Drake Hollow
Welcome to The Hollow, a blighted and dying place, and home to the Drakes. Drakes are the vegetable folk native to these parts, and they need your help. They’re hungry, thirsty, and need a place to sleep. They can literally die of boredom. It’s on you to save them. Build gardens to provide them with food, wells for water, and yoga balls and puppet shows to keep them entertained. Even treadmills and solar panels to generate power for Tesla coils and electric fences, as you will quickly see they need some protecting… The Drakes aren’t the only residents of The Hollow – The Feral have overrun the land, looking to shred anything happy or good. Battle them one-on-one with a wide array of weapons ranging from tennis rackets to nail guns, bring your friends to lend a hand, and build your defenses so you can take them out without lifting a finger. Travel from region to region, season to season, taking the Drakes and their village with you. Each region is over a square mile of territory to explore, dynamically generated and populated with each passing season. You must balance your time carefully. What supplies are most crucial at any given moment? What does your village need? Metal from the supply caches to build your defenses, or crystals from the blighted regions to grow your Drakes? Prove that you’ve got what it takes to help the Drakes and take back The Hollow.
Steam User 40
General ratings first,as always,followed by the review :
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10
Drake Hollow is a very simple surviving adventure RPG set in a dream world,where your main mission is to try save that said world,grow and take care of some of the cutest little villagers ever,build them a village that can sustain itself and obviously,get home in the end. But it's not that simple after all...
Graphics are pretty decent,it has some very good looking moments,but winter is actually where it really starts looking better,it just has a much better vibe,where it really brings out your whole village's overall image. The effects are standard,nothing amazing there,but the drakes,the little guys you save and grow,they are just so,so,so cute and lovely,you will literally start caring about them like their your own real community.
Soundwise,it's also pretty standard,but again,on winter it gets better,where the heating and all the stuff around seems a bit more alive,wish they would have made a weather change occasionally to really bring out the ambiance more,but it's still decent,the music is also quite chill and relaxing.
Regarding the story,it's quite average,there are bits and pieces of lore spread around the islands,some cutscenes that follow what happens in the real world,but it's just enough to giive you an idea of what's going on and what needs to be done. Luckily,the gameplay is there to save everything.
As soon as you start,you're hit with the good old tutorial,get some items,fight off the baddies and save some drakes. Simple,but then it starts getting better. There are 4 chapters and each of them is a season,with a different requirement regarding the functionality of your village (camp,that's how it's called in-game) , with winter being the most fun and exciting.
The most important part of the game is the village itself,this is where you're going to upgrade most of your passives,where you can get gadgets and also where the drakes will live. There are levels that the village can gain,xp being the age and number of drakes you have,so obviously,the more and older,the better,but that comes at a great cost.
Buildings take up a few budget points,so sadly you can't build infinitely and they also have functions,either utility,defense or leisure,but also a HP bar. That's cause there are raids from the enemies now and then,so you either build a solid defense at the expense of other utility buildings or make sure you get back in time to help beat the mobs back.
You also need schematics and resources to build and also charms,which you get interacting with the drakes,older ones giving you way more charms. But you also need water,food and entertainment to keep the drakes happy and alive,also beds to make sure they sleep well and don't die from being too tired. And yes,drakes can DIE and you will be sad if they do,cause you'll end up loving those damned drakes.
Get enough resources and make sure the village is steady,so you can grow the drakes and get their passives. There are quite a lot of passives and each age levels up the passives,so if you want twice the drop rate for loot,make sure you grow the drake that gives you that passive. You also get more passive slots by leveling the camp and if that's not enough,you also get xp killing mobs,getting stuff done and questing,which lets you level up some basic stuff like more damage,more resistance,that stuff.
All the farming and building happens in all the seasons,all of them with their own islands that you can explore,only the main island with your village remains the same,but you will need different gadgets to be able to get to all the different spots,either a launch pad to get on a roof,a torch to save drakes when winter comes,wards to be able to walk in the void (although it's just a fancier water) and the most important,waypoints.
You use waypoints to build a rail above the ground so you can travel faster between the islands and also to link different supply trucks scattered around to that said rail,which give you quite a lot of resources in the long run. But there are also obstacles in this journey.
The enemies are sadly not that different or varied,it's pretty much the same 6 or 7 enemies,that scale with the level of your camp,also the gear you find scales with the camp as well,so the higher you go,the better and harder it gets,which just makes the game more fun and exciting instead of being the same stuff all the time.
Combat is pretty simple,quite the same combos no matter what you do,a light attack,a charge,a block or just pop a ranged weapon and snipe enemies or blow em to bits with the shotgun,it's all up to your playstyle,but it does have a pretty simplistic combat system.
You an also tackle all this in with friends,up to 3 I believe,so 4 people can play at the same time,but I've went all solo this time,I just enjoyed it more and loved taking care of the village on my own.
Sadly,the only reason I can't give the game a steady 10 and to say that it's worth it's full price is simply cause it does get repetitive after a while and also it's replayability value isn't exactly sky high because it still remains the same game anyway. But on the other hand,i've left out some things from the review that are such a nice touch to the game and they all revolve around the drakes,cause they should remain a surprise in case you end up playing.
For me personally,Drake Hollow ended up as one of the most chill and relaxing game in the last few years,with some great memories,mostly cause of the cute little drakes that you really start loving and caring about and it's a really great adventuring RPG so overall, if base building and needs managing along with a decent combat and grind is your thing, I really recommend this game to you.
If you liked the review and want to find even more content,reviews or just support me,you can do it on my Patreon : patreon.com/SteveAnton97
Steam User 18
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
Steam User 16
Ahoy! It's your local piratical reviewer boarding your ship to tell you if Drake Hollow be worth your doubloons or whether it belongs in Davey Jones locker! Read on my fellow Captains!
Introduction
Drake hollow is a mixture of base building and exploration. You will be clearing infestations, looting new weapons, rescuing onions Drakelings and collecting building materials to build your camp. There are 4 worlds to see, each based on a season of the year, there is an okay variety of weapons. I'll be breaking my thoughts into Ayes! and Nays! as Pirates do.
Ayes!
- Fun with friends. I'd seriously recommend you bring your fellow sailors with you, I feel that Drake Hollow was designed with this in mind, I played with my first mate for the entire experience. Multiplayer runs flawlessly, no issues with it at all.
- Graphical design. I love the 90's aesthetic, It's like a broken world trapped in time. You've also got it to the designers, The Drakelins look cute. Weapons and clothing also very decent. No complaints.
- Base Building. A wide variety of of things to place, include water and energy systems where you'll be building various buildings to manage your Drakelins Hunger, Thirst and Boredom. There are many ways to solve these and as you play you can collect schematics to upgrade buildings, there is a decent level of depth to explore.
- Drakelin upgrades. Your onion friends have individual perks, from improving efficiency of your production buildings to adding damage boosters, flame and electric type damage. You collect crystals in your exploration to upgrade 'em.
- Performance. Ran great, no crashes. Same for my first mate who played with me. Always good to see a well run game.
- Waypoint System. You'll be connecting the entire map via way points which allows you funnel resources from caches back to your base. It also doubles as a Sky Rail, Which is not only cool too ride but allows you to get round to your base and back when you need to deal with a raid or drop off loot.
ere' nor thar
- Combat. It's alright, You can tell the Dev's tried to make it more then it was but in the end it all devolves around to dodging around and button mashing. There is a limited selection of enemies and they range in difficulty from simple to annoying. You'll find which is which when you play. I however hated the corruption enemies that meant you have to pop wards to fight them.
- The Story. It's forgettable but frankly, you wouldn't be playing this game for it's story.
Nays!
- It's extremely repetitive. You will use a ward to cross to an island. Clear out infestations, link up the island to the way point system to extract any resources, collect any onions that may be there along with any loot. You will do this ad nauseam. From the first world to the last.
- Procedurally generated boredom. All the islands are procedural generated with a handful of pre-made assets plopped on. It's a shame cause when coupled with the repetitive nature of the game it all starts to blur in together and renders the seasons kind of moot. The only difference is Winter where you have to make radiators to keep things warm alongside the usual faire.
- Weapons. 1h weapons are practically useless, 2H out-pace them in every way. The ranged weapons rarely have enough ammo and the cost to make more is stupid requiring rare mats you'll barely see. Add on weapon degradation as a bow on top. Ergh is how I feel about it.
- It's Short. If you were to avoid exploring all the islands and just go do the mission objects, You could probably complete this game in a handful of hours. The reason why I have 17 hours is because for the most part we explored everything.
Conclusion
Drake Hollow is a fun little game that is let down by it's extreme repetitive and procedural generated nature. When I finished the game, I can't say I'll miss playing it. I also wouldn't recommend this game if you planned to play Solo, the nays would spin you off this ship far quicker without crew mates to lighten the load.
That leaves Drake Hollow 6 and a half doubloons out of 10 - A flawed haul. It's imperfections ruin what would be a decent bounty for ye booty. Get it only on steep discount and make sure you have some fellow mateys going with you.
Steam User 7
I played it with a friend and it's such a good combination of all things I like.
- Exploring Worlds
- Building a base
- Taking care of little guys
- Small parts of Fighting as well
Can definitely recommend this game to everyone, just wish it was longer and there was more to do in the end.
Steam User 14
Good game for a short period of time.
sadly developers abandon it
Steam User 6
TLDR: Abandoned game in need of a bit more polish. Worth the $12 normal sale price, not the full price $30 price.
Update (14hrs)
Still in season 1 because I messed up my first solo game , and am now bouncing between my own sandbox and a coop with my wife. Game is way more enjoy coop. I don't really recommend getting drake hollow to solo. It's a lot like PSO where if you have someone you're playing with you don't notice how grindy it is, but if you solo too much you notice.
- old -
Thus far (6hrs in and still on season 1) I'm having a blast, it's too bad theirs some annoying bugs that'll never get fixed. I like my attack on a face button and B is the best choice for me... only downside is since you can't remap cancel and the game isn't smart enough for that combo mapping every time I cancel out of something, I wack a drake. They take 0 damage but still annoying that I hit them every time I need to hit B to exit a menu.
Wished their character skill tree update would have been a bit more impressive before they killed updates, too. It's better than nothing, but there's a ton of lost potential.
Wished multiplayer was cross platform or there was a LAN option. Kind of BS that GOG players can't play with steam players.
Interestingly, this game actually makes me lose respect for CD project red. If they are going to slap their name on a game as a publisher, they should do a little more to ensure it gets good after sales support on bug fixes and quality multiplayer.
Steam User 4
Seems to be designed around multiplayer gaming. After level 2, resource management in single player mode seems basically impossible. You can still progress in the game in single player, but your drakes will constantly die.