The Wild at Heart: Game Pass first impressions

By Heidi Nicholas,

The Wild at Heart is gorgeous. Seriously, look up “whimsical” in the dictionary and... well, there won’t be a picture of The Wild at Heart there, but there should be. The game’s focus on childhood adventure and escapism is everywhere in its lovely childlike aesthetic and the eccentricities of its characters — such as the polite fellow who seems quite happy to have his head stuck inside a kettle — but The Wild at Heart isn’t always so friendly. There’s something of a Bridge to Terabithia vibe in the way our protagonist Wake plunges headfirst into a fantastical world to escape the hardships of his reality, and the bizarre creatures that emerge every night in the Deep Woods suggest he hasn’t managed to flee it entirely. But, first things first — The Wild at Heart launched into Xbox Game Pass just yesterday. And do we recommend it? We do! Why? Well, read on…

The Wild at Heart has you exploring the magical world of the Deep Woods, rebuilding the order of the Greenshields, and growing a horde of small creatures called Spritelings. These Spritelings are a key part of everything. They help in combat, in exploration, and in solving puzzles — most of all, collecting them is pretty irresistible, and you’ll find yourself on the lookout for any means to grow your Spriteling army. This role of Spriteling-herder seems, for the most part, to be a caring one... until you learn that the only way to get Spritelings to interact with things is to literally throw them at everything and sort of see what sticks. They’re perfectly happy to do whatever tasks you ask, but until you’ve flung them around a bit, you’re not sure what they can do. Twiglings are fine against most enemies, but fling them at a thornbush? No! Bad idea! Fling them across a bubbling hot pond? Another bad idea; they’ll shriek and come speeding back to you, full of disbelief that you’d have put them in harm's way like that. The attraction of this quickly-built bond with your Spriteling buddies — which, admittedly, led to one very traumatic moment where I thought I’d accidentally killed half of mine — is strengthened by the variety available. In my first few hours with the game, I’ve found two different types: Twiglings and Emberlings. Each type of Spriteling has its own particular strengths and uses and can navigate different obstacles, meaning you’ll need to strategize your herd as it grows to make sure you’ve got every type you need.

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Wake is armed with a Gustbuster — one of his own inventions — which lets you hoover up various valuables and recall Spritelings, and it’s great fun to head out into the world, kicking any promising boxes or bin bags and flinging Spritelings at everything in reach, before hoovering up any goodies you find. The Wild at Heart’s gentle soundtrack almost lulls you into a false sense of security as you do this, and it’s easy to forget to keep an eye on the time, but if night falls and you’re not at camp or near a light, you and your Spritelings are suddenly very vulnerable to an attack from The Never — spooky ghost-like creatures that’ll go straight for your Spriteling friends. If you're at camp you can just save and sleep until morning, which is a much more attractive option than the alternative: if you're out huddling around a light in the darkness of the Deep Woods, you're left to wait out the night, unable to move from the light, until sunrise. While in Spiritfarer, for example, you could still move around the ship and work on farming, cooking, fishing, or any other activity, I haven't yet found a safe way to move from the light in The Wild at Heart without losing my Spritelings, which means any night spent waiting out in the woods is just that: waiting. It's possible future unlocks or upgrades which I haven't yet found will minimise the inconvenience of this, however; plus, if you do manage to get back to camp, this limit on your exploration time functions more as a good way of ensuring exploration doesn’t feel too stale or grindy, and after a few close calls and lost Spritelings — and one achievement for staying out all night away from camp — I made sure my little buddies were back at the base each night.

Crafting is another key focus for The Wild at Heart. Anything from empty bottles and tin cans to fruit and “beastie bits” can be used in crafting new tools, structures, food, tonics, and more. The game’s main hub area, known as The Grove, is full of things that need repairing, lending a fun base-building aspect to the game. Admittedly, aside from a few repairs in The Grove and a few meals, I haven’t really managed to get stuck into crafting yet, although the resource gathering is one area where that theme of childhood adventure shines through — every new place is full of promise and shiny things to fling your Spritelings at. The finicky nature of aiming where to fling your Spritelings can get a little irritating, as it’s sometimes hard to aim them exactly where you want, leading them to stand around, idle and unamused, until you hoover them back to you with the Gustbuster. Plus, if you accidentally fling them into anything dangerous and lose them, you’ll need to either head back to a camp to withdraw more or, if you haven’t got any waiting back at base, you’ll need to find and hatch pip seeds, which can take a bit of backtracking.

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The Wild at Heart’s achievements seem to follow its core gameplay of exploration, crafting, combat, and resource gathering. We spoke to Moonlight Kids in our Xbox Exclusives Spotlight on The Wild at Heart, where they told us that the team “aren't the biggest fans of achievements that tie 1:1 with progression, but we understand it's an industry standard and something players have come to expect.” You’ll find a few progression-related achievements, but the devs say they wanted the rest “to be something a player might stumble into somewhat naturally (like crafting your first item,) or something for the completionists (like crafting every item.)” On top of that, “there’s a small batch of achievements that were just kind of fun, weird things we’d accidentally done ourselves while playing, that we thought might make good (usually hidden) achievements.”

Summary

It remains to be seen whether The Wild at Heart's herd-growing and resource-gathering mechanics become more of a chore, but the first few hours we've spent exploring the Deep Woods give the impression that The Wild at Heart is brimming with charm. So, if you're looking for your next Xbox Game Pass adventure, and like the sound of being a Spriteling-herder, we recommend checking out The Wild at Heart while it's in the Game Pass library.

Heidi spent three hours or so rootling through the mysteries of the Deep Woods, earning five achievements as she went.

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Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.