Like most survival-crafting games, "Len's Island" starts players off with few resources, basic instructions and not much else.
Character creation is basic: origin, clothing style and colors, hairstyle -- and no shoes allowed, for some reason.
When you're finished setting up your character, you'll find yourself on a beach, next to a raft with a bedroll and toolbox. Unlike some games, "Len's Island" does start players off with simple tools, including a machete, pickax and hand ax, so you don't have to pick up sticks or punch trees to death to get started.
The first-day basics are straightforward — start with gathering materials such as wood, stone, clay and fiber. Also look around shorelines for washed-up barrels containing salvaged metal and pick up discarded bottles on beaches for glass. The salvaged metal is used to unlock new tools, weapons and building pieces.
And then you just build a house. The controls are fairly easy to grasp, and there isn't a ton of variety, but more options can be unlocked, and I imagine future updates will include a lot more building options.
The game can be saved by using a bed or the raft's bedroll, which can also advance time to skip nighttime, if you prefer to play during the day.
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Unlike the situation in many games, enemies don't attack at night. Above ground on the main island is completely safe. That's always a concern in some games, especially when you have to worry about enemies destroying your handiwork if you just need to step away from the keyboard (aka AFK) for a few minutes.
At a glance, "Len's Island" looks like a stripped-down version of "Valheim," with the Unity engine-based, cartoony, minimalist graphics that are seemingly ubiquitous across game development these days. That said, Australia-based Flow Studio has developed this game mainly with just a two-person team, and it looks fine enough.
While exploring to collect resources, players will also notice some broken down bridges that can be repaired. One will lead to a town, complete with a number of vendors. There, basic resources can be sold for coins, and coins can be used to buy equipment, such as upgraded weapons. This also seems to mean that you are not trapped on the island, despite the makeshift raft that brought your character there. I'm not sure why we don't just leave the island and go live in a place where people wear shoes, but I guess now we're survivalists by choice rather than necessity.
The "Stardew Valley"-like peaceful crafting and trading with townsfolk are just part of the game, however. There's also a cave on the island, and that's where the rarer resources can be found, such as coal and metal shards, which are used for advanced crafting. Unlike the security on the surface, going into the caves turns "Len's Island" into a proper dungeon explorer. Using a variety of weapons, a shield and the standard dodge-roll to avoid attacks, your character will fight off shadowy creatures that drop something called dark essence when killed.
At first the enemies are small and easily defeated, but then they grow larger and more numerous, with nests spawning creatures, and they will relentlessly pursue your character. Once the coast is clear, then mining of ore lodes will take place.
Go deep enough and you'll find traps, even rarer crafting materials, alternate entrances and even boss encounters.
From there it's sort of just playing how you want, whether it's creating a beautiful mansion and farm or delving deeper into the cave, or both. The farms are pretty essential, as a farm will be the main source of food. Early in the game, you'll find enough food to avoid starving by hacking some blueberry bushes, but cramming enough food into your gullet to make a Hobbit choke is also how mid-combat healing works, so you'll want lots of food.
"Len's Island" just entered Early Access around Thanksgiving, so while the version available right now is fairly polished for what's available, it's still early in the development cycle. You can expect more content to be added over time, along with frequent patches and bug fixes.
I think "Len's Island" will appeal to people who like games like "Breath of the Wild," "Valheim" and "Stardew Valley," especially if they lean on the more casual side of playing games. The map is not procedurally generated — it's a static island, and static dungeon area, and much smaller than the giant maps in games like "Minecraft" or "Valheim," but it's still packed full of fun.
‘Len’s Island’
(Early Access)
Platform: Steam for PC and Mac
Cost: $24.99
Rating: Ages 10+
Score: 7 out of 10