Forager

A pocket-sized game with a powerful heart that's best played on the go, Forager is well worth the time it takes to complete!

What is Forager?

Forager is a resource-management, industry-building sim. You start as a generic stick-figure fellow, who is born with no more than a pickaxe and a dream. Occupying your first island, you build the beginnings of industry and begin to level up, slaying slimes and gaining new buildings to craft and things to explore.

As you gain coins through minting them, building banks that generate them over time, or selling items, you can purchase new islands, until you finish the 7 X 7, 48-island grid.

Let's Talk Nitty-Gritty.

From humble beginnings, your little forager slowly buys land, fills in the seas, and becomes an unstoppable god among mortals. The industry isn't as advanced as, say, Factorio, and the game isn't endless like Minecraft (as it has defined boundaries based on the island grid system) but it isn't built to. It does what it does well.

The industry-side of things is not complicated. You can build an anvil, furnace, loom, and buildings such as a lighthouse that increases item drops in an area, and a power plant that boosts the efficiencies of surrounding buildings. Each additional building of the same type that you build costs exponentially more materials, meaning you can spend a good amount of time optimising your production.

You are forced to forage heh for your materials by destroying trees, rocks, slimes, and an ever-expanding list of other resources as you grow your territory by purchasing islands, and purchase 'feats' by levelling up - allowing you to unlock, say, farming.

Inventory management is key in Forager. You have an expandable inventory, which you can increase by crafting backpacks of different levels from the Loom. You also have a hotbar of selectable items & tools. One con I would note that is farily minor is that the hotbar gets cluttered when you unlock all of your rods and tools. Some you hardly use you would like to get rid of, but as of now there doesn't appear a way to do so.

Experience

What I love about Forager is that it was clearly built with passion. Each island you unlock has a gimmick, which may involve things like puzzles, riddles, or activating batteries in particular sequences.

There are dungeons to explore, a museum to complete, and I had a great deal of fun doing the 100% completion of the achievement system on Steam (except for the bank achievement - this takes hours and really sucks!). I find these achievements encouraged me to delve more deeply into the game than I otherwise would have, so I recommend this to all gamers.

With the ability to craft flooring tiles, fences, gates, and ballistae, you can actually spend significant time base-building. You can work to get good efficiencies for your production, build boss/mob farms, and even actual farms. I like that this isn't entirely required for the game, but is an optional thing for those that like to go at their own pace.

In terms of replayability, I would play again, and there are several game modes including "hard" and "one-island challenge" that I would consider playing.

With all that being said, the game isn't very long, sitting at roughly 10-15 hours to 100% if you're really trying. It's not incredibly complicated, and a bit more depth would be welcome.

There is no multiplayer. This is something that irks me a little, as it is the ideal kind of game to have couch-coop for example; it feels like it should have been baked into the pastry.

TL;DR

This game is a decent buy for 20 dollars or under, and excels on handheld consoles.

If you can nab it for under $10, I would consider it a must-have for your library.

Thanks for reading - make sure to check out the completed tag to see other highlighted games in which I have completed all Steam achievements.