Ophelia Payne

I recently had the opportunity to play an early proof-of-concept demo of Hawthorn. This game has intrigued me since I first saw it announced and not just because of its adorable anthropomorphic animals and fairy creatures, but also because its developers, NEARStudios, is made up of former developers from Bethesda, BioWare and Naughty Dog. This is quite the legacy of talent.

Open-world sandbox RPGs are nothing new, and it’s a genre I enjoy, but what if you could play as an adorable mouse, owl, or otter? You live in a town called Windermere, near a lake. You can play Hawthorn solo or co-op with a friend, and I played the demo entirely solo.

I played as an owl, so I will talk about my experiences with that animal only. Starting out, you can create your character using a few sliders to determine height, girth, and colour. Then you can pick a few traits. The first one is free, but if you choose additional traits, they also come with a negative as well. For example, if you pick the ability to run faster, you may have to hobble. I only picked a few traits, including some extra health, since I wasn’t sure what to expect in the game. Each animal selection has unique abilities. Otters and mice have “hands.” Otters can swim well and catch fish. And owls can fly and carry a friend. Oh, and you can dress your character up with tiny hats, adorable. You can also tame and have snails as pets.

Being tossed into the game, you’re not really given much in the way of a tutorial, and I spent some time seeing what each of the buttons on my XBOX controller did before meeting with the first NPC I encountered. You will meet quite a few NPCs in the demo, and each will have a task to give you, including building a fire and setting up a table for a feast. You will have some help from your NPC friends when it comes to gathering materials and food, so you are never truly on your own. I found it adorable to see these creatures scampering around, gathering twigs, stones, and food items on my screen.

I loved that each character had a speech bubble that included their name and a font that was unique to them. I loved getting to know the new friends who lived in the town, and that you could have your own home in the game, as well as homes for your friends. I can’t wait to find out more about the story. Dialogue options gave an indication that you can have a unique personality as well. There were choices that were kind, mean and sarcastic from what I saw.

The demo played smoothly, flying was easy (catching fish not so much for me) and placing items and building was intuitive. Even without a tutorial, it seemed easy to figure out what to do.

Some things were missing from the demo that I am assuming will be available in the full game, like a mini-map. I also didn’t love that when building, you had to click on an item each time you wanted to use it. Need 6 sticks? Click 6 times. It would be nice if you could transfer all at once when building.

I will reiterate again, this is a proof-of-concept demo, meaning there isn’t a lot for me to comment on, but if this demo is any indication of what Hawthorn will be at launch, I’m excited for it.

Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.

**Special Thanks to NEARStudios and Press Engine for the review code**