I was very pleased to play the demo for the game Adorable Adventures. It’s been on my radar for a while!! It was developed and published by Wild Sheep Studio, a small team of 12 located in France. I played on a PC with a controller, which the demo actually requires to play. Keyboard and mouse support are planned for the final version of the game.

The Backstory of Adorable Adventures

I played as Boris, who is an amazingly realistic baby wild boar with an amazingly realistic sense of smell! The demo is a prequel; in it, he spends a lot of time learning how to use his sense of smell and finding an item for his brother. In the final game, a forest fire will have scattered his family, and he must gather them together so they can build a new home. Adorable Adventures is narrated in French (which I loved!) and has very clear and easy-to-read English subtitles, so there was no problem understanding what was said.

The demo has a manual save feature, which wasn’t made clear to me. I played for 45 minutes but sadly got stuck in a rock formation. When I closed the game and reopened it, I realized it had not saved, which was disappointing. But I wanted to play* Adorable Adventures* so badly that I decided to start the demo over, and that’s when I discovered the save feature. When you play, make sure you save often! As a side note, I read in the Steam comments that getting stuck is rocks happens in the demo, and the devs are working to correct this in the final game.

I need a lot of handholding when I begin a game; it’s a ME thing. While this game gave a lot of instructions, some parts were not clear to me until I played a second time. So in a way, I’m glad the game didn’t save the first time because I enjoyed the demo even more the second time around!

The Environment

The setting for Adorable Adventures is fantastic! It’s a very realistic-looking forest with hills, valleys, trees, grasses, boulders and waterfalls. The graphics are superb. It’s a 3D open-world game with a very quiet and soothing soundtrack. Along with the calm music are the sounds of Boris making clip-clop footsteps as he walks around, and his snuffling as he smells things. There’s also a variety of natural forest sounds like birds, waterfalls and grass rustling. It’s a very peaceful place to spend some time.

Right now in the demo, the camera is a bit tricky; it does not automatically follow Boris. The developers have already said that in the final game, there will be a setting to have the camera automatically follow him. That will be an improvement. But the game needs very few improvements; it’s great right now.

The landscape has plenty of rock ledges where you can stand and look at the scenery. And you can’t accidentally fall off, I tried! However, if you are following a scent trail, you can slide down a mountain and land safely. Sometimes, if I got too close to the edge of a cliff, I’d hear my hooves scramble on the rocks, and I’d hear some loose rocks tumble down the mountain, but I would not fall. What great effects! It’s a very chill game intended for you to explore at your own pace, and however you choose.

Boris is so realistic! And so is the setting.

The Gameplay of Adorable Adventures

The gameplay revolves around an unseen world, scent. My initial task was to find a certain herb to heal my brother, Gary. I would be finding it via its scent.

I was taught to use my very sensitive boar nose to detect the scents of different and varied things like different types of plants, my sibling and even an old tin can!! I enabled my scent detector, and a trail of colored bubbles appeared, leading me to something. The bottom left corner of the screen told me what trail I was following. If it’s a new scent, I saw question marks until I was able to find and identify it.

I have the ability to walk, run and jump. I can also go crashing through any leaf piles I find and that’s a lot of fun! The leaves go flying in a very realistic way.

Here I am following the scent trail of dandelions.

After finding an item four different times, I can choose to ignore its scent in the future. That way, if I’m looking for a bluebell, for example, but I pick up the scent of a dandelion instead, I can just turn off the dandelion scent. However, as an extra challenge, you can also choose to complete the scent of each item. To do that, you have to find it a certain number of times by following the scent trail. The number of times you need to find an item varies depending on the item. For example, I needed to find 12 poppies but only 7 junipers. Once you complete the item, you are awarded a prize.

The scent trails are absolutely not linear!! They wind and weave as they probably do in real life. Sometimes the scent trail led me on a path I simply could not follow, so I had to plan an alternate route. That was a fun challenge! Other times, I slid down a hill because there was loose gravel, so I had to find a grassy way up instead. Those little challenges break up the gameplay and make it interesting. There are also bits of trash here and there, and I had to bring them to a trash can and drop them in. Gotta keep the park clean!

Things That Aren’t Quite Clear to Me Yet

I haven’t quite figured out the racing component of the game yet. Sometimes, after I find something, a bunch of white butterflies appear and form an arrow on the ground. Then I was able to run real fast through a series of arches. It’s timed, so I’m challenging myself to beat my previous time. I enjoyed the races, and I’m sure that with more gameplay, I’ll understand the mechanics better.

I have seen red dots in the sky from time to time. They remind me of the poppies I found in the game. I’m not sure yet what they signify when they are not on the ground, but I’m sure I’ll find out at some point.

I discovered some Xs on some trees and rocks. I believe I saw red ones and blue ones. I’m not sure what they are yet, but I expect it will be explained in the final game. So many discoveries await me!

I’m not sure what the blue X signifies. But look at the landscape detail! Magnificent.

There’s one more item I haven’t mastered yet. I found a wildlife camera, and I also found some old, faded photographs. I have to place my camera in certain spots to recreate the old photographs. I will continue to work on that during the demo, but I’ll also know that I have that challenge to look forward to in the final game.

Your Herbarium

This is the journal of the scents you have found and/or completed. It also shows quests that you can follow and the prizes you have won. The icons of the items found are all hand-painted with watercolors, so they are unique and feel organic.

This is my next task. I have to find these 3 flowers. The items on the right have been found; the ones with a red circle are currently turned off, so I won’t smell them.These are the prizes I’ve collected so far.

It’s not 100% clear to me what I am supposed to do with the prizes, but I did wear some of the flowers on Boris’s head! Maybe I can do whatever I want with them, just for fun. Lastly, there are rock cairns scattered in the landscape; I was told to knock them down. That’s remarkably satisfying!

Final Thoughts

I learned about Adorable Adventures a while ago and have eagerly awaited it. I’m so happy to have played the demo; Adorable Adventures is fantastic. I played for three 45-minute sessions, the first one, which did not save and the second one, which was a total of 1 ½ hours of gameplay. I made it to the end of the demo, but I kept playing just to explore a little longer. (I didn’t want to leave, to be honest!)Adorable Adventures’ Steam page has links to the backstory of making this game. I’d recommend you check those out. I found the process fascinating.

The gameplay is smooth, and the world is so realistic. I read on the Steam page that there will be more animals to interact with in the full game, including more of Boris’ siblings. Adorable Adventures has no day/night cycle, no energy levels to maintain and no danger. It’s a totally cozy open world exploration game, my favorite type! There is no announced release date for the final game, but it will be well worth the wait.

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