Developer: Twirlbound
Publisher: Kongregate
Release Date: 10th March 2021
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Steam
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility
Most video games will have you believe that you, the player, are the center of the universe. That the game revolves all around you and that only your actions affect the state of the world. Pine throws this notion out the window and offers a living, breathing sandbox that evolves even when you stand idly by. Welcome to Albamare.
With great power…
Pine is an open-world action-adventure simulation, where everything you do has an effect on the world. You play as Hue, a young member of a small Human tribe, whose existence is threatened. Their home has become unsafe and Hue takes it upon himself to find a new, safer place to settle down in peace.
Unfortunately for Hue, peace isn’t what everyone wants. The island is ruled by five intelligent animal species, all of which are hostile toward humans – and each other, for the most part. Pine’s key selling point is that the world is alive and that each tribe is fighting for its own survival at every turn, and Hue is now caught in the middle.
Politics. It’s all politics
The game has an underlying Influence system that dictates how every tribe feels about each other; Hostile, Neutral or Allied. You can affect these standings by donating resources to any given tribe, which will make them friendlier toward you. If you become allied, you will be able to trade with them to get resources and unique equipment, though everything is done through bartering. If you want an item, you must give an item of equal value in return.
Gathering resources, then, becomes immensely important, but you’re not the only one fighting for them. The animal tribes, too, send gatherers into the wild around their villages, as materials and food will help each respective village grow – and if you see enough growth, the village’s tier will increase, giving their inhabitants better equipment, more health regeneration, and better items to trade. As you progress through the story, various new “island rules” will be added as well, deepening the simulation, as well as making each tribe trickier to deal with.
It’s aliiiiiive!
The influence system goes deeper than just you, however. The tribes are all fighting over the same territories, and will frequently switch allegiances between each other and even send raiding parties to warring tribes in an effort to take over their villages, and gain more land for themselves. You will frequently see tribes fighting each other in the open-world too, as traders, gatherers and guards from warring tribes randomly encounter each other and battle to the death. You can join a skirmish, if you want, or you can keep your distance and just grab the spoils when the fighting is over – the choice is yours.
Each tribe has a capital that can’t be taken from them, so a tribe can never be wiped out entirely. You will, however, frequently see a tribe go from just a single village to controlling most of the land, or vice versa – especially if you opt to help them out.
Tipping the scales
Like I mentioned previously, everything you do affects the world. Want a tribe to weaken? Steal all the resources surrounding their villages, leaving nothing for their gatherers. Want a certain tribe to expand? Donate resources or crafted buffs, that will make them stronger or increase their population. You can also directly initiate a village takeover attempt, if you go to a hostile tribe, use a Raid Flare from an allied tribe, after which their warriors will show up in force, ready to fight.
Not everything is about war, however. Tribes will also ally with each other, initiating traders to travel between villages. You can, of course, sabotage this, if you want, by taking down a trader and stealing all their precious loot. Sometimes this will even be required, as each tribe as well as each type (gatherer, trader and guard) all drop unique materials, that you will need to craft certain things, including tribal buffs or gear for yourself.
Hue’s story
So, it’s clear that Pine’s underlying mechanics make for a different, ever-changing sandbox. The main driver of the game, however, is Hue’s story – and the history of those who came before. Yes, that’s intentionally vague as not to spoil things. Along your journey, you’ll complete quests, craft new equipment, solve open-world puzzles and take on three so-called Vaults. These are bigger puzzles that, when completed, grant you new, important tools.
One tool will allow you to see what’s hidden, one lets you activate and use electricity-based objects in the world, and the final one lets you tame the island’s various critters, who can help in various ways, like becoming mounts or digging up hidden treasures. The five tribes are all key to your adventure, however, so you’ll ally (and fight) with all of them along the way, though never all at once.
Fun but flawed
While Pine does have some really interesting ideas, the game is certainly not without its issues. The experience is fairly rough overall and combat in particular isn’t as fluid as it could be. There’s also an issue when fighting multiple enemies at once, where the lock-on system becomes quite useless, as you struggle to target the enemy you want. I also had a few issues of falling through or getting stuck in objects, as well as the game randomly crashing probably ten times in my 21 hour journey.
That being said, I still enjoyed my time with it and I would love for more developers to make interesting simulation experiences like this. It’s always fun when the village you’re hanging out in randomly gets hit by a raider group or two, you know? More of that, please.
K.A. Pedersen