Forager is a unique idle game that takes you onto an ever-changing island full of things to do.
As the forager, you start off on a pretty blank island, mining rocks and cutting down trees. Soon, you’ll fill your inventory and be able to start building various structures like furnaces and windmills. Doing this allows you to take raw items and transform them into new creations.
Building things isn’t all there is to do. As you harvest resources, you’ll gain XP, which levels up your character. Each new level allows you to purchase a skill from the skill tree, adding depth and uniqueness to how you play. You can follow the finance route, becoming a capitalist, or become a farmer with a vast knowledge of cooking. There is the option to explore the magical realm through unlocking fairies if you wish, too.
Apart from increasing skills, which unlocks new items to craft, most of your time will be spent on your island harvesting whatever pops up. As time passes, you’ll find new things like animals appearing. There is always the option to purchase more land as well, although you cannot really see what’s on the islands you’re purchasing, so each one contains a new surprise. Dangerous bull-like creatures were waiting on one island, while another had a fountain requesting a thousand coins in exchange for something magical.
Nothing explains what’s going on with these new introductions of creatures, which I feel adds to the gameplay of Forager. You very much need to figure out what you want to do – destroy the giant talking turnips or keep them around. Will something bad happen? Only one way to find out!
There are monsters within the game, mainly slimes at first, which can be easily killed with your pickaxe. Your lives, of which you have three, slowly come back. Energy, which allows you to do most things in the game, can be replenished with food. And… that’s it! It’s mostly exploring, discovering, and building the world you want to live in.
Despite being labeled as an idle game, I’ve never stopped when playing Forager. There are always some more items to collect, something to smelt, something to plant – anything to keep you working on your islands. With the amount of other objects and creatures popping up, there is always something to discover. This bit of discovering and figuring out what to do is a big part of the joy I find in Forager, and in my mind, makes it unlike any other idle game I’ve played.
Forager is available now on the Humble Store, GOG, and Steam.
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