Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues the tradition of the most series the world has ever seen. Like in other Animal Crossing installments, the gameplay is chiefly about chilling in a faraway island, fishing and catching bugs – as you so please. The game lacks the basic pillars we’ve come to know video games for, such as challenging tasks and contests. For the most part, you’ll be left wondering if you’re actually playing a video game or just strolling through a desert. 

While the gameplay is the most relaxed you’ll ever come across, there are certain goals you can try to reach. But these goals take a secondary place in the sequence of things, as you’ll most likely be immersed in the interactive environment. However, it does introduce new elements like crafting – something earlier releases in the series didn’t have.

Life on the Island

In New Horizons, you sign up for a getaway experience that lands you on an island with a handful of people. If we take away your two friends and Tom Nook’s family, there are no other souls on this island. You live in tents and have to craft the items you need as there’s no option to buy. This setting already tells you that there aren’t so many adventurous things to do.

Getting grab of the island isn’t a difficult task, and Tom Nook’s family are also there to help. Together with his nephews, Tom Nook will help you learn how to fish, catch bugs, and craft materials. While you start in a tent, that quickly changes to a house after some time on the island. You also have a large museum where you can donate the treasure items, like fossils, you find around. At the end of the day, you’re not in abandoned land but an Animal Crossing town.

There’s No More Laid-Back Game

Gamers familiar with the Animal Crossing game series know what to expect. But if you’re new to the series, you’d spend the first couple of minutes wondering what to even do. You’ll spend most of the time walking around your island, catching bugs, fishing, fetching minerals from rock, and sometimes conversing with your very few neighbors.

As you go about these activities daily, your purse fattens. That gives you enough money to acquire bigger and better houses and play around with some decorations. Besides turning your house into a glittering piece, you can also turn your island’s environment into a paradise. You can clear trees and raise orchards, creating a community that suits your taste. The good thing about Animal Crossing: New Horizons is that everything happens in real-time. The game will be in daylight when you’re playing during the day and night time when you’re playing at night. Incredibly, also, the game takes up your season in real life, as well as the weather.  

In New Horizons, There’s No Rush

On your island, you can fish and trap bugs with no limit hanging over them. However, there’s only a certain amount of fruits and minerals you can collect every day. The amount of dedication you put into this determines how fast you build your island. But there’s no rush: no deadline. You can build as fast as you want or as slow as you want. This ability to run at your own pace is the major reason the game is so relaxing.

There’s no major goal to pursue in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, save clearing the debt you owe Tom Nook. Tom builds you a house with his resources, and you’re to pay him off – whenever you like. So, if you choose to repay the loan a thousand years after now, Tom isn’t going to put a rope around your neck. When you finally repay the first loan, you can get a bigger house courtesy of Tom. That puts you right back on the track of clearing the debt. You can go on and on, depending on how ambitious you are. 

You can also complete achievements to earn Nook Miles, which serves as the game’s other currency. These achievements basically include completing different tasks a fixed number of times. Besides these tasks, there are extra tasks to keep you engaged in your island community. For example, to set up a museum, you need to collect certain specimens. In return, you get free tools and several options to expand your island.

Get Some Activity with Crafting

Crafting is one of the engaging features of the game. You can either make a personal table for your crafting or use one belonging to Too Nook. Fashion various tools and several pieces of furniture using the materials you collect from the island. There is a forest of trees to supply wood and a mountain of rocks to supply precious minerals. With time, your once-redundant tools will glimmer with shine and sophistication.

You’ll not only build these pieces of furniture but customize them to reflect better designs. You can add colors, make them bigger, and change their overall shapes. It’s an exciting experience of being able to craft your tools and furniture. However, that demands some level of hard work finding the right recipes for the things you want to make. Sometimes, with a stroke of luck, you come across these recipes on the ground. But many a time, you’ll have to buy them from the Nook Store. 

If you want more activity, a visit to neighboring islands might provide that. You can take a trip to these islands whenever you so please, although you won’t be able to expand your community there. You can also connect with your friends in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, visiting them in the islands and even chatting right in the game.