| Quick Verdict: Tall Trails is a 3-6 hour game where you explore the landscape through platforming. The level of difficulty scaled well without being frustrating. I enjoyed the entirety of this game, from the gameplay and aesthetics to the music. Tall Trails is a great game for a cozy gamer’s shelf. |
| Game: | Tall Trails |
| Developer(s): | Brady Soglin |
| Publisher: | Brady Soglin |
| Review Score: | 10 |
| Cozy Score: | 10 |
| Price: | $12 |
| Pros: | The vibes were 10 out of 10 cozy, I found the art style to be so quirky and charming, and I didn’t run into any bugs. I felt like the challenge level was perfectly balanced. |
| Cons: | There’s a giant toilet in one of the levels that you can very easily get stuck in even with three items at the bottom to help you out. |
| Platforms: | PC |
| Genres: | Exploration, Platformer |
Tall Trails is an exploration platformer where you play as a small golem named “Alp”. Every golem has a purpose in life, whether that’s to grow mushrooms or even eat sand. Each golem does their part in furthering “The Big Plan” set forth by the wizard who oversees the lands.
However, Alp doesn’t have a purpose, so he has no way to help contribute. In an effort to find his purpose, he decides to talk with the wizard, but in order to get into the tower, he has to fix the broken clay machines that power the door.
Alp will take you through three different domains with several islands in each area in order to find clay and repair the clay receptacles. Each island is different and has unique challenges and varied items that can be used in order to find the clay scattered around. Along the way, you’ll find pinwheels to spin and friends to help.
Tall Trails is mostly an exploration game, but in order to reach the tallest summits, you’ll have to do some platforming. Fortunately, the stakes are fairly low when it comes to scaling things. The hardest challenge was at the end, and while it was nerve-wrecking, I only fell once. And, instead of starting me back at the bottom, I was popped back at the place I jumped from.
So, if you’re concerned about the platforming bit, don’t. It’s a pretty chill experience. In fact, the thing that frustrated me the most wasn’t even the jumping around. The last world is kind of swampy and slows you down, so that was the thing I found to be the most hindering of everything.
Watch the trailer for Tall Trails!
Personally, I really enjoyed playing Tall Trails, and I wasn’t expecting a game based on silly little golems where you climb structures to have such a positive and heartfelt ending.
If you want to just collect clay and do the bare minimum, then you’re probably looking at about a 3-4 hour game. If you’re like me, however, you’ll want to do everything possible before leaving. Usually, this just means finding the pinwheels scattered around. Once they’re activated, it’ll give you a little stamp. When you get four stamps, you’ll be given a random item, usually a star that you can use to upgrade badges.
Badges are something you earn through completing certain challenges or buying them from the shop. The badges can be applied to Alp to help him climb better, jump higher, etc. These are invaluable because the difficulty in the landscape definitely scales up as you progress through the lands.
Along with the pinwheels, you may be given tasks by the other golems that hang out in the campsite where the shop is. Or, you may find a gift that one of the golems would appreciate.
By taking the time to do the extra stuff, you’ll be rewarded with cosmetic items, money, stars, or clay. Since I tried to do everything I could, my game ended up lasting around 6 hours of gameplay.
Through exploring, you’ll come into contact with items that you can pick up and use to help launch yourself to greater heights. When launching, you’re generally using consumable items, but you’ll get passive items that work best with jumping as well, which are two separate ways to climb. You can only hold three items at a time, so figuring out what takes priority is part of the challenge.
Personally, I preferred the passive items that affected my jump or gave me the ability to hover longer. These items were crickets, frogs, leaves, etc. Since they were passive, I didn’t have to worry about launching.
I felt that crickets were the best passive items, with the frogs as a close second.
Launching meant that I could give Alp a large boost that could be done three times in a row, and to push you up further than simply jumping. Sometimes, items could just be used once, like rocks or mushrooms. However, you could pick up a cherry or a watermelon that would pop open the fruit and use the seeds as extra ammunition to reach greater heights.
You do have a stamina bar to be mindful of, but there are badges that can help extend that gauge.
Overall, I found Tall Trails to be a delightful little game. I didn’t run into any bugs, the music was great, and the art style is just so charming. The golems are silly little guys, which longtime readers know is my absolute favorite type of character to play.
I had a lot of fun, and I think it’s a great game for others to dive into for a cozy experience. Plus, once you’ve finished the main storyline, you can replay the game with a randomly generated world. It’ll be the same premise, but everything will be turned around so you can explore the world all over again.
I highly recommend this indie game done by a solo developer. It’s always a marvel to see what one person can construct. Hell, I even love the MS Paint-style loading images. Something about it felt modern while feeling like I could have played it back in my heyday of Newgrounds.
If you’d like to give Tall Trails a try, you can grab it from Steam for $12. It’ll be released on August 4th, and I definitely think it’s worth the money. Otherwise, you can check out some of the other games I’ve reviewed lately: Spray Paint Simulator and Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping.
