A part of me doesn’t want to recommend Smalland because it often feels incomplete. However, the game is quite charming if you give it a chance, especially when playing with friends. Co-op is often used as an easy excuse for a game’s appeal, but I don’t think that applies here. Smalland is a welcome exception because its charm still comes through, even when the flaws are obvious.
At the start, I was quite annoyed with a lot of the game. A lot of things felt out of place or unconventional compared to other survival games, especially the hot bar and overall UI. But I slowly got used to it, and underneath those flaws and odd design choices, I found a game that was genuinely worth experiencing. If anything, those unconventional choices are part of what saves it.
A lot of survival games lean heavily on the whole ‘player tells their own story’ approach. I personally find this quite lazy. Some games pull it off well, but many end up repeating the same grindy loop. Smalland’s unconventional approach combines elements of a story-driven role-playing game with a survival game. It works surprisingly well, but only because those elements support each other. On their own, some parts of the game are just not great at all.
The narrative is okay. It’s a bit cliché, but it still acts as a useful catalyst for the game. You play as a small person who’s come up from underground and must find an elixir to help heal your sick queen. That’s pretty much the whole plot. It isn’t especially appealing at first, but as you play and uncover more about the lore and world, the game becomes surprisingly intriguing. Unfortunately, it lacks voice acting, which was apparently something offered during the backing or early access stage but never delivered.
Where other survival games leave you wandering around aimlessly with no goal in mind, Smalland gives you main quests and side quests to work towards. That keeps you focused while also encouraging you to explore the entire map, search for new resources, progress the story, and continue developing your character.
The role-playing mechanics are limited to gameplay rather than story, but they’re by no means boring. You gain experience, level up, and put points into stats. The more interesting part, though, is the gear and equipment you unlock. The inventory menu even includes a section for tracking some unlockable items after you’ve discovered them.
I think unlocking armour and weapons was one of the parts I enjoyed most. Some of them looked bad, some were just okay, and some looked genuinely cool. Either way, they were fun to unlock and craft.
There are companions and mounts you can get, and they’re one of the more fun aspects of the game, but some of them are broken. Fortunately, the broken ones appear towards the endgame. A good example is the Scorpion, which, once unlocked, makes most other enemies feel far less threatening. There is still a challenge, don’t get me wrong, but it’s noticeably reduced by how much Scorpions can tank and deal damage. You still have to level it up and put points into the right stats, though. Progression can feel rewarding, but the balance becomes uneven once certain mounts or gear start making encounters much easier.
Building and combat are where things start to fall apart. They’re not the strongest parts of the game, and honestly, they aren’t worth discussing in too much detail. They’re by no means horrible, and they are bearable, but they feel like afterthoughts. In fact, a lot of the game feels like an afterthought or a prototype that was never fully finished.
The visuals are where it seems a lot of the passion went. The level of detail in the bugs, critters, and environments is insane. It almost feels like they created one-to-one copies of these creatures. Some areas do not look especially pleasant, but that often feels intentional, like with the swamp. It’s gloomy and uncomfortable, which shows how well the visuals and environments work at setting a mood. This is emphasised even more by the sheer scale of things. The game does a great job making your character feel small, but oddly, the scaling can also feel off at times. For example, a bee looks like it’s the size of a human fist, and this becomes noticeable when you’re standing near human skeletons.
When it comes to performance, I barely noticed any issues and honestly, I could almost say there weren’t any at all. The game looks good and runs well.
The audio, aside from the lack of voice acting, is quite good, from the ambience of the small-but-giant world to the music. The music is rare, though, and there are times when combat music plays while you’re not in combat, causing both confusion and concern. There are also areas where sound effects seem intentionally missing or dampened. For example, when using a flying mount, you can’t really hear the wings flapping. While that might seem off-putting, I think it works better this way, since hearing that constantly up close could get annoying.
I mainly hosted the world and had three other friends playing with me most of the time. It was nice that we didn’t have to rely on a dedicated server, which is a big plus for co-op games like this. Friends could drop in and out, and any progress your character made was saved to that character. The only thing that didn’t transfer was the game world, meaning buildings and save points stayed tied to the host world. Character progress, inventory, and companions, however, were transferable.
This game doesn’t have much replay value, not unless you want to try a different character build, and even then, builds do not have much impact. That said, I’ve clocked about 72 hours, and I enjoyed quite a fair bit of that time. About 10 or so hours were spent playing solo while my friends were offline. I could see myself revisiting it someday with friends, but probably not any time soon. For the asking price, I’d say it isn’t necessarily too bad. Since there is no neutral option on Steam, I’d lean positive, though I’d still recommend getting it on sale. It gives you enough value for your money at the current price point, but it could definitely be better. I’d recommend it most to people who enjoy survival games with exploration, light questing, and co-op progression, rather than anyone looking for deep combat or polished building systems.
Smalland is inconsistent. It’s flawed in many areas, yet excellent in others. It kept my friends and me playing long enough to finish the story, the available quests, and even the DLC storyline, if you can call it that. The DLC content gave us more to do, but it didn’t feel as meaningful or fleshed out as the main game. It doesn’t even have an NPC or quest giver. You’re pretty much left to discover it on your own.
Despite all its flaws, Smalland is proof that sometimes, it really is the little things that leave the biggest impression.
