Nested Lands Preview - Plague Centered Survival Builder

Nested Lands is a new title from 1M Bits Horde that's heading to open alpha. Nested Lands is set during the medieval ages while a plague spreads across the world. As a survival game enthusiast, I was excited to try it out, especially with the focus on the plague adding a new challenge I've never had to face. After diving in, I can safely say that I'm going to be watching Nested Lands as it continues to develop and is one fans of the genre should keep an eye on.

Nested Lands gameplay features a melding of village management and survival genres set in the aftermath of the Death Plague, though you can still contract the disease if you're not careful. You crash land on the small island of Norovellir and are aided by the only survivor of a small village. Your goal, the one your parents dreamed of, is to establish a thriving village in your homeland. Bandits are rife in the area, as are Plague Sites, making the safety and longevity of a village questionable. 

Thankfully, there are many wanderers to be found on the island that are willing to work in exchange for a place to live, food, and water. One house can hold a single villager, and they can be assigned to specific tasks or crafting stations. This is where my biggest issue with Nested Lands currently lies. The autonomy, which is being tested in the next alpha phase, is quite limited. While you can make a villager a blacksmith, they won't make ingots on their own. They will make nails once there are ingots, but won't make armor for you, even if all the materials are available. There's no way to ask them to craft specific items, so they often end up idle due to lack of materials, or only craft one type of item endlessly. Compared with titles like Aska, the villagers need some work.

On the other hand, I enjoyed exploring the island and discovering pieces of history. The first of these comes at the beginning of the alpha when you're shown the cemetery. There's an odd tree growing there, with some sort of skull placed in front of it, almost ceremoniously. Some other locations I discovered while exploring were deep mines and plague sites that needed to be cleared out. Most contain letters pertaining to the general story, or personal notes that were left behind.

Being an alpha test, the little tidbits of lore littered around the island give credence to the bigger story the team is developing. That's the part I'm most excited to watch get fleshed out. Who are the people that previously inhabited the area and what is their connection to the unusual trees you can stumble upon? What other secrets are hidden across the rest of Norovellir?

The available content is a little sparse, with only one residential house and under 10 crafting, wellness, and defense structures able to be built. However, you can build your village to its limits, adding as many of these buildings as you want. The alpha doesn't necessarily end when you reach the conclusion of the main questline. You can continue to explore, kill bandits, and avoid the plague for as long as you want.

More structures are going to be added in later stages of game development, as noted at the beginning of the game when you first load in. Specifically, a cookhouse is mentioned by one of the characters, though it's not shown as something you can construct. Official screenshots also show a medical building, different than the one you can build in game, so we can expect that to come in the future, as well. 

Along with the village management aspects of Nested Lands, it has basic survival mechanics like needing to eat, drink water, stay warm, and sleep regularly. Additionally, you need to keep clean to help stave off the plague. Characters, including yours, will remark when you smell bad, even stating something smells like it's rotting. Swimming in any body of water or using the bathhouse are easy ways to remain bacteria free. This reduces the chance of you getting sick or your villagers spreading disease around. 

The best thing about the experience is knowing that Nested Lands feedback is getting looked at, especially on how to improve crafting and skills. You can directly impact how the game advances, which skills need tweaking and what ones are good as is. The open alpha is specifically looking at autonomy of villagers and how expansive villages can become, so all feedback on how those work will be extremely important for this test. I know I already sent in my opinion on the village management aspect of the title. 

The alpha phase of Nested Lands has intrigued me enough to keep an eye on its development and want to continue my journey in Norovellir when additions are introduced to the game. It has staple survival mechanics along with village building and management. The inclusion of the plague and specific actions necessary to keep it at bay add a unique twist without over complicating things. How does this plague further hinder your chances of survival as your village grows is something I can't wait to experience. I'm excited to see where 1M Bits Horde takes Nested Lands in the future. 

Nested Lands was previewed on PC with a code provided by 1M Bits Horde and META Publishing over 11 hours. Screenshots were obtained during the course of the preview.