Into the Emberlands

[h3]Recommended, but with a big caveat[/h3] I can't recommend the game to anyone getting easily frustrated (like myself). The penalty for failure is too harsh, with no option (be it in the settings or via upgrades in the game) to permanently reduce it, while progress is sluggishly slow (most of the time), and resources don't respawn until you die. You're penalized for exploring much and trying out new discoveries, so you think you need to go slow, play it safe, and go back home all the time (and way sooner than you feel you should have to.) But if you do, you'll soon hit the limit of what you can access/use, so you'll be forced to venture out further, risking losing most of your progress. Ultimately, the best/least frustrating way to play the game would probably be to rush through completing quests, while leaving behind everything you don't have an immediate use for. The exact opposite of what the game seems to encourage you to do. If you can get past that, there's a good chance you'll like the game at least somewhat. There were sections I enjoyed quite a bit, and that's why I ultimately decided to recommend it. In spite of everything, I kinda enjoyed it overall. It's just a shame it's nowhere near as fun as it could be. Besides that, the game also seems it was rushed in the end. I wouldn't call it unfinished - it has a "proper" ending, no missing textures or curtained-off areas that were never developed, no story lines that just abruptly end, etc. Only thing that you'd expect a future patch (that will never come) to fix is one item [spoiler]a metro-card[/spoiler] that has no use in-game, while both the description and the way you obtain it make it seem it'd be pretty useful, and the occasional bug. What makes the game feel rushed is that it's missing most of the "connective tissue" between the game play elements that you'd normally expect out of a game. The story is barebones, and I didn't care one bit about any of the NPCs. Usually, I easily get invested helping even the blandest characters with their most mundane fetch quests, but here, I couldn't connect with anyone. YMMV, but to me, their quests seemed arbitrary, and for the most part, they don't even give you those quests. They just appear on your to-do list. No context, no logical progression from one to the next. You upgrade your town, and boom, you're on a new map with a list of resources you need to collect to give to some NPC (most of whom are never introduced and just appear out of thin air along with their "quests".) Completing some of these quests will give you new buildings, others will upgrade existing buildings or your equipment, some are just needed to progress, with no indication why one is this or one is the other, as there's no story or dialogue connecting these. Also, you're told you need to "save" lost villagers, and, arguably, you do, kinda - you collect them, and they follow you around until you get back to town - but they end up being just another resource you use for completing quests, except they don't clog your limited inventory. A little variety between models, giving them names and a couple of lines of dialogue, etc., would've gone a long way.

A disclaimer: the main source of my frustration is a lack of playtest and polish. I'm horrified to discover this game was actually in Early Access at one point, as this does NOT feel like it got substantial peer review. This game has some clear risk vs reward / strategy elements that seem like they could be quite fun. However your character moves so slowly and there's no map so it's difficult to reference where you've been. There's a lot of backtracking to refill your lantern, which wouldn't be so bad if there was a way to move at LEAST twice as fast. Even if it consumed more flame, honestly I would have played much longer if it wasn't so slow. I didn't get to most of the content because I just had to put it down. The controller support is very poor, there's a number of mechanics that don't seem to work on controller (panning the camera and moving the cursor feel janky, "burning" tools to get emergency flame doesn't work and I resorted to the touchscreen on Deck which caused my character to move and easily could have got me killed!) It's clear Valve has dropped their standards for Deck Verified - yes it looks and runs great but these UX problems are far from minor. The tools break after very limited use - this is part of the clear strategy element - only I SWEAR there was dialog at the start of the game about how "you'll be able to repair your tools" and I did my best to look up if I was just missing something, but it doesn't seem to be the case. So there's these very high risk items you can collect by spending the max wallet, and they have quite a high durability, but the true value in them would be the ability to repair and reuse them, which I thought I was promised but clearly is not in the game. The tutorial portion of the game felt especially bad since it moved so slowly and clearly there was a lot of filler words that implied absent features. So overall, clearly people like it, but with absolutely no updates on the discussion boards or News page from the developers in some time, the bugs and UX trials I encountered are not going to be addressed so if you're on Deck or any controller-based platform I just don't recommend it. Valve should re-consider the Verified badge as well, perhaps that would get the team to push a new update to address these. I may continue playing, but it will be on my desktop, and I have many games I already know I'm more likely to return to before trying to play this again.

Pro: Cute graphics and art style is unique. Con: Game play. Funny: Getting "lost" by dying a single tile away from your camp. Game is more frustrating than fun. Punishing to explore when exploring is literally required to progress. Micro inventory system but requires you to collect and hold a lot of resources. While a fan of rogue-lite, adding that "twist" into this game does not make for a cozy or fun experience. Most frustrating part of gameplay. No way to incrementally progress on a task. Example: Build Shack could require 2 stones, 3 villagers, and 3 woods. You must collect and hold all these resources in your micro inventory (5 slots). If you die before getting all these pieces back to build the shack, you must restart this task all over again. There is no way to drop off resources throughout the task. This is required for all your tasks and each tasks can consist of even more resources than mentioned in the example.

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I honestly didn’t expect Into the Emberlands to be as good as it is. You basically start with nothing and slowly build your way up by exploring, gathering resources, and completing quests. The art style is colorful and cute, but THIS IS NOT a cozy game. You actually have to think strategically when trekking through the miasma because it’s very easy to get yourself stranded or waste resources if you aren’t paying attention. As you keep playing, you unlock upgrades that make exploration easier, along with new characters to play as and pets that follow you around, which made progression feel really rewarding. If you enjoy exploration games and don’t mind a challenge mixed in with the cute visuals, this is honestly a really great game.

8/10 This game is enjoyable once you understand its rules. It has simple mechanics with a limited number of movement points, and while exploring you come across different ways to extend your journey and gather the resources you need. The main thing is not to get greedy and to know your limits. The beginning can be rough: tools are limited, the number of moves is small, and the paths are tough. The game feels like a puzzle, where you try to figure out the most efficient way to collect resources and make it back. By the middle of the game, resources become commonplace — gold can be obtained from almost everything, gold can buy anything you need, and outside the base there are many easy ways to replenish your moves. The game completely shifts from a “puzzle” stage into an “exploration” stage. Once you know a few key rules, you can always return to base safely: - You should always have as many moves left as you spent getting away from the base. - Or build your route through furnaces and other sources of moves, while also keeping track of how many moves you have as resources in your inventory. - Items you do not need right now can be dropped on the ground, including at the base. They will disappear if you upgrade the tower, because the map refreshes. Pros: - Graphics and art style - Unique movement and exploration mechanics. - Procedural terrain generation with a sufficient number of objects. - Variety of zones. - Object RNG: makes it interesting to search for what you need instead of just going in and out. It gives a real explorer vibe. Cons: - Slow character movement speed, especially once travel distances get longer. - Sometimes quests do not show the required resource amounts. - Repeating quests across several stages. - Object RNG: there is no stability or even a guarantee that a zone of a certain size will contain the object you need. It can take a lot of time to find it. - Sometimes tiles invincible, just a visual bug.

first, the game is gorgeous. amazing designs and beautiful environment. the mechanics are pretty interesting. however, there's some points making the game hard to swallow. the game mainly operates on 'high risk high reward' term. the ember steps mechanics are so unforgiving, it made for some stupid ass game over. some layouts perhaps would be nearly impossible because of how limited axes/pickaxes are. inventory system is limited, upgrades are tedious to say the least. maybe we should reconsider playtesting. 4/10

Despite [i]Into the Emberlands[/i] coming out back in January, it's continually stuck with me through the year. It has this great cycle of expansion and exploration, but is continually easy-going despite its sometimes challenging gameplay. A puzzle game and a roguelike at the same time, with a jaunty soundtrack and a really cute visual style. [url=https://entertainium.co/2025/01/29/into-the-emberlands-review/]Read my full review at Entertainium[/url].

I want to like the game but there are no settings to change the difficulty or gameplay, this game is so punishing! - No map - It's difficult to tell where you've been or backtrack back to base - Lose everything on death - Not only do you lose everything you're carrying but if you've upgraded your lantern you lose that progress too. If there were some setting to change what you lose upon death maybe I would've played it more. - Slow Movement - The character moves so slow, it's quite frustrating. - No reward just risk - Is honestly what it feels like. You go out to explore only to realise you have to come back because of your lantern, you have to recharge it or dont have enough steps so you die, and if you did upgrade your lantern thats gone now so it makes exploring hard and tedious and the exploring part IS the game.. Overall - If there were more personlised settings then I would still be playing the game despite my comments on map and movement. The over punishable gameplay is what made me put it down.

This game is fun, colorful and cute, but I have one big problem with it. It's okay that you lose everything when you die, but I don't like how you lose even the lantern/coin/crystals progress. I get that it makes the game more challenging, but as a cozy player, a setting that lets me keep those would be amazing. Everytime I realize I'm not going to make it back and I know I'll lose the progress, I get really frustrated, turn off the game, uninstall it and return to it once every three months when I remember I have it. Overall, the game is still pretty fun to play. The progress sometimes feels slow but that's mainly because of what I said earlier. Either way, I'd recommend it <3