[DISCLAIMER: THIS GAME WAS PROVIDED TO UNDERLEVELLED FREE OF CHARGE FOR REVIEW PURPOSES. THIS WILL NOT INFLUENCE THE CONTENTS OF THIS REVIEW. ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THE AUTHOR’S OWN]
The rising tide of simulator-style games shows no sign of slowing. Saturation point is looming, and you can certainly see that there are so many hitting the market now that playing them all would be impractical at best. So is Potion Shop Simulator worth your time, or should you skip it?
Something to note before we proceed: Pebbles Games, the developer of Potion Shop Simulator, is a very small studio, and this was their first release on Steam. I’ll be keeping that in mind as I review.
Potion Shop Simulator, as the title might suggest, sees the player (on their own or with several friends) running their own potion shop in a remote, yet bustling village. You spend your time gathering herbs and brewing various potions to line your shelves, ready for when you open your shop for the day. On top of the obvious business-related tasks, there are also errands to run for the locals and an overall quest to investigate the previous owner of your shop.
The Positives
Gathering herbs, making potions, selling potions and upgrading your store are all fun to work out how to do. They definitely give you some decent incentive to carry you through the game.
Every potion requires different combinations of elements, and each potion has a specific set of villagers willing to buy it. Grabbing a basket and going herb-picking is also a fun challenge, requiring you to explore the fairly large area in and around the village to find all the available herbs to brew with. Some potions require you to put more work in before and after brewing to get them right. You can dry and powder your herbs to make them more potent, as well as distil completed potions to increase their concentration.
As you explore the village and upgrade your store, you will meet more and more fellow residents. This usually comes with some benefit to yourself, either unlocking the ability to buy more equipment or supplies. There’s also some fairly deep mechanics here with regard to economics. Market trends and rush hours will affect your sales and encourage you to prepare accordingly.
The graphical style is decently polished and lends a feeling of whimsy to the whole affair. There is also a variety of classic fantasy creatures inhabiting the world. The character models are nicely detailed and pleasing to the eye, especially your little dragon friend who delivers the game’s tutorial.
The Negatives
The biggest negative in the game is the complete lack of an inventory system. Pockets don’t seem to exist in this universe, and you carry everything one at a time in your hands. Okay, to be fair, you do get a crate that lets you carry up to 6 items at a time and later buy higher capacity crates, but it still slows the gathering mechanic down to a crawl.
This low capacity issue carries on the rest of the game, too, with containers often only holding around ten items before they are full. It’s not a game-ruiner by any means since limitations like this are a staple of the genre and can be fun to navigate. I just felt that here, it did extend the game time a little thinly.
I also felt that the character models, while plenty detailed, lacked a bit of variety. Early on, near every sale you make will be to orcs that you will very quickly realise are all the same model with differently tinted skin and maybe an added hat (This is Dave, the editor. I want to take this opportunity to point out that we at Underlevelled appreciate the many—and ingenious—ways orcs express their individuality, and Kane’s narrowmindedness does not reflect the views held by the team at large.) Just a few variations of the models used would have made this much less prominent, but as it is, it had me looking to see if this may have been bought assets.
My Overall Thoughts
I found this game to be a little bit of a mixed bag.
It fulfils its role as a cosy shop simulator really well, but still has a few glaring issues that cut into the experience.
The gameplay mechanics felt very detailed with a lot of depth for the dedicated player to discover. The added incentive of an overall questline was a welcome addition, as it added more tangible rewards for more goal-oriented players besides just increasing their gold and buying shop upgrades. Including market trends and multiple places to sell your goods also adds an extra element of strategy to how you run your business, which I found quite engaging.
The graphics are quite pleasing to the eye, with the developers opting for a more cartoonish look that always holds up better over time than a more photorealistic style might.
My main gripe, visuals-wise, would be the lack of different models for each race. Just a few variations would go a long way there.
Lastly, there’s the lack of inventory, which could be a positive or negative depending on what you’re looking to get out of the game. On one hand, it’s an interesting decision they’ve made here, forcing you to think carefully about what you’re bringing with you on a trip out gathering. It also forces you to build up a hefty inventory of jars in your shop for all your herbs, which, when arranged right, makes for a really visually pleasing workshop.
On the other hand, it does slow down your ingredient gathering and potion brewing significantly when you are forced to make multiple trips to restock the shop. That is alleviated somewhat when playing co-op, as you can split up the workload, but in my eyes, that’s not much of a fix.
A Final Conclusion
If you like cosy games, the idea of brewing your own potions from herbs you grew and gathered yourself and haggling prices with the locals, then this game is well worth a look. While it does have its flaws, they’re pretty easy to gloss over once you get engrossed in its gameplay loop.
To get your hands on the game, wander over to Steam and click here for more reviews from the Underlevelled team.
You'll see me everywhere here. Mostly I stream and fix things when they break. You might find me writing an odd article or two too. Hope you enjoy the site!
Post Comment