If the 2010s gaming scene was shaped by the challenging, git gud scrub titles of FromSoftware and their ilk then the rise of the cozy genre in the 2020s feels like the natural reaction to it. To be sure there’s a lot to be enjoyed in overcoming a challenge that’s deliberately designed to be punishing but the opposite side of that coin has demonstrated there’s still much to enjoy without much of that high-intensity interaction. Perhaps it’s also a sign of the times, what with the world being what it is right now, and so we all start to tend towards things that don’t drain what little mental bandwidth we have left. Which is why A Game About Chopping Trees feels like the right kind of game for today’s zeitgeist as it’s simple, incremental and completely unbothered with pushing you to get anywhere. This world is yours to explore at your own place.
It will come as little surprise as to what this particular game is about. You’re a lumberjack sent out to a remote idyllic island and set to work clearing out every tree so you can ship cut lumber back to the mainland. At the beginning you’re only given an axe and a hut with a basic sawmill, enough for you to start your deforestation quest at a very moderate pace. Each log you bring back will grant you a small amount of cash though and you’ll quickly be able to upgrade your kit making each trip back into the forest more profitable. So the core game loop goes until you’ve clear cut a particular forest at which point the next one will unlock.
The stylized realism of AGACT fits the bill perfectly as it allows sufficient visual detail without everything getting too busy or messy. It’s a tried and true art style that brings back memories of the early indie days when investing in more realistic models and texturing was an expense that most indie studios couldn’t afford. This simplicity extends to other things which you don’t really notice until you look for them like the lack of a day/night cycle, weather and other things that are usually commonplace. I don’t see this as a negative though, it’s a sign that the devs knew what they needed to focus on rather than trying to add in a bunch of things just because they “needed” to.
If you’re wired like me it doesn’t take long for this game to go from being a relaxing, incremental progress based simulation game to an optimisation puzzle that must be solved generally. Now I know that’s kind of running counter to my opening remarks about the cozy/casual genres and their raison d’être but it’s one of the activities that’s been proven to calm my monkey brain way the heck down. So each upgrade is compared against my current throughput, what’s stopping me from bringing back more logs per run and what the best farming pattern would be in order to clear a particular area the quickest. Whilst I’m happy to report that there seems to be a clear solution it’s by no means something you have to do. Just chopping trees until you can’t anymore and going back is just as valid of strategy.
What worked best for me was running to the farthest point of the forest, looking back towards the cart/shack and felling the trees in that direction. That meant it was easy enough to figure out where the logs should be when they fall and each successive run back became shorter and shorter. That last part was key in longer sessions as the walking back with logs was by far the most boring part for me so feeling that time get shorter with every successive run gave me that small dopamine hit to keep going. At one point you’ll start to be able to cut more logs than you can get back in one trip so you’ll usually end up making a big stack somewhere to come back and pilfer later which becomes incredibly satisfying when you can do a full load without any felling.
Progression comes at a good pace, enough that you don’t feel too far away from improving something but also not rapidly enough that you’re forever going back to the upgrade table for a barely noticeable upgrade. You’ll get a good feel for which upgrades are going to be best for you pretty quickly and all of them (bar one) are pretty noticeable when you get them. The Quality of Life upgrade was the only one I couldn’t really understand as most of the time the stack you’d acquired would be fully depleted by the time you got back for the next one. Of course if you’re optimising for throughput, like you could once you transition past just felling and start cultivating a forest you plant yourself, then maybe it makes more sense but for the way I played it wasn’t worth putting any money into.
I’ve yet to play AGACT with a friend but there’s little doubt in my mind that’s very well suited to it. The objectives, progression and mechanics all translate well to co-op play and my only gripe would be that it appears to be limited to 2 players and is online only. More players and a couch co-op mode would be an amazing addition and doesn’t seem to far of left field for what the devs have already implemented.
A Game About Chopping Trees is one of those rare gems that does exactly what it says on the tin without any extraneous fluff. The core game loop is as meditative or intense as you want it, being quite at home in the hands of either a ruthless optimiser or someone who simply wants to hear the rhythmic thud of an axe against a tree. Progression is steady and measured ensuring that you never feel like you’re stuck on the upgrade treadmill for too long. Really all that’s lacking is a bit more work on the co-op side to make it a staple couch game for the whole family.
Rating: 8.0/10
A Game About Chopping Tress is available on PC right now for $11.50. Total playtime was 2.8 hours with 50% of the achievements unlocked.
