Green Hell Early Access teases potential, but only if it can deliver with the full game.
Bonus points, if you immediately thought Green Hell is a play on Green Inferno which is a great cult movie everyone should see at some point. And if I’m right about that title then this game will have cannibalism at some point.
Creepy Jar’s Green Hell released with a teaser on Steam of the closely watched game this August. With only the Survival or Challenge modes active, I decide to try my hand at Survival on Normal. It looks fantastic and plays within the environment just as smoothly in any setting.
The game begins with Mia and Jack (your main) arriving in the Amazon and set up camp in previous digs. Your objective for the trip is to rekindle relations with a newly discovered tribe. A book that Jack published in the past about the tribe had brought unwanted attention from the Government. Which is why you’re seeking to make amends. This somehow doesn’t seem too far a stretch from real world expeditions doing the same. However, rummaging around camp notes are leading me to believe there’s more to just “reuniting with the tribe”.
The tutorial phase brings out a few key aspects other predecessors to the genre have done before. Grab that thing, now harvest this thing, and craft that thing. Nothing truly groundbreaking but add in the many real-world scenarios of Amazonian nature and you have a slew of problems to deal with. That is where this game really shines through.
You’re equipped with a backpack that does come with a limit for harvested items. It also doubles as crafting table for weapons, medicine, and other needed goods.
The radial dial for inspection allows the player to look at both arms and legs for any injuries that might have happened. The notebook updates when a new detail comes into play such as making a bed or getting rid of leeches.
As you run around, Jake’s watch will alert to lacking protein, fruit, water, and meat. It even navigates as a compass and tells the time when cycling through roles with the wheel of your mouse. That’s right, you must maintain a healthy eating regiment on top of watching for wounds, sleeping enough and fending off the local wild men.
As an experiment, I let Jake drink the water without boiling it over a camp fire. Instant parasites.
Next, I let him stay up well beyond the allotted time and he passed out! Passed out, like a normal sleep deprived human would with a severe hangover. I also noticed the longer you went without eating or drinking properly the less stamina there was to swing that stone axe or shoot that arrow.
Did I mention that there’s a little hysteria feature as well?
Good ol’ Jake is slowly losing his mind when dehydrated too much. You can hear voices of people arguing about some things and Jake yelling back. Nice added touches like this reminded me of Don’t Starve.
So, Green Hell intends on making players think about what tasks should be priority as well as monitor health levels. M’kay, borrowing from the current wheel of things that work in survival games is cool. But, I would love to see what Creepy Jar does to make it more their own flavor.
While this is an early release, I’m curious to see what the story itself will be like so there’s a better grasp of where the game will lead. Personally, I see a lot of potential for in-game events and unique challenges to add this play style.
I’d also like to be able to adjust controls later as this go around doesn’t allow it for some reason.
Also, kill the bird screeches. They were cute for the first half, not so much later.
Give me more weapons, a wider assortment of gear crafting, and advanced trappings on the official release so I can spend hours trying to trap a leopard for my new jungle fashion.
