Hands-on preview: Vexlands carefully balances relaxation and adventurous exploration
Few things are more fun to me than cute, relaxing survival games like Vexlands. Sure, I'm all for epic medieval fantasy adventure games and complex puzzle games here and there, but sometimes, I just want to sit back and chill for a few hours. I was first introduced to a Vexlands preview during a stressful time when I desperately needed relaxation. Going into it, I was familiar with its mix of casual survival mechanics and its more adventurous sides with dungeon-crawling elements and the overworld's cursed lands. I was immediately interested in how this combination could make exploration more complex while still giving me those chill vibes I craved. Vexlands' core gameplay loop is simplistic yet effective. You start with a coin, unlock a land hex, and open treasure chests for loot. Shortly after, you unlock a Selling Shack, giving you your primary money-making source throughout your playthrough. You then get your workbench and some resources, setting you on the path to acquiring your first tool and beginning the first of many instances of resource gathering. Rinse and repeat for as long as you'd like. Screenshot by Destructoid Along the way, you'll unlock new blueprints for structures and tools to create, from important functional items to a decor planner for making your island look pretty. You'll also encounter dungeons, mines for additional resource-gathering, and other miscellaneous landmarks to spice things up. Oh, and be prepared for plenty of naturally generated rocks and stone carvings to randomly appear when you open a new land hex. They look cool even if they occasionally get in the way of building. Right away, I could tell Vexlands was precisely what I was looking for. Within the first hour alone, I made solid headway into unlocking a good chunk of my first island, familiarizing myself with several crafting stations that worked together to help me progress, and even completed my first dungeon. None of it was necessarily complex — if anything, it's quite straightforward — but that's what made the game so charming. It's easy to turn your brain off, collect resources, and witness the fruits of your labor as you sell your items for lots of money. Screenshot by Destructoid However, this comes at the cost of the game's complexity. While I can tell Apogee has a ton of plans for new additions throughout Vexlands' development phase, the iteration I played was quite simplistic, with three underground areas, a large plains biome, and a maximum of five levels per skill. There were a few gameplay mechanics to spice things up, most notably a region that required vacuuming away toxic fumes, but there wasn't much variety beyond this. The core gameplay loop remained unchanged, even in the preview's endgame. At the same time, I didn't consider this an entirely bad thing. There are many directions Apogee can shift Vexlands for the better (or worse) with its future content updates, especially with more planned throughout 2025, leaving me with lingering curiosity about what's in store. The door is wide open for new quests, enemies, maps, and more to appear over time. The features currently present also leave room for speculation. Although similar games within the cutesy survival genre take a more resource management-focused approach, Vexlands ventures beyond this by introducing mechanics like the museum, a quest log, and NPC storylines. Since there's not much substance to these in the game's early stages, I'm left interested in knowing what may come in the future. Screenshot by Destructoid As for its core mechanics, they're about what I expected. Combat is straightforward enough, with you starting with a sword and unlocking a ranged option later. I mostly fought slimes, but occasional skeletons are a little tough to fight if you're not expecting them. Resource gathering is a little more complex if you get into farming and beehive farming, but you'll mostly resort to hitting trees and rocks with basic tools. There's also fishing, which is quite fun and relaxing. Most of Vexlands' current tools and features are fairly basic and easy to grasp, making this an overall peaceful experience. Even its surface-level details, like visuals and music, helped turn an occasionally frustrating genre into one I comfortably spent hours playing without realizing. I never felt the urge to min-max any of what I was doing, and I attribute a large part of that to its calming, serene music and adorable pixelated graphics. What can I say? I'm a sucker for cute games. There are even hat collectables for some Fashionlands action when you're not resource-grinding and dungeon-crawling. The hours I spent in Vexlands' world unlocking new map areas, diving into dungeons, and maxing out my skills were a pleasant mix of fun and relaxing. The game and its features are well polished, giving the impression of a clear quality-centered focus rather than quantity. Although it was relatively basic and didn't have much to unravel,
Few things are more fun to me than cute, relaxing survival games like Vexlands. Sure, I'm all for epic medieval fantasy adventure games and complex puzzle games here and there, but sometimes, I just want to sit back and chill for a few hours.
I was first introduced to a Vexlands preview during a stressful time when I desperately needed relaxation. Going into it, I was familiar with its mix of casual survival mechanics and its more adventurous sides with dungeon-crawling elements and the overworld's cursed lands. I was immediately interested in how this combination could make exploration more complex while still giving me those chill vibes I craved.
Vexlands' core gameplay loop is simplistic yet effective. You start with a coin, unlock a land hex, and open treasure chests for loot. Shortly after, you unlock a Selling Shack, giving you your primary money-making source throughout your playthrough. You then get your workbench and some resources, setting you on the path to acquiring your first tool and beginning the first of many instances of resource gathering. Rinse and repeat for as long as you'd like.
Along the way, you'll unlock new blueprints for structures and tools to create, from important functional items to a decor planner for making your island look pretty. You'll also encounter dungeons, mines for additional resource-gathering, and other miscellaneous landmarks to spice things up. Oh, and be prepared for plenty of naturally generated rocks and stone carvings to randomly appear when you open a new land hex. They look cool even if they occasionally get in the way of building.
Right away, I could tell Vexlands was precisely what I was looking for. Within the first hour alone, I made solid headway into unlocking a good chunk of my first island, familiarizing myself with several crafting stations that worked together to help me progress, and even completed my first dungeon. None of it was necessarily complex — if anything, it's quite straightforward — but that's what made the game so charming. It's easy to turn your brain off, collect resources, and witness the fruits of your labor as you sell your items for lots of money.
However, this comes at the cost of the game's complexity. While I can tell Apogee has a ton of plans for new additions throughout Vexlands' development phase, the iteration I played was quite simplistic, with three underground areas, a large plains biome, and a maximum of five levels per skill. There were a few gameplay mechanics to spice things up, most notably a region that required vacuuming away toxic fumes, but there wasn't much variety beyond this. The core gameplay loop remained unchanged, even in the preview's endgame.
At the same time, I didn't consider this an entirely bad thing. There are many directions Apogee can shift Vexlands for the better (or worse) with its future content updates, especially with more planned throughout 2025, leaving me with lingering curiosity about what's in store. The door is wide open for new quests, enemies, maps, and more to appear over time.
The features currently present also leave room for speculation. Although similar games within the cutesy survival genre take a more resource management-focused approach, Vexlands ventures beyond this by introducing mechanics like the museum, a quest log, and NPC storylines. Since there's not much substance to these in the game's early stages, I'm left interested in knowing what may come in the future.
As for its core mechanics, they're about what I expected. Combat is straightforward enough, with you starting with a sword and unlocking a ranged option later. I mostly fought slimes, but occasional skeletons are a little tough to fight if you're not expecting them. Resource gathering is a little more complex if you get into farming and beehive farming, but you'll mostly resort to hitting trees and rocks with basic tools. There's also fishing, which is quite fun and relaxing. Most of Vexlands' current tools and features are fairly basic and easy to grasp, making this an overall peaceful experience.
Even its surface-level details, like visuals and music, helped turn an occasionally frustrating genre into one I comfortably spent hours playing without realizing. I never felt the urge to min-max any of what I was doing, and I attribute a large part of that to its calming, serene music and adorable pixelated graphics. What can I say? I'm a sucker for cute games. There are even hat collectables for some Fashionlands action when you're not resource-grinding and dungeon-crawling.
The hours I spent in Vexlands' world unlocking new map areas, diving into dungeons, and maxing out my skills were a pleasant mix of fun and relaxing. The game and its features are well polished, giving the impression of a clear quality-centered focus rather than quantity. Although it was relatively basic and didn't have much to unravel, I'm excited and optimistic about its future and the features Apogee plans to introduce later this year. If you want to try out Vexlands, there's a demo available on Steam, with more content updates planned for 2025.
The post Hands-on preview: Vexlands carefully balances relaxation and adventurous exploration appeared first on Destructoid.
