Stardew Valley may not have been the first of its kind, but it popularized the genre, became the gold standard, and continues to maintain a rabid, loyal fanbase. Life simulators, or farming sims, whatever you want to call them, are defined by a few concepts.
First, you are taken away from your usual life to engage in a transformative new venture. Maybe you’re taking over your grandfather’s old farm, moving in to help your aunt run her dilapidated grocery store, or becoming the sole colonizer of some barren moon. From there, you’re given free rein to run things your way through fun, open-ended progression mechanics, all while surrounded by a cast of lovable, unique, and richly fleshed-out characters you start to get to know and love. It’s a simple ABC formula that has churned out a number of bangers that fans absolutely adore and eagerly support, even through long development cycles.
Pawsome Resort is the newest Early Access launch into this genre, and when it comes to that A, B, and C formula, I will say that they’ve got it going on with their A. The concept of running a resort where you take care of animals for their owners is not only unique but also really cool. I was excited to jump into the game just based on this premise, intrigued by what the intricacies of animal care would be like.
In preemptive defense of Pawsome Resort, the game is still in Early Access. Everything I am going to say reflects the game’s current state, but isn’t a guarantee of what will be. Things can, and likely will, change from the current build, and many of the issues I complain about may be fixed by the time the game launches into 1.0.
A strong concept, unfortunately, is all that I would say Pawsome Resort has going for it, as it is critically lacking in the B and C of the ABC formula I mentioned earlier.
Starting with the actual mechanical implementation of Pawsome Resort‘s concept, the game in its current state becomes rather boring and extremely underwhelming in its promise of an animal hotel very quickly, putting all of its cards on the table right at the start, only to reveal that there aren’t very many cards to begin with.
The actual act of caring for animals is simple to a fault. When a customer checks their animal in, they give you a date for picking up their animal. Until then, it’s your job to feed, water, and care for them, which you do by leading the animals to an enclosure and filling two interactable spots with food and water. The usage rates for both are so generous that you can basically ignore them, and there isn’t really anything else you have to do to take care of your animals. Occasionally, I would click on them to “pet” them, but I don’t think it really made a difference. Every animal left my resort with maximum satisfaction, and I got paid the same each time.
What’s worse is that there is really no difference in the care of each animal. Imagine you want to go from housing sheep to housing grizzly bears. You might expect, alongside a completely different routine of care, to get a lot of pushback from the local government, maybe a veterinary course, or something to prevent you from simply putting up a fence and saying, “Bring your bears here.” This is not the case, and all of the game’s exotic animals are cared for precisely the same way as the cats, sheep, and horses. The only difference is the food you feed them, which is also rather generic across many animal types and is basically split between meat and vegetables.
You can grow crops and raise fish in your free time to produce your own feed, so you don’t have to buy it from the local store. You’ll have a lot of free time to do so, as the rate at which you get customers is so slow, and you have no real incentive to do anything else in your bountiful downtime.
That’s where the other great failing of Pawsome Resort comes in: its characters. This genre is absolutely built on its stories and characters, with more players of Stardew Valley or Fields of Mistria concerned with their romance options than with the actual farming mechanics. Pawsome Resort has essentially no characters. The customers you serve are random folk who repeat the same lines, sometimes showing up in cloned pairs.
There are quests and short dialogue options with characters throughout the town, but they are so short, boring, and devoid of any real interaction that I quickly gave up on them. It was really awkward when I was given a quest to free a small creature from a witch’s tower, something I figured would be difficult or require stealth, only for me to walk in and do it right in front of the witch, who didn’t care about me and just headed straight to bed.
Even the game’s story is confusing. You are somewhat led to believe you are living in a literal dream, but there’s very little to really expand on that. It’s sort of just a nonsensical, basically nonexistent element at this point in development.
Pawsome Resort has room to grow, and a lot of it. In its current state, it doesn’t manage to meet the standard of many other hits in its genre, even with its unique premise. Something about it as it is feels soulless or uninspired, especially when you consider the incredible achievements of small or downright one-person teams in this genre space. I was disappointed with the current Early Access build of the game, and I can only hope it improves over time.
Pros:
- A strong premise that introduces the concept of running an “animal hotel” to the life-sim genre.
- Good pixel art and character designs.
Cons:
- Currently lacking meaningful or engaging gameplay, with a mechanical loop that is very short, repetitive, and includes too much downtime.
- Its core premise is underdelivered upon when caring for cats, bears, and sheep involves all the same overly simple interactions.
- Lacks a real story or characters, both fundamental aspects of the genre.
Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC Early Access Review of Pawsome Resort. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page!
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