Chill Town is a game that we talked about early on in one of our many listicles of games coming out back in November. We were psyched about the game then and we’re no less jazzed now to have finally been able to dive into the game!
As always with Early Access content, we don’t usually focus too heavily on the issues because patches are always coming out before launch. That being said, there wasn’t a lot that was really wrong except for one issue where my game kept getting stuck and I’d have to restart it (not from scratch, just the client). I’m pretty sure that bug will be fixed early on, however. You may never encounter it in your playthrough.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about Chill Town. You can’t really ignore the Animal Crossing: New Horizons-shaped elephant in the room when discussing this game. You can see a heavy inspiration between the games, but I’m not mad about it. Truthfully, it was one of the things that drew me in.
When the game loads, you’re prompted to make your character. While it’s not a huge amount of customization, there was more than enough that I felt happy with my character. And, it’s not like I was just settling between options. Plus, I know there have to be more customization options coming in the future.
Once you’ve got yourself all sorted, you learn that you’re a new resident of Chill Town and, for once, you’re not the mayor! Congratulations, you’re free from responsibility!
We’ll be making a water landing, but that’s OK because this is a seaplane. – Chill Town, probably
Glossing over the fact that you arrive on the island by seaplane, we’re dropped onto an island that is just starting to get its sea legs. Pun unintended, but certainly intended now. There are a few residents already there and most of them seem to be attached to jobs like running shops and such. I don’t know where they all live since there’s only one house, but that’s not really my business.
Let’s talk about the things that do matter. First of all, let’s talk about the user interface. There are a lot of bells and whistles here. Not only do you get a map, but you get a journal, gallery, phone, storage, “stamp”, save, auto button, and an unstuck button.
I absolutely love that there is an ‘unstuck’ button. It didn’t work for me with my problems earlier since I think my issues were unrelated. But, man, is this button going to be handy when you accidentally glitch into areas you’re not meant to be.
The map is pretty self-explanatory, as are the save and gallery buttons. So, let’s talk about the journal. It’s there to check for detailed information about quests and the rewards you’ll get for completing them.
These quests do show up on the side of the main screen, but curiously, they didn’t show notice board quests that I took. The notice board is in the middle of town and will have requests from other villagers there.
The storage is… kind of useless if I’m honest – at least in early gameplay. You can only open your storage inside your house. Unfortunately, your house takes several days to complete, so expect to be running around with sticks and snails in your pocket for a while.
Please, sir, I want some more… inventory space.
And speaking of inventory, let’s sidebar for just a moment because the amount of space you get is just NOT enough. You can unlock more, but the early stages are not plentiful.
I got into a situation where I had to sell things just to make room for a shovel. This brings me to another minor issue, but a big irritant. I had a bunch of sticks that had spilled over into another slot. It’s pretty common for the space to not be able to handle more than 99. So, I decided to sell my overflow of 21 sticks. (I had a total of 120.) I went to the shop and told it to sell 21 sticks.
You guys… why did it pull 21 from the 99 stack? So, here I am with a stack of 21 sticks and a stack of 78. I tried everything to pull the bundle of 21 over and they were just in their own spots permanently. So, I had to sell the rest of the 78 to free up space.
I’m sure that one will be fixed. Just be aware that while you’re encouraged to explore, you don’t want to pick up too many things before your storage is accessible. You will not be prompted to swap things out if you have too many items in your inventory. Things like fish will just go back to the sea if there’s no space for them.
Alright, that was the longest sidebar. So, let’s go back to the UI options. Auto is a pretty simple one – it just automates your fishing. Honestly, I like the sound of it, but I didn’t get around to testing it.
Stamps are basically where your trophies go for completing a certain objective, like collecting so many bugs or such.
Does anyone else have the urge to cover themselves in ink stamps?
And lastly, the phone button. If you thought your options were over with the phone, surprise! The phone brings you more functions!
Opening up the phone gives you more options such as a gallery (again), camera, recipes, music, and letters. I’m assuming it’s the same gallery and the camera doesn’t need commentary. Letters, I’d guess, are from other users who play, but it’s possible you might get mail from villagers.
As for the recipes, there are two types: food and building. I’ve found a few recipes by either being given them by NPCs or finding them in simple brown boxes that dot the island. I’m sure there are more ways to find recipes, but I’m not sure what they are.
Perhaps the most interesting thing is the music option. Chill Town uses music that fits into the lo-fi genre. So, it’s only natural for there to be tracks. At the start of the game, there are 9 to sift through and I’m sure there are ways to earn more. However, what I love is that you can make albums and put in the tracks that you like, thereby creating your own custom mixtape.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about all the things you can do. There’s fishing, insect collecting, cooking, gardening, animal taming, and probably more that is slipping my notice.
I think we’re familiar with most of these activities. But, let’s start with animal taming because that’s the one feature that really had me interested. Unfortunately, I haven’t built up that aspect of gameplay yet, but I did encounter two of these animals. One of them, I was able to catch with my bare hands, and the other had me running around like a chicken trying to catch it.
I did not catch it.
Some say it’s still on the run, but I just wanna know why it looked like a green tomato.
Not only do you have creatures to tame, but I’ve seen some gifs on their Steam page of some puppies. So, I’m pretty excited to be able to have an animal companion. Hopefully, there are more options than just dogs, but I’m happy with anything.
I’ve said a lot of words about what the game does and how it looks, so let’s end this preview with how it feels.
Personally, I’m not a fan of heavy tutorial-based introductions to a game and this one has it in spades. It’s unfortunate but necessary, so I don’t want to really highlight that. Just expect to be running around for quite a while getting acquainted with things.
Overall, I think the game is beautiful, and minor issues aside, it felt like a solid game. Once you get into the swing of things, it has so much potential for cozy fun.
Some games get put in my “done pile” after I’ve played them for the review, but this one is going into my “currently playing” folder in Steam.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Chill Town develops as more patches come out. And, I think it’s going to be a game that a lot of people will fall in love with. If you want to get Chill Town, it’s available in early access today on Steam.
If games featuring Lo-Fi are interesting, you should check out our coverage of Lofi Hip-Hop Worlds to Study In.
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