Cozy Grove: New Neighbears Review

My assessment for Cozy Grove nonetheless haunts me, which is suitable for a recreation about ghost bears. 

Like Animal Crossing, it’s a recreation that blossoms over months, even years, as all the things develops in real-time. However as a lot as we wish them to, critiques can’t wait that size of time. Or extra particularly, they can, however most individuals can have made their determination of whether or not to purchase it in that interval, making the assessment moderately moot.

So, we performed it for a shorter time than it deserves, and scored it decrease than – once more – it deserves. We handed it a 3.5/5 (not a foul rating, however one decrease than we must always have given it), after which proceeded to play it for the remainder of the 12 months. It’s sensible, one in every of 2021’s most interesting video games, and it’s best to completely, positively ignore the assessment that I wrote and purchase it. 

However there’s a possibility for review-redemption, as a result of Cozy Grove has acquired its first large-scale DLC. The New Neighbears DLC is in the home for £5.79 (Cozy Grove base recreation required), and we get to hold our emotions of injustice (in opposition to ourselves) into its assessment. 

For anybody who hasn’t performed Cozy Grove, a fast synopsis: you play a Spirit Scout, castaway on the island of Cozy Grove that has its fair proportion of ghost bears. These bears all have unresolved enterprise, from misplaced reminiscences to remorse over how they dominated the island. Your job, as Spirit Scout, is to deliver them peace, slowly over a number of missions. And people missions take you in regards to the island doing very Animal-Crossing-like issues, equivalent to gathering shells, cooking meals and fishing fish. 

And it’s excellent, so long as you perceive what it’s making an attempt to do. This isn’t a recreation you possibly can binge. You play for fifteen minutes or so a day; play any longer and diminishing returns be sure that it feels unsatisfying. So, you’re coming again day after day, week after week, to see what’s new and full your ghostly chores. Over time, the island grows, new bears arrive, new instruments unlock so that you can use, and abruptly you’ve umpteen Spirit Scout badges and the island is roofed in golden bears. 

Nevertheless it’s not full any extra. The New Neighbears DLC introduces – as you’d count on from the title – some new bears so that you can appease. In case you’ve performed Cozy Grove, you’ll know that new bears characterize probably the most substantial additions that the sport may make, exterior of a brand new landmass, so it is a chunk of recent content material, and a assured additional few months or so inside Cozy Grove. 

Some housekeeping: the 4 bears – Beatrice Mellifera, Archie Pawston, Ben Hiberneczek and Lillian McQuill – aren’t added to the fringes of the island. We couldn’t fairly inform you why they aren’t: there are actually giant, empty swathes of Cozy Grove that they might be added to. Maybe The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild felt like it could make navigating the island an excessive amount of of a chore. As an alternative, they substitute a number of of the bears that beforehand existed. Arjun Bhalla, Bruin Tram, Ursula Pine and Clyde Wallace have all been given the heave-ho, and the brand new bears take their place. You may see why these bears have been chosen – they don’t provide any retailers or crafting, like the opposite bears do – however we discovered it an actual disgrace to see them depart. We had actual mushy spots for Arjun and Ursula specifically. And it’s price noting that it’s a must to have accomplished these bears to see the brand new DLC inclusions. 

On the constructive facet, it’s not like the standard has dropped within the swap. The brand new neighbears are unbelievable, written to the identical normal – if not higher – than the characters which have departed. Our favorite is Lillian McQuill, a papercraft mouse-bear with acute imposter syndrome. Her inside monologue may be heard by the participant, together with her ego and id in a slinging match with one another. It’s finely noticed and a bit heartbreaking. Ben is the worst of the bunch, largely as a result of he appears to channel the identical energies as Clyde Wallace, however everybody has a hook that makes them a pleasure to see develop. 

Extra importantly, all of the chaff has been faraway from their missions. In Cozy Grove, repeatable, filler missions would stretch out their storylines, diluting the enjoyment of bringing peace to the characters and turning them into their gold, pleased selves. In New Neighbears, most – if not all – of that chaff has gone. It’s new dialogue, new missions, all the time. That focus of what makes Cozy Grove nice is New Neighbears’ most interesting addition (the storylines don’t get a lot shorter – so far as we will inform – both), and it makes the DLC completely important for everybody who dipped into the unique recreation. 

We’d have taken the 4 new bears alone for £5.79 DLC, however there are some neat frills to the doily. Butterflies have been added, simply in case you wanted extra bugs drawing your eye, however at the very least they’re ring-fenced to your flower patches. You may inform that The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild needed to supply extra causes to develop flowers (they’re among the most onerous and arguably least profitable issues to develop), so the butterflies, together with their new collections and missions, make a case for creating your personal little backyard patch. 

Rainbow cat pets have been added, and – once more – you sense the builders are trying to unravel an issue by stuffing an animal into them. In Cozy Grove, we didn’t use our home a lot: there wasn’t a lot use for it past stacking up furnishings we didn’t use. However rainbow cats can solely be added to your home. So, you’re including them to every room, with a staggering 9 hearts to fill by feeding them and surrounding them with decor they like. We discovered ourselves creating cozy rooms, rustic rooms, spooky rooms and many others to fulfill the totally different wants of the cats, and chances are you’ll need to accomplish that too. 

In any other case, there are small additions like events with the bears that may be triggered by chatting to Archie Sawston (a pinata bear that LOVES to get down), and some others – some additional outfits, some new baked items – that you’ll uncover as you play. Exterior of the brand new bears, it’s a liberal scattering of issues to seek out, study and make. 

However what New Neighbears does finest, and what crammed us with happiness once we noticed it on the Xbox Retailer, is provide new and substantial causes to return to Cozy Grove. For these of us who’ve been there from day one, who’ve been watching the island develop with seasonal and different smaller updates, Cozy Grove had begun to lose its luster. It’s taken over a 12 months to start out feeling stale, which isn’t any imply achievement, however it ran out of issues to do. And with 4 new bears, lining up with lengthy and filler-less storylines, the New Neighbears DLC has discovered the right methodology of bringing that color again to the sport. 

We don’t know who gave Cozy Grove 3.5 out of 5 when it was first reviewed, however they want their head checked out. The New Neighbears DLC for Cozy Grove underlines simply why this excellent sibling to Animal Crossing is such a 4.5 out 5 recreation. Seize the Spirit Scout uniform, and begin accumulating some new badges.

You should buy Cozy Grove: New Neighbears DLC from the Xbox Retailer