A World, At Peace

Exploration is a vital part of video games nowadays, because linear experiences are not as popular as they used to be. Almost every game features an open map and the possibility to choose your own path when it comes to the story, although this obviously creates a few other problems and bugs. Even so, there are plenty of incredible games out there that feature big open maps and enough content to populate them almost entirely.

A World, At Peace does not try to leave you speechless when it comes to story and character progression, but it can easily help you unwind after a hard day. The game does not feature any kind of stressful gameplay mechanics or high score systems, since the only goal is to walk around and collect a few jewels if you feel like it, while admiring the colorful scenery.

The game world is mostly formed out of mountains, trees and the occasional lake, which gets a bit repetitive after a while. Even so, it’s nice to see that the developers tried their best to create a fairly beautiful world, even if it’s rather small. On the other hand, the most annoying part is that you run out of things to do after a couple of minutes, given the lack of quests or proper missions.

The gems you collect do not seem to be doing anything, although the game counts each one of them you pick up along the way. Maybe a later version of the adventure is going to feature more intricate gameplay mechanics, but at the moment that is not the case. You can also interact with what appear to be statues, and each one of them has a short quote of some sort for you, all of which add up to a simple plot.

Lastly, the low-poly graphics are actually quite mesmerizing sometimes, especially since the colors work so well together. You can also admire what appear to be islands between the clouds, which make the adventure feel somewhat magical. Not much can be said about the music, on the other hand, which is a bit of a bummer.

In the end, A World, At Peace is nothing more than an exercise and a fun project, but it could actually be a decent game with just a little bit more work. Thus, it would be nice to see a proper story taking place in the game’s colorful world.