Redwall meets Skyrim in this new game from Bethesda, BioWare, and Naughty Dog alumni

Hawthorne is everything I love doing everything I don't

Why, Hawthorne, must you put in me a position where I have to balance my love of woodland fantasy against my complete exhaustion with chopping things down to build other things? There are two scurrying mammals wearing robes inside of me, and they both love Redwall, Mice And Mystics, and Mouse Guard, but might spontaneously combust if they have to craft another hatchet. A trailer, eh? Is...is that a mouse and an otter dancing on top of a table, each grasping a mug of ale in their tiny paws and dancing to fiddle music? Fine! Fine! I’m not happy about this, but Fine!

My experience watching that trailer went something like this. “Oh, building furniture from gathered materials. Great”. Then, “he’s too small to reach the table but he’s still trying his best!”. “Hitting pumpkins with an axe. Wow”. Then, “he’s dragging the pumpkin! It’s five times the size of him but he’s still dragging it!”. At one point, a mouse wearing a flatcap asks “Cuppa time, innit?”. I’ve…never felt so conflicted before. It’s everything I could ever want from an almost entirely different videogame.

“Former developers from Bethesda, BioWare, and Naughty Dog bring you a sandbox RPG realm of anthropomorphic animals and fairy creatures,” reads the Steam page. “Play co-op or solo as you build a village of memorable NPCs, farm, craft, explore, and celebrate the seasons in an ever-changing world bigger than you.”

It’s from NEARstudios, who include Jason Richardson (Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect: Andromeda), artist Heather Cerlan (The Last Of Us, Dragon Age 2), and Bruce Nesmith (Skyrim). You can play either solo or co-op, and, oh…what’s this? “Tasks you’d rather not do? Your NPC villagers can take them on instead!” Rodentured servitude!? That is all you had to say, Hawthorne. I will feed them one small slice of pumpkin a day, fill their heads with fabricated fables about how glorious it is to serve me specifically, and I will sit around all day drinking ale.

“Harvest, fish, and farm,” it adds. The trailer shows that said fishing involves riding an eagle across lakes and swooping down to catch fish in its talons. “Rebuild and decorate the homes among the roots of great trees. Learn to craft different styles. Cater to your villagers’ preferences and they will follow you to the end.” Of course they will. I run the pumpkin game. They’ve got nowhere else to go.

There is this, though. Up to you how you feel about it, of course. “Hawthorn will not ship with AI-generated content. However, 2D AI imagery, after being significantly edited by humans, is used for placeholder 2D art and iconography in the pre-alpha development version of the game. This placeholder art may be seen in various pre-release demos. However, AI-based art will be replaced before Hawthorn is available for purchase.”

This feels like a not entirely shameless time to plug my own crack at woodland fantasy, which is free on Itch here if you grab a community copy. It’s got a porcupine merchant in it that sells his own spines as weapons. The deals are great but, oh, he’s freezing because business has been too good lately! That’s so sad! You wouldn’t want leave him even colder, would you?

If you’re up for more mousecapades, Redwall got its own game back in February. Hawthorne doesn't have a confirmed release date just yet.