence continues against those who are trying to make things better. It’s hard to know what everyone needs these days to help relax and recharge, but what I needed this week was a game about conquering evil by caring for the people who rely on you.
Drake Hollow tells the tale of a player-designed 21st century human, disillusioned by the modern world and heartbroken over a recent breakup. So powerfully distraught and desperate for escape, they follow a talking crow with a compass tied around its neck into the woods. This works out far better than it should and, instead of ending up dead in a ditch, they are transported to a parallel world of spirits and monsters. There, the crow introduces the player to the Drakes, adorable nature spirit who once had incredible power but were diminished by an insidious force. Because their power is tied to the land itself, as the Drakes have waned so has the world, now overrun with massive brambles, savage monsters, and a life-draining substance known as Aether. The crow informs the player that the only way for the player to return to their own dimension is to restore the Drakes to their original power. To that end, the player must venture across the land, reviving hibernating Drakes, building a safe place to live, and growing their power by harnessing magical crystals.
I feel like Drake Hollow is chasing the success of big games like Fortnite and Minecraft because the game’s biggest components are venturing out into the world to bring resources back to the base camp, using those materials to construct helpful tools and structures, and using those tools and structures to defend the base camp against waves of hostile monsters. I don’t fault Drake Hollow for trying to capture some of that audience and it’s not poorly done, but I can’t overlook the clear inspiration. A lot of harvesting comes down to hitting something, whether it be a tree, box, or Earth car, until all of the resources pop out for the player to pick up. It’s nothing too creative, but there’s one cool thing Drake Hollow does that I haven’t seen anywhere else: the waypoint system. Because of the highly lethal Aether, only elevated ground is safe to traverse. At the beginning, players have to rely on temporary Aether-repellant crystals that allow the player to move between islands safely, but soon enough they learn to craft waypoints.
Waypoints are cobbled together from sticks and crystals and serve as both a resource conveyor belt and a safe traversal system. The beams of light that connect waypoints can be ridden, players slide along these rails of light like a skybound Tony Hawk, zipping from point to point without having to worry about enemies or Aether. I found it tremendously fun to sail through the sky, able to observe the islands I was passing and hopping off for any resources I wanted then hopping back on to resume my radical commute. The waypoints can also be connected to resource caches, box trucks filled with useful items, which allowed the valuables to be automatically transmitted across the waypoints back to the player's base camp for later use. On top of all this, players are given free reign where to set up their waypoints, a feature I loved because it allowed me to decide which islands and resources were important and which paths would result in the best views.
Like the resource gathering, the base camp activities are fine, nothing amazing but totally functional. Players start with a cauldron and a tree stump in the middle of a clearing and can build different structures that help both the player and the Drakes. Most buildings provide something needed to keep the Drakes alive, be it food, water, a place to sleep, or entertainment, because Drakes can literally die of boredom. There are also a handful of buildings that give players new abilities, such as being able to craft new buildings or tools. Lastly, there are buildings that produce or manage resources for the base camp itself, such as power generators or automated defenses. Like the waypoints, constructing the base camp is totally freeform, allowing players to set up their camps however they want, but this can lead to some sloppy setups. I’m aware it would be restrictive, but I might have preferred a grid system for the base camp or maybe a snap function that would allow buildings to snap together like Lego to be laid out in a more organized fashion. Good base construction is important in Drake Hollow because at certain times, Ferals, ferocious creatures created by the same nemesis as the Aether, will raid the camp in an effort to keep the player from accomplishing their goals. When this happens, the attacking Ferals will ignore the player and instead go straight for buildings. Defenses can be built, and those seem to be targeted more often than others, presumably because the Ferals hate defiance. I found the raids to be more interesting than the combat players will encounter while exploring because it requires more focus and delay tactics won’t work as well. But, since the combat in Drake Hollow isn’t fantastic, both situations are fine but not too exciting.
I’m not really sure what happened with Drake Hollow. It’s got pieces of games I like but somehow when they’re combined, it just doesn’t click with me. Nothing is poorly designed and it runs well, even on my fairly old computer, but it never sparked anything in me. The game can be played with up to three other friends, and I think that might be the best way to go, especially because crossplay is enabled between Xbox gamers and PC users who purchase the game through the Windows Game Store. If you need a good “mess around and chat with friends” game, and who doesn’t these days, or if you like a nice base building game with a good checklist to complete, or even if you just think the Drakes are cute, I think you might get something out of Drake Hollow, but you really should wait until it’s less than $30.
Buy this game on sale
It’s worth playing, just not at the price they’re asking
