My Viking village is now self-sufficient. I have, in other words, done as much as possible in Aska in its current early access state. I’ve saved my obedient little pawns from the depths of their imprisonment by collecting Jotun Blood from scarred stones and stumbling skeletons. The villagers hurry about their business like mindless drones, as I have commanded them to do so.
As someone who usually plays these types of games entirely alone - it’s difficult to convince your friends to play the sixth early access survival crafter of the year - these NPC friends make everything much more enjoyable. I am getting tired of collecting, of gathering, of crafting. So I’ll let these guys do it instead.
I wake up on a beach, next to my shipwrecked…well, ship. A helpful blue wisp tells me to make an axe. I eat some mussels on a beach and find some water pooled in a small stone. Ah, it’s a survival game, we’re back again. Aska, however, quickly makes its originality known: I can summon my first villager very early on thanks to some leftover Jotun Blood near my poor ship.
Jotun Blood can only be gathered from Jotun Stones and by defeating enemies and raiding their ritual sites. Don’t worry, it’s just about the most complicated thing in the game, and definitely the most “lore-y”.
My villager has some needs that must be met, primarily a rudimentary shelter, some food, and some water. Unemployed villagers will act as builders, though, as I expand my small town, I can assign them new roles - like gathering, woodcutting, and stone cutting. This immediately remedies one big problem I have with modern survival games: it’s reaching a point of oversaturation that I just can’t be arsed to pick up any more twigs. Thank you, Ulric, for doing that job for me.
This should, in theory, leave me plenty of time to explore a vast and interesting world…right? Well, Aska is in early access, so the majority of the world is empty. There are a few points of interest with some enemies stumbling around, mostly skeletons, some wolves, and a couple of interestingly-large golems. I didn’t die or even really get hurt for most of my playthrough.
In theory, you’re able to sacrifice your villagers (get over here, Ulric) to bring yourself back to life, but there wasn’t any need. There’s currently one boss fight available. It’s a bit disappointing and a little uninspiring in its current form, but there’s plenty of potential here. The foundations, like a viking longhouse, are quite sturdy.
Combat is basic, and you can just run circles around most of the enemies in the game. The island is large, but empty. Generally, though, everything looks great. It’d be fair to make comparisons to Valheim (vikings, survival, you know the drill), but Aska has its own unique visual style.
You can also transform into a Raven, which is pretty cool.
But ultimately, you are reminded of the early access emptiness every time you leave the village. Like all early access games, approach with a hefty pinch of salt at the ready - drop by and support the game if you love it, or wait for a few months or years and see where the game’s at then if you’ve just got a passing interest.
Because the world is so empty, I instead spend the time engaging with more of Aska’s colony simulator mechanics, like building town defenses (walls and towers), and establishing a reliable tool supply so that the village can continue on while I’m whisked away to play the seventh and eighth early access survival crafters of the year. In the end, my village, now more of a small town, has over 20 NPCs flitting about their business.
Generally, they are content. Occasionally one of them might complain about not having enough flax to craft with (I hate flax in this game, please put more flax in the game, there’s not enough flax in this game), but mostly they simply perform their tasks as if guided by an eternal viking demi-god - which they are, I suppose.
Even with your NPCs, Aska is a slow game - which will appeal to some people, and be despised by others. It takes a long time to do anything. Every stick you collect appears on your character’s back, every log you haul is lifted up on your shoulder. Your villagers chop trees, carry the logs, build the buildings, all at a peaceful pace.
I’m very interested to see where Aska goes over the next few months. This combination of survival, crafting, and colony management is a fantastic medley of some of my favourite things, even if separately, they are becoming less enjoyable the more of them appear on the market. It takes a lot to stand out in this boggy time of survival crafting games, and Aska has piqued my interest for around 10 hours or so.
