von Freedom, whether through travel or starting your own enterprise, is a common ambition and dream. In Townseek, you can do both in an incredibly cute world inhabited by a variety of humanoid characters based on sharks, cats, bunnies and many more. However, this game is more than just its aesthetics: a fun and rewarding gameplay loop underpins the whole experience.
While the term “cozy” gets used a lot to describe these sorts of games, it is incredibly fitting for Townseek. From the art style, reminiscent of a hand-drawn storybook, to the calming piano music in the background, the whole game feels like a comfy bedtime story.
The story itself is simple. A long time ago, a shark named Sir Reginald discovered a new mineral he named Sharknite, which allowed for airships and enabled sharks to walk out of water. He kept a journal, but over the years, the pages were lost. One of his descendants, Capt. Jawline, sends you out to collect those pages, which means communicating a lot with neighboring towns.
The simple story belies its simple gameplay loop. You fly an airship around, discovering landmarks and visiting towns. Flying around is a joy. The artwork and animations are gorgeous, and the soundtrack is soothing as you travel. Furthermore, the places you visit, whether towns or landmarks, are creative and cute, ranging from a waterfall of acrylics to a cave of bodybuilding bunnies. The towns, though, are where you will spend most of your time.
In these towns, you have three main options. The first is quests. Usually, these involve delivering goods, dropping people off at a landmark or collecting something. Completing quests rewards you with money and experience, which can level up the town and unlock more quest options as well as more goods to buy. This is also the main way you progress the story.
Second is the mercantile aspect. Each town has its own inventory, ranging from comfy sweaters to fridge magnets to pretzels. These towns also have somewhat dynamic pricing based on what they produce, need and want, which makes prices rise and fall. These factors are different for each town and allow for optimization if you want to get the most bang for your buck.
However, even without optimizing every purchase and sale, I found that money was never really a problem once I got going — as long as I completed quests and did not make intentionally bad trades. Different regions do use different currencies, though, so there are small soft resets baked into the economy. Depending on your temperament and how easy it is to get up and running, this could lead to some frustration.
The last thing to do in each town is talk with the host. This is where you learn more about the characters, the towns and their relationships. It is also where you can gather additional information that may help with optimizing your buying and selling.
While buying and selling is the main gameplay mechanic, there are a variety of other things to do, including taking pictures, fishing, mining and digging. None of these activities were particularly complex, but they were fun and added to the game without becoming a problem or taking away from the enjoyment.
Furthermore, it is simply enjoyable to fly around. You can customize your airship and stumble upon different things to collect, whether they are found in flying crates or shooting stars that have crashed into the ground.
Townseek was by far the game that pleasantly surprised me the most. While I was initially drawn in by the artwork, the core gameplay loop is what kept me interested. The idea of going from town to town to buy and sell goods may seem simple, but there are enough extra elements that it never becomes monotonous. Between the artwork and the music, every second spent in the world was enjoyable. It is the only game I kept thinking about returning to for my own enjoyment, and I even took pictures to send to friends of cute little details throughout.
Ultimately, Townseek will stand or fall based on whether its gameplay mechanics are deep and varied enough to last throughout the full playtime. However, during the short playtime of the demo, whether because of the gameplay loop itself or the combination of the overall aesthetic, I never found myself bored or wanting something else.
Townseek quickly went from a game I knew nothing about to one I am looking forward to seeing fully released. I highly recommend that anyone who is unsure at least try out the adventure while it is still a free, bite-sized journey, to see whether they want to invest in the full venture when it releases.
Demo Deep Dive is a series looking at upcoming games through available demos, giving impressions on everything from aesthetics and sound to, most importantly, how they play. Hopefully, you find this series enjoyable, informative and ultimately helpful — both to inform you about games and to promote titles that you may otherwise not have heard of.
This demo for Townseek is available until September 30 via the ID@Xbox Xbox Selects Demo Fest.
Image: Pexels
