I also get thoroughly annoyed when one of my tools breaks, and I have to walk halfway across the island just to craft a new one. When I’m trying to craft multiple pieces of bait, for example, I shouldn’t have to sit through the same seemingly-eternal 10-second crafting animation for every single little bag, especially considering how useful a single piece of bait is on its own-that is to say, not very. There are a few other hiccups in the game’s design, some of which even fall outside the petty category of “moral quandaries.” New Horizons’ s crafting system, while awesome in theory, can be a bit asinine. Tearing weeds out of the ground is one thing, but when I’m demolishing the trees, rocks, and flowers I’ve developed such a close connection to, I start to have a bit of a problem. There’s something so pure and serene about the initial deserted island at the start of the game, and turning it into just another small-town community based on gossip, real estate, and commodity exchange feels-for lack of a better word-perverse. Every time Tom Nook, everyone’s favorite philanthropist-turned-loan-shark, tasks me with finding a plot of land for a new villager to build their house on, I get a little nauseous. That said, something is unsettling about the island beautification process in New Horizons.
You find the location for the new shops you decide who moves in and who skedaddles and you build the bridges and inclines that connect the island and transform it from deserted paradise to tourist-trap wasteland-at whatever pace you so desire. Additionally, one of my favorite parts of New Horizons is that the island is yours to mess around with. When the player chops at a tree, for example, the game rewards the player both with wood, a valuable and indispensable crafting material, and some Nook Miles, which you can spend on new DIY recipes, clothes, furniture, or currency vouchers. With this combination, the player’s activities will result in some quick gratification. One part of New Horizons that really makes it special is the combination of the new “Nook Miles” system and the DIY system. Sure, as the mayor, you had tangible political dominance over your adorable little neighbors, but that can only get you so far. There was a village, a main street, and a few rivers. In New Leaf, it never felt like there was more to the game than its beginning. I have been playing New Horizons since the day of its release, and I don’t think I’ve even unlocked a quarter of the content-I only unlocked the clothing store on the first day of writing this article and, man, what a huge milestone that was. There exists a sense of progress in New Horizons that simply wasn’t present in its predecessor. The game has captured me in a way that its predecessor, New Leaf (2012), failed to, and I’m not the only person who feels that way. So far, I am enamored with New Horizons (2020). So, I know I’m not being original when I say that this game could not have been released at a better time, when making a home of your own deserted island sounds like a prelapsarian paradise to everyone on Earth who doesn’t already live on one. What can I say that hasn’t been said already? Even The New York Times wrote about how relaxing the game can be in these times of pestilence, quarantine, and Armageddon.
Since its initial release about a month ago, there have been countless words about the newest addition to the Animal Crossing series.