DRAKE HOLLOW

The Molasses Flood takes us hand-in-hand through its plant life

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is at the heart of every survival game. Here, however, the bottom tier of the pyramid gets a long-overdue shake-up. To food, water, warmth and rest, you can add yoga balls and creepy dolls. And yes, these do count as essentials in a world where characters can literally die of boredom.

Then again, Drake Hollow isn’t really a conventional survival game. It’s not your own well-being you need to worry about; rather, it’s that of the titular plant creatures, who represent your ticket out of a world you’ve basically been tricked into saving. Once you’ve unearthed them in the wild, the Drakes come to live in a village of your own making. It starts as a small plot, where you’ll place down thatch mats as makeshift beds, alongside food and juice boxes to keep your little helpers fed and watered while you scavenge supplies and schematics to build proper beds, planters, and a well.

It’s a response of sorts to The Molasses Flood’s debut, The Flame In The Flood, whose exacting systems didn’t give you much chance to properly enjoy its gorgeous world. “We wanted to give the player an opportunity to build more, in a more expressive way,” creative director Forrest Dowling tells us. “I wanted to try moving away from the oppressiveness of a survival game: there’s a tension that’s cool, but it’s not the only thing I want to explore.”