Towers of Aghasba review: "Exploration is a joy thanks to gorgeous visuals and a varied landscape"

If you looked at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and thought it would be cool if it was a bit more realistic and grim, then Towers of Aghasba will very likely interest you. The plot sees a traveling people called the Shimu returning to their titular homeland after some kind of cataclysm, only to find it overrun by The Withered – an evil energy that's spawning corrupted versions of the creatures that lived there.

However, rather than gaming's usual solution of killing everything that moves to restore peace to the land, there's a rather neat eco-friendly slant that sees you rebuilding damaged biomes, planting seeds, growing trees, and helping the animals that start to re-inhabit your new Eden-like gardens. Don't worry, you still get to kill scuttling monstrosities too. Win-win.

It plays out as a third-person adventure, as you control a young, mute human, handily the only one who can use and transfer the power of "Amity". Think of this like The Force from Star Wars, only without the levitation. Amity runs through everything, so if you kill an innocent creature – which is necessary sometimes for hunting – you lose Amity. Conversely, destroy a Withered Nest, feed animals, or heal injured ones, and you gain Amity. It's spent on leveling up trees, shrines, and fast travel portals, so you'll need lots of it.

Rock Aghasba

To begin with, you're not even armed, allowing you to just wander off and explore the more gentle island you start on, perhaps throwing stones at Withered spiders. Towers of Aghasba's prologue area is still impressively large and you'll soon discover some rather beautiful architectural elements, remnants of the lost civilisation that came before. The naturalistic graphics are particularly great when drawing stonework, which is lucky because there's a lot of that. The dynamic lighting moves from day to night, with gorgeous shadows and some pretty phenomenal close-up detail. It's a visual feast.

However, after the first couple of hours spent swimming in crystalline waters and climbing mountains in order to jump off and seamlessly glide down with your parachute or glider, things start to get fetch quest-y and much darker, and the experience becomes all about crafting with occasional town building as a reward. Now, it really must be stressed, the game is not really like its trailers for at least tens of hours – that's all very late game stuff they're showing off. The huge animals, glistening citadel, and flying beasts you can jump on are way, way into the game, and must be earned. And that really does mean hard work.

The crafting system feels artificially tight-fisted, almost as if it's deliberately padding out the run-time by making you scavenge for hours. If all you're walking on are broken branches, you should be able to pick up a stick, yet supposedly common items are sometimes scarce when you really need them. You end up in a vicious cycle of crafting items that you need to craft items that you need to craft items, so sourcing the materials for the bridge fix alone – a fairly early yet vital task – can take four hours. It doesn't matter how pretty it is or how organic the game world, eventually that's just not fun.

Sadly this isn't an isolated occurrence, with some ingredients even locked away behind citadel upgrades that require yet more items you haven't got easy access to, so it can get rather frustrating. And so you start to industrialize, which is surely counter-productive given the game's eco stance and, either way, all takes so much time.

Teleporting over troubled water

There are also some bugs, which is expected given the game's Early Access state as well as its ambitious complexity and scale, but we accidentally warped to the middle of the mainland before we'd built the bridge because we tested the "warp to Multiplayer Gate" option on the pause menu. Oops. It autosaved there too, but drowning off the broken bridge eventually fixed things. Aside from that, items falling on the floor instead of going into storage, traders not delivering gold nuggets you've paid for, and occasional clipping issues while climbing make for a slightly messy experience at times.

Even so, Towers of Aghasba is an impressive and involved adventure, even in this unfinished state. The ability to change and develop its vast world is enjoyable, crossplay is due to be added soon for multiplayer co-op if that's your thing (and it doesn't need to be), and the larger creatures and enemies you see as you progress do look superb. The magical realism of the environment and its bizarre cast of characters means you're never quite sure what you'll bump into next, which is great – the family "with the fingers" is a standout.

That said, considering Breath of the Wild has crafting and breakable weapons yet never feels like a chore (and arguably has more memorable sights to see too), this still has some work to do. Still, you can't play Zelda on PS5 or PC, so that will make this attractive for many. Just clear your diary if you plan to go big with this one, it's very long and doesn't give you anything for free.

Looking for some chiller vibes? Check out our games like Animal Crossing list for something a little similar. Or want simmier? Our guide to the best city building games has you covered!