Recently, I gained an appreciation for survival games. After my brother in law introduced me to Sons of the Forest. And now, I found myself trying to find another survival game to add into the mix. Especially a base building survival game with AI teammate bots. Does State of Decay 2 count as a survival game?
Aska – a survival game with AI bots
After searching and searching, through numerous survival games. I finally found another survival game that tickles my fancy (do people still say that?) – Aska, released on Jun 20, 2024. The game was developed by Sand Sailor Studio.
Their Steam page description for Aska says, “A new Viking age dawns with you at its helm. Forge a thriving colony from nothing in this mythic open-world survival sim…” And so far, from what I have seen, the game is definitely worth a try. It suits my niche of needs, as a gamer who enjoys have bot teammates. And, a single player mode that’s playable offline. No internet needed.
What players think of Aska’s bots
As I dug through the Steam reviews, and comments from other players. I noticed that the general consensus seems to be – the AI villagers are good, but… only to a certain point.
Some see that a flaw or some kind of shortcoming, but I see it as a micromanagement challenge.
Now, don’t get me the AI villagers are useful (especially the first one whom you get). You can feel the change, as you assign them with jobs to do. And, they even have a way of alerting you when the resources they need are depleted.
Conclusion on Aska
After playing Aska for 100 hours, one player had this to say, “Villager AI becomes increasingly problematic the more villagers you summon. After switching to Iron, and wanting to recycle iron parts, you come to realize no matter how many iron part collectors you place around your village that the villagers never deposit them inside. Even with a warehouse worker and a built broken parts collector.”
Nevertheless, I am personally very happy to find a survival game that has AI bot servants/villagers. To dend around and do some of the more mundane tasks.
Well done Sand Sailor Studio! Bravo!
