Cozy Grove Review

 The first time I saw Cozy Grove on Steam I was instantly enamoured. The game's graphics have a Don't Starve feel to them, and the way the world gets lit up as you interact with it is something that I was particularly in love with.

The game's setting is a small island named Cozy Grove, in which you, a Spirit Scout, are tasked with appeasing all of the restless souls in the land. You are immediately introduced to several characters on Cozy Grove, and allowed to play a lot on your first day.

Every time you help a resident, they will give you an item called a Spirit Log, which you can feed to Flamey—your campfire companion—to expand the island. Each time you feed it, more logs are required, and this is how the game time gates the gameplay.

On subsequent days, everything slows down. Not every favour that you do for the bears will reward you with a log, and generally receiving less tasks means you will only be able to play about an hour per real-time day. However, this isn't a bad thing at all.

The slow way Cozy Grove plays is something you either hate or love and depending on which side you fall on, the game will definitely enchant you or not. You are expected to log in every day and be able to help the animals. Each day, the vendor Kit will restock things and you will be able to decorate the island.

Unfortunately, the island does change every day, which does have its pros and cons. On one hand, the constantly changing island allows for more exploration and new ways that the world looks, but on the other, doing so completely takes away the point of decorating for your animal friends because your decorations will stop being relevant the next morning.

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, however, and the way the game colours the world to show what parts are lit up makes for a very interesting style that I haven't seen anywhere else, and being able to slowly bring light to the island is rewarding. Knowing that you're progressing toward making the island bright and pretty really adds even more to feel accomplished for.

Not to forget of course the absolutely gorgeous soundtracks that play in the background. There are three that loop, and at first I wasn't entirely convinced by them. However, the more I listen to them, the more charmed I am, to the point of looking forward to some of them.

The gameplay is everything you'd expect it to be. You are quickly taught how to fish, with some of the most forgiving mechanics I've seen in gaming that I deeply appreciated, finally making fishing a lot more relaxing rather than stressing that you will miss a rare fish, and you are allowed to run around picking up stuff. I didn't know this at first—despite it being there in the tags for the game—but Cozy Grove plays like a hidden objects game, but in more of an isometric setting. You'll often be asked to run around looking for items that the characters lost and need you to recover. The colourless areas make finding different items a lot more difficult because it will blend in really well with the environment, giving a good reason to light up your entire island. I couldn't tell you how many times I completely missed an item because of its decolouration.

The hidden object aspect of the game is fun. It encourages exploration and you can be doing other stuff throughout your day while looking, such as fishing, picking up little shells along the floor, and digging up some holes. And best of all, the game will give you a hint as to where the item is, and if you're really stumped, you can ask one of the characters where the item is and they will guide you straight to it - meaning that you never have to search for too long if you don't want to.

The characters in the game can be nice, although not all of them I would particularly call memorable, but none of them are so horrendous that it repels interaction. I just wish the characters had a bit more personality to them aside from their quirks and had more of a lovable nature. I do love me some flawed characters, don't misunderstand me, but when it comes to relaxing games where a big part of your gameplay revolves around talking to them, I prefer lovable over quirky.

Overall, the game is an absolute joy to play. The very few flaws that it has are nothing in comparison to the peace Cozy Grove brings to my mornings, and it's something my wife and I actively look forward to every day. It's an absolute must for anyone that doesn't mind games time-gating content and loves relaxing life simulators.