There was a point in Towers of Aghasba, the new open-world survival crafting title from Moonlit Games, where I couldn’t access my stash and thus couldn’t make the required tools for continuing my tortured exploration. Exasperated at trying to scrounge around Midhaven to find things like fibre and wood, I got on my mount and returned to the bridge to my initial farming village, Laila. The portals weren’t set up, so returning to do so and bridging the two locations would be beneficial.

And off we went, sprinting continuously, through darkness and eventually early morning, crossing the genuinely impressive bridge that I crafted earlier with wood, rope, thatch and, for some reason, a single meat skewer. I saw a villager with an icon over their head off to the side, and, like a flipping idiot, I stopped to check if they had a quest.

Due to the makeup of the bridge in that particular spot, I fell through into the water, where I ran out of stamina from swimming and died. The game then respawned me back at Midhaven to start this journey again, an emotional ordeal that could only be described, as author Harlan Ellison so eloquently put it, as “I have no mouth and want to scream.”

"At the start, the game’s overall personality and cast are endearing, whether it’s Culkin and his terrible jokes, Ajit who delegates everything to you and takes all the credit, or that one woman who exclaims “Shimu Shima” as a blessing for, well, everything."

Another incident involved climbing a scuttled ship in a ruined boatyard. Relics told of my Shima ancestors attempting to flee something but failing and ending up frozen in stone. The sight was quite arresting, so I figured there was something worth checking out in these ships. There wasn’t, naturally, and I ran out of stamina while climbing on one and fell into the water, but instead of dying immediately, the game softlocked.

Upon closing the executable from the desktop and restarting, I was back at the shipyard with half health instead of Midhaven. These are but two examples in a long list of reasons why I loathe playing this game in its current state, and how an intriguing premise and gorgeous world are ultimately wasted on busy work that feels like it contributes next to nothing.

For the uninitiated, Towers of Aghasba was announced last year for PS5 and PC and immediately made an impression with its visuals and art direction. The prospect of the game also sounds inviting, as play a junior architect of the Shimu tribe making its return to Aghasba, their homeland. A Withered Eruption rendered a significant portion of the landscape uninhabitable while various Withered Nests and creatures roam about. You rebuild Midhaven, the apparent capital of the Shimu, but also re-establish a connection with nature and the various entities presiding over its aspects.

At the start, the game’s overall personality and cast are endearing, whether it’s Culkin and his terrible jokes, Ajit who delegates everything to you and takes all the credit, or that one woman who exclaims “Shimu Shima” as a blessing for, well, everything. Even your character, voiceless, faceless, and relegated to simple dialogue choices, has their fair share of charisma based on animations alone. Even if some faces and expressions can bring back memories of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun (not the good kind either), the cutscenes help move the otherwise plodding narrative forward.

It’s a shame because Towers of Aghasba could have gone in several potential directions with its plot and quest design. Instead, say hello to checklists, your once and forever task. On the surface, they seem inoffensive enough, encouraging acquaintance with different systems and mechanics, like farming, construction, cooking, etc.

"I could deal with how repetitive this is if Towers of Aghasba wasn’t so randomly stingy with materials. You can’t just grab any plant or mine any rock – no, it has to be specific nodes with little blue indicators (try not to miss them)."

There’s also a system involving planting Colossal Trees and completing tasks for the forest spirit Sprite, like feeding nearby animals, planting and growing specific seed types, and contributing materials like Dung. The trees will flourish further, drawing even larger animals who can be identified for their eating habits and sprouting new kinds of seeds for plants that furnish different materials. All of these benevolent activities grant Amity, the ever-present energy in the flora and fauna of the universe. It’s used to grow more Colossal Trees, upgrade the current ones, and even activate portals that dot Aghasba.

The problem is that mining, hunting, and resource gathering all deplete Amity. They’re mandatory, though, so you have to, but such is the balance of nature or something. Fortunately, if you want specific materials like hides, meat, and fur, you can hunt the animals that have gathered around those Colossal Trees you’ve planted.

I would touch on the moral implications of this, but there is no impact from a gameplay or story point of view aside from losing Amity. Not even Sprite, prejudiced against humans like the other entities due to their destructive nature, bats an eye or complains, even as you mercilessly slaughter animals and chop down trees in front of him.

Besides, you can clear out Withered Nests around the map, which consistently respawn, and gain Amity that way. While harmonious co-existence with nature is a central theme, it doesn’t feel well realized outside of completing checklists. It also doesn’t help that for as much planting as you might do, the means to a flourishing biome is to repair the various shrines on the map, meaning – you guessed it – more checklists.

I could deal with how repetitive this is if Towers of Aghasba wasn’t so randomly stingy with materials. You can’t just grab any plant or mine any rock – no, it has to be specific nodes with little blue indicators (try not to miss them). They’ll often spit out a single piece of the required material. More elaborate plants and specific trees will offer more, which thus encourages planting them. However, when you get to Aghasba and have to initially deal with a barren land with almost nothing around Midhaven, it’s frustrating.

"I could go on with issues like the lack of quickly swapping to other tools and weapons, which makes combat, resource gathering – even healing in the middle of a fight by eating – heaps more cumbersome."

Even simple things like cooking food feel unnecessarily complicated and irritating. Do you have dozens of meats but no mushroom caps because you couldn’t find any plants? Forget making any meat skewers. There’s no simple grilling of the meats to provide health, which can be boosted with other ingredients for additional bonuses like, oh, I don’t know, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, one of the game’s main inspirations? Not that it matters since you can endlessly consume these raw meats without any ill effects, and no amount of healing will help when facing some of the tougher foes.

As you probably guessed, the survival elements are woefully under-baked, but that’s the least of the problems in Towers of Aghasba. Your health bar disappears during combat, so you have no clue if healing is required. Before the most recent patch, I couldn’t make a spear or cook meals in the early going, so if I didn’t find enough berries or roots, death would strike sooner rather than later.

Even worse is that it’s seemingly impossible to make a simple bow. The tougher Withered enemies and some wild animals hit way too hard, and it’s easy to get one or two-shot at close range, even after obtaining a three-piece armor set. If you don’t have a bow and are fixing for some fisticuffs, get used to respawning.

The progression is painfully slow – even after discovering materials like Iron, you’ll still be a ways off from crafting decent weapons, much less making anything worthwhile armor-wise. The two armor sets initially accessed after building the tailor both give the same bonuses with three pieces equipped. They look different, so I’ve at least got that going for me if funerals are implemented at some point.

I could go on with issues like the lack of quickly swapping to other tools and weapons, which makes combat, resource gathering – even healing in the middle of a fight by eating – heaps more cumbersome. Instead of hitting any of the numbers on your keyboard like every other survival game released this year (ignore all the others), you have to press a button, bring up the shortcut wheel and select the item in question.

"Fundamental systems and design decisions must be rethought for Towers of Aghasba to thrive, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the Withered Zones."

If you mistakenly open the wheel, you better press the same button to close it again because Esc, Tab, and everything else outside of Alt+F4 will not close it. Switching like this during combat, especially from long-range to melee weapons, is death against real threats, plain and simple, but it’s worse when resource gathering since several materials require different tools. No instantly switching to a hatchet to chop down a tree or to a shovel to dig up some roots. Press R, equip, unto infinity until a tool breaks.

Now, this is early access and several issues, especially the aforementioned soft lock when running out of stamina and falling into the water, have been or will be patched. Performance, which is more than a little iffy without DLSS enabled, will also likely improve. I’m sure the climbing and movement will become more polished and less janky. However, fundamental systems and design decisions must be rethought for Towers of Aghasba to thrive, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the Withered Zones.

These locations are areas where the Withered presence is overwhelming. The lighting suddenly changes, which can turn into this comical shifting back and forth if you enter and leave a Withered zone, and you’re afflicted with a debuff. If you don’t consume a potion or one of the plants in that zone to reset the timer, you’ll lose health and die, which means returning to base and starting all over.

Now imagine trying to do this while assailed by larger Withered and Withered Snags who can annihilate you, all while dealing with the janky movement and trying to reach these plants to reset your debuff timer. The overall lighting and color scheme of the smaller Withered makes them more challenging to see as well (a problem which can also occur at night), adding to the frustration.

If you don’t have several potions to reset your timer – made all the more annoying by the resource gathering to craft them – and don’t run past all the enemies – made all the more frustrating because fighting is pointless when they do so much damage – you’re in for an extensively painful session.

The peak irony of Towers of Aghasba, and what ultimately caused me to tap out, is when one of my bows broke. If you don’t finish the first Withered Expedition, you can’t tick off one of the tasks necessary to upgrade Midhaven to tier 2 and unlock the Blacksmith, who presumably allows for crafting a new bow. Your only choice is to get lucky and find a new one somewhere out in the wilderness from a chest, which is much less common than the tooltips would have you believe. My other Iron Bow, discovered hours prior, is on the verge of shattering, but held up much better than my patience.

"Right now, never mind that there are dozens of other deserving survival titles in early access – Towers of Aghasba is currently a painful experience that takes and takes while offering very little in return."

Towers of Aghasba does have some redeeming qualities, namely its visuals and art direction. The passage of time sometimes feels too quick but is still beautiful as shadows cast by nearby hills realistically move, and the lighting naturally shifts from dusk to dawn. Animals and plants look unique and detailed, even if animations are missing when chopping down massive trees or slain wildlife ragdolls for no apparent reason.

There’s also some joy – not a lot – from naturally exploring the world and happening upon different individuals, like the family of Snags – giant disembodied hands – who wanted my help clearing out the Withered, which once again highlights the excellent animations in cutscenes. A disembodied eye also wanted my help at some point to clear its vision, though the task consisted of delivering some Resin. Imagine if there was an actual mini-game or if there was some interesting conclusion outside of saying it might need my help again later.

Towers of Aghasba had me genuinely excited when it was first announced because of the setting, premise, and mix of exploration, combat, and crafting. All that excitement has been systemically beaten out of me, reducing any enthusiasm for wandering, intrigued by what lies in wait around each corner. Everything aside from combat feels like a chore, and the balance needs some revisiting because fighting enemies that effortlessly take me down isn’t all that fun.

If the first dozen or so hours are revamped and made less tedious, if the resource gathering didn’t make me want to pull my hair out, if the Withered zones felt like risk vs. reward as opposed to Russian Roulette without the empty chambers, or if 50 other things are addressed, I could see myself having fun. Right now, never mind that there are dozens of other deserving survival titles in early access – Towers of Aghasba is currently a painful experience that takes and takes while offering very little in return.

This game was reviewed on PC.