Some games manage to win you over with just a few images. When I saw Among Trees, nestled between quick-fire trailers during the PC Gaming Show, I was immediately smitten with its strong visuals. The comparisons with Firewatch that followed the reveal seem apt – both games immediately stand out for the vibrancy of their colour palette. Among Trees’ early morning is a mix of light blue mist dissipating into the yellows, purples and pinks of morning sunlight. The woods stretch as far as the eye can see.
Among the TreesDeveloper: FJRD InteractivePublisher: FJRD InteractivePlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now in Early Access on Epic Games Store
Among Trees is a first-person survival game currently in Early Access on the Epic Games Store, casting you as a young woman alone in the wilds. You open your eyes and find yourself next to a dilapidated cabin on a clearing, with no hint as to how you got there. There’s no story yet, but none was needed for me to be spellbound early on. The first order of business is clear – the cabin needs repairing. Stepping closer reveals the materials needed to fix it, and taking a note with a button press will display the required number of each item on your HUD.
While some materials are immediately nearby, this first task already requires me to venture out past the clearing, an excellent opportunity to familiarise myself with the four stats always displayed on screen. There’s vitality, warmth, sleepiness and of course hunger. As time passes, you will grow hungry and sleepy, and so while I’m on my hunt for cabin materials, I also pull my first mushrooms and mulberries to snack on. Your item menu reveals whether what you’ve just picked is edible, if it needs to be cooked first, and by how much it will satisfy your hunger.
Generally, I tend to stay away from survival sims, as I don’t enjoy the stress that inevitably comes with looming starvation or getting mauled by a wild animal. Among Trees takes a pretty relaxed approach to both of these issues – while you can die of wounds, hypothermia and starvation, they are all reasonably easy to avoid. On its loading screen, Among Trees warns you that while most animals are in fact friendly, bears are decidedly not. It offers a zen mode free of anything that bites, but overall, “Don’t get mauled by a bear” is a reasonable ask, especially since it’s not like the entire map is full of them. Instead, it’s full of, you guessed it, trees, to the point I feel a burst of genuine excitement when I come across my first structure besides my own cabin, something that looks like a broken-down watchtower. For several minutes, all I do is walk, keeping my eyes on that tower, the beauty of the woods underscored by birds singing and leaves crunching underfoot. When I make it there, I find a wealth of new materials and with them new secrets to uncover.