Test de Towers of Aghasba sur PC par jeuxvideo.com

Open world ecology

In Towers of Aghasba, you play as a young member of the Shimu, an ancient civilization forced to flee their homeland long ago due to a mysterious Withering invasion – aptly named the “Blight” – which ravaged the Earth until to make it sterile. After years of exile, the Shimu finally return placing on the shoulders of your little hero the charge of restoring the homeland by giving it back its former colors. Nothing revolutionary in terms of form, but the setting of the Dreamlit game is distinguished by settings which reveal themselves to be more and more sumptuous as you restore the arid deserts to their green hues, adorable fantastic creatures, and a Open world quite large to explore, enhanced by dynamic lighting that goes from day to night, with beautiful shadows as a bonus.

The game also offers an interesting ecological approach which invites you to rebuild damaged biomesplant seeds, and form new paradise gardens where adorable animals can flourish as long as you don't cut them up to make a juicy steak. The protagonist then integrates a harmony gauge which fills up according to your good deeds for nature. It is spent on growing trees, upgrading shrines, and unlocking fast travel portals, which are particularly useful in this vast world. And it must be said, restoring splendor to this dried-up world has a rather satisfying aspect. In this experience of reconstruction of territories thereforeit is not only your house that you must build, but those of an entire civilization, in addition to the ruins of many cultural places to restore. The game gives us our work to do, for our greatest pleasure. Very early on, the tasks multiply, offering the impression – and it is the case – of a world full of activities and secrets to discover for yourselves. Also the universe has such a bizarre cast of characters that you never really know what you're going to run into, which is actually pretty great..

L’exploration entre Ghibli et Breath of the Wild

Towers of Aghasba rewards the player's curiosity, who is invited to explore a world teeming with little surprises, like Breath of the Wild from which the developers happily draw inspiration. Climbing, flying with a glider and the possibility of obtaining a mount after a few hours of play make the crossing all the more interesting. In this sense, the title has a truly attractive exploration potential, boosted by settings inspired by Ghibli works, like Nausicaa. So many references cited in the ambitions mentioned by the director of the game, Khang Le: “When Breath of the Wild came out, I was like, 'That's it, I think with Unreal Engine it's time to really make this game.' (…) But once I played Animal Crossing New Horizons, I was like, 'I think this is a new approach,' because I really want a lot of players to be involved. I think survival games have a very hardcore and niche audience, and we wanted fans of the Ghibli films, a family audience, to be able to enjoy Towers of Aghasba“. Be careful, however: as our colleagues at gamesradar have also noted, the game, during at least the first ten to twenty hours, really has nothing to do with the images you may have observed in the official trailers. It takes some work (and an excellent graphics card) to be able to admire the immensely rich settings and the flying creatures seen in the trailer.

A tainted experience

Despite undeniable potential, it is currently quite difficult to fully appreciate the journey due to the deep technical shortcomings from which the game currently suffers, and which can, of course, be dissipated with future patches. The myriad of slowdowns, coupled with the endless loading times that abound in Towers of Aghasba, are constraints that are really lacking in an experience where death is so regular; in fact, you just need to chat a little too long with the forest elf to be suddenly bitten by a large spider (from behind, in addition, the deceitful one!) whose arrival you could never have anticipated, also betraying a universe that has not yet been properly thought out. Death is fortunately not much of a problem since you never lose your belongings, but it remains a situation which can be very frustrating since it is always very difficult to maintain good health, as the dangers are sometimes unexpected and care is rare. The berries eaten to heal you are, for example, extremely rare, leaving you wandering with a few life points for long minutes, before the effort made in harvesting these berries takes away your last life point, forcing you to respawn on your basic start of the game after long minutes of loading.

With these already disabling defects, also come the bugs, which are frequent for us. When loading my last save, I was a little surprised to notice that my character was waiting for me floating in the middle of the ocean, with no possibility of reaching the shore. Also pay attention to the places where you plant your rare seeds, some of which can grow regrettably a few meters above your head, remaining inaccessible forever.

Note that the game does not include other survival elements such as hunger and thirst. A good thing, as crafting and exploration already occupy a preponderant place, even tedious for this first one. Collecting primary resources, such as simple small sticks, can turn out to be a long ordeal that is constantly renewed to create weapons that are destroyed very quickly. The interface of the journal and quests is not the easiest to handle, just like the map, which lacks clarity and ergonomics. But let's remember, the game is still only available in early version and the room for progress here is quite enormous. After a slew of fixes and better overall optimization, there is no doubt that Towers of Aghasba finally exhibits truly dazzling potential in terms of crafting and exploration. But it's not for now.

Conclusion