Third-person survival adventure ASKA may initially come across as a Valheim mimic, as both games task players with surviving the wilds in a procedurally generated Viking fantasy world. However, that’s where their similarities diverge. ASKA expands upon the foundation laid by games like Valheim by incorporating dynamic settlement building, engaging combat, and smart NPCs for an immersive survival sandbox experience that stands out from its contemporaries. After having gone hands-on with the ASKA Closed Beta, it became clear that this survival builder is a cut above the rest.

Settle and survive

In ASKA, players must survive the brutal wilderness and harsh weather conditions while building a self-sustaining Viking settlement quite literally from the ground up. What begins as a humble tribe soon develops into a full-fledged, functioning village. Unlike some colony building games, you get to experience the growth of your settlement firsthand in ASKA, as you get to live and work within the village you are creating. Although you can play alongside up to three other players, solo play is equally engaging and rewards those who embrace the game’s various systems.

After a brief cutscene introduces the background lore and Viking vibe, ASKA begins with players becoming shipwrecked on an island. With little more than an empty backpack and the will to survive, you’ll start out by gathering as many resources from the surroundings as you can, while monitoring your hunger, thirst, and body temperature. Once you have enough materials, you can start crafting tools and building structures directly from within the build menu. At first, you will only be able to make simple structures like campfires and small lean-to shelters. As you build and upgrade your structures, you will be able to invite more people to join your tribe, and eventually your humble village will snowball into a burgeoning stronghold whose loyal residents help work and fight alongside you.

If you build it, they will come

The pacing of ASKA really picks up once you acquire your first villager, as they are able to take over menial labor like collecting resources and completing construction projects so that you can focus on more important tasks. As tribe leader, one of your first to-dos on your list is to build the Eye of Odin, a small statue that acts as a beacon for attracting newcomers. When activated, the beacon will offer two new villagers to choose from, each with their own skills that will help you decide on who is the best fit for your village.

After obtaining my first villager, Erik, I was pleasantly surprised when he began physically working on several half-built structures I had been gathering resources for. Erik would eagerly harvest and collect materials from the surrounding area, hauling logs and stones back and forth from the nearby forest and dropping them at the build site. Villagers without jobs start out as builders and can be assigned to specific tasks throughout the village based on the structures you have built. For example, I eventually assigned Erik to the Gatherer’s Pit, as he came with a skill proficiency that made him adept at harvesting food items. Each villager has a schedule that you can modify to determine their work/life balance. While staving off hunger and the elements are crucial aspects of survival, incorporating leisure time into your villager's routine is also part of ensuring that their needs are met.

Blood moon rising

Members of your tribe will not only work for you, but they will fight alongside you as well. ASKA features both dynamic weather and a day-night cycle that spans the four seasons. Every few in-game days, players can anticipate the arrival of the blood moon, which drapes the environment in an ominous red hue and causes hostile creatures to encroach on your encampment. Wights, skeletons, and other mythical enemies will emerge from the darkness to destroy structures in your camp, namely the Eye of Odin. When this happens, your villagers will likely be roused from their slumber to fend off the imposing threats to the best of their abilities.

Although my handful of tribe members were usually able to dispatch enemies relatively quickly, at one point I did fall to a Skeleton Berserker, an aggressive foe wielding a two-handed weapon. When I died, I faced a crucial decision: to be reborn as myself, losing my possessions and suffering a penalty to my stats, or to respawn as a ghost. Opting for the latter, I was then given a limited time to harvest the soul of one of my villagers to regain my humanity. I chose to sacrifice the newest member of the village, although the decision would have been more difficult had that villager been part of the tribe for longer.

ASKA’s seamless blend of challenging open-world survival and immersive settlement building make it a unique take on both genres that fans of either won’t want to pass up. Although the game is likely even more fun in multiplayer, ASKA’s intelligent, dynamic NPCs and robust systems make for an engaging solo experience that paves the way for more immersive survival-builders going forward. ASKA is scheduled to be released on PC sometime this year.

This preview is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. ASKA releases in 2024 for Windows PC.