Escape From Urban Life - Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I take a closer look at Animal Crossing New Horizons, the new stop of those who are overwhelmed by city life and lost in this mess.

Pros

+ An endless game time

+ Time and season cycle

+ Resource gathering and Craft system

+ Colorful and living characters

+ A world where you can express your creativity

Cons

- Load times are long

- Recurring missions

Game Type

Family Game, Role Playing Game, Simulation

I am completely overwhelmed by the city life. Almost like many people who experience this crisis, I want to start a life with nature, where I can rest my head or everything is perhaps simpler. Fortunately, I found a good agency in this area recently. It is really difficult to be such an agency, but it seems that they will help me a lot in setting sail for this new life. I have made up my mind, packed my suitcase and set out to get rid of this city crowd and chaos.

This place where I will start my new life is a little desolate. It doesn't seem like much except fruit trees and streams where I can fish. If we don't count the agency officials, there are only two other people with me. At least I am glad that I will not be alone in the adjustment process. Although I will stay in a simple tent for a while, these conditions cannot turn me back from my decision.

My first days on the island pass a little calm. I eat what I gather from the fruit trees, fish and try to help the people of the island to feed my stomach. Tom Nook, the owner of the agency, even says that if I take the necessary steps, I will have my own home. I have to spend almost 100,000 Bells to have a roof over my head, and I only have 100 Bells in my pocket. Fortunately, I can get my work paid off here, even having my own house excites me. I sell the fruits, fish, and beetles I collect and continue to save money. Those who came with me are also very hard working, and they have already started on almost equal terms and entered into house debt.

While I am saving money on the one hand, I am trying to help the people of the island on the other hand. It is said that if I collect some more insects, fish or collect the fossils around, even a museum will open to the island. After all, this will be the place where I will spend my life. No matter how much I borrowed money, there is nothing like your own home. Moreover, I can decorate as I wish. If I wish, I can make a big double path in front of the house or even plant fences that will define my garden borders. But first I have to look around and pay the house debt. Could I have more space if I cut down those trees?

Yes, these are just a few of the events that happened only in the first hours of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In short, your first days in your new life are almost like this. As you may notice, this production, which we get away from the city chaos and classic games with guns, starts quite simply. But after a short while, you begin to realize that you are actually trying to shape the life you are trying to escape from and that you are starting to pursue much better items. Although there is a lot of discussion about the game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a very simple game, although it contains a lot of details in its subtext. What matters is the great freedom it offers you in this game where you go into debt and gradually evolves towards imperialism.

Animal Crossing is a production that has managed to isolate itself from other games. It offers real-time gameplay just like the first game of the series. In fact, the main logic and bone structure of the game has always been kept the same. The real time phenomenon is very important at this point. In other words, whatever time it is, what day of the month, you live in the same time zone in the game. If you get into the game at night, you will dive into the course of the shining stars in the sky, and you can witness the sunrise at dawn with other island residents. Or you see the trees bloom in the early spring months. As a matter of fact, in these days when I am writing the review of the game, that is, with the arrival of spring, every part of the island has become colorful.

This time phenomenon is very important. Because, depending on the time phenomenon in the game, both the ecology changes and you witness how different the things to do can differ. All kinds of fish, butterflies, and insects always have a different time and season. Likewise, you can see how different events can occur on the island depending on whether you enter day or night. In fact, although your daily activities in Animal Crossing do not take much of your time, the presence of your island and neighboring relationships always force you to look at the game. In a way, we can say that these facts are connecting you to your island. Even at midnight, you start to take the console in your hands by saying "Oh wait, let's see what I will encounter." Or "I wonder if somebody came to the man, how will Tom Nook make an announcement this time, I was in debt to expand the house, what happened to that business, should we go out here? As you grapple with the questions, you always start to imagine yourself on that island. In short, I can say that as you continue your life, you start to realize that you have a separate life in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

There are tons of things to do on the island. To do these, you need to collect the necessary materials around. Even though Tom Nook and his team, who fall on you like a loan shark at some moments, come to your aid, you are always the key point. Your adventure on this island, which started with a small tent in the first place, soon turns into a huge town. You have neighbors, a market is opened on the island, and you even have a huge museum as I said before. Exhibiting the creatures and fossils you have caught or donated by finding in this museum begins to make you proud. By the way, when you say museum, don't think of anything small. In Animal Crossing, although it looks small from the outside because the laws of physics and reality work a little differently, when you enter it, you encounter a huge museum divided into three sections.

The craft system has also formed the backbone of the game. You apply to the craft system for tools such as fishing rods, axes, shovels, and tools that help you in daily use, as well as to reveal all these items. At the beginning of the game, the number of items in the game increases so much while chasing fish, fruit or branches at the beginning of the game, the scale of this development brings with it the change on the island. In fact, with the changes you will make on the soil in the later stages, the phenomenon of "This island is mine and will be whatever I want".

Of course, you can travel to different islands and even to other players' islands to improve the order on the island. For example, at the beginning of the game, my man had only cherry trees. Together with other players and island visits, I was able to plant peaches, apples, and even coconut trees on the island. Likewise, it is possible to communicate with both NPC characters and other players. You can invite them to your island, offer them the fruits you collect, show off with the fossils you collect in the museum, or enjoy the moonlight by the fire together. By the way, radish is incredibly valuable friends. You can witness that radishes sold at higher prices on some days of the week even fall into the black market over time. By the way, each NPC has a different personality and you need to be in constant contact with them. My favorite is Blathers, the museum director. As I have just mentioned, Blathers is a very knowledgeable brother that you can collect and take away all fossils and insects. Although he often falls asleep, the information he gives about the insects, fossils or butterflies you have collected reveals how educational the game is.

Animal Crossing New Horizons has a very cute structure visually. The colorful characters and the feeling of a living world are among my favorite points of the game on this subject. In the game where animals gain personality, you can customize your character if you wish and at the same time, you can witness how much the island can change. Of course, there are many static events in the game, but the island life and the dynamism of ecology have come to the fore. While there are so many features in the game, you can encounter the same scenes and dialogues when you do them over and over again. Actually, this is not a minus for me, as Animal Crossing has never been a game in a hurry. However, I can't help but say that the loading times bothered me. OK Switch's limits are clear, but in a game with these visuals, I would expect shorter loading times, even if it works in real time.

As a result, Animal Crossing New Horizons is a must-have game for every Switch owner. Of course action is awaiting and if you are passionate about this genre, the game may disappoint you. If you ignore this, I can say that an endless game is waiting for you. There are so many topics to tell and talk about the game, such as Nook Miles, the gift system, and online infrastructure, that words really are not enough to describe them all. As I said, Animal Crossing is a game that is not in a hurry and it opens the doors of a brand new life for you. You can not prevent yourself from entering the basement through this door, so to speak.