Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator is, well, exactly what it says on the tin. Made by Niceplay games and published by tinyBuild, it offers a fairly relaxing, low stakes scenario to enjoy. Everybody needs something like that sometimes, right?
The story is fairly light. An alchemist is you, and you find a run-down house on the fringes of town that just so happens to have previously belonged to another alchemist. You fix things up, and go into the potion selling business. That’s pretty much it.
That said, story isn’t everything, and in Potion Craft’s case, it absolutely applies. It has a simple, yet fun, gameplay loop. Make potion, sell potion. All of your patrons have certain types of effects in mind when they come into your store. So it’s your job to make a potion with that effect. You do so by using ingredients to chart a course on the potion map, Start stirring to follow it, and when you pass over an effect, you can lock it in with the bellows. You’re given a mortar and pestle to grind medicine and make it more effective, the aforementioned bellows, and a pitcher of water/oil, which allows you to “nudge” your path back towards center. Oil has its own map, but fundamentally works much the same.
You also get a garden that replenishes daily, providing ingredients for your potions. There’s also an alchemy machine, but it has its own quirks to it. And really, that’s all. You gather your mats, do a day’s work, go to bead, then do it all again. And if you screw up, it’s really no big deal, always other fish in the sea. You can minimize mistakes by registering a successfully made potion in your book, though.
The controls are simple; almost everything is done by mouse, from stirring to grinding to working the bellows, even navigation (though you can use WASD for that). There are hotkeys for a number of basic functions, though I never really got around to memorizing them.
Visually, the game emulates the style of ancient tapestries and illuminated manuscripts, and does so well. It creates a pleasant, familiar atmosphere. If there’s one problem with it, it would be that various actors, so to speak, will appear again and again. That said, almost every game reuses NPC sprites, so it’s not that big a deal.
As far as sound goes, it nails the medieval aesthetic. While the soundtrack is fairly limited, it goes bardcore as all hell. It works; really makes you want to stir some junk into a pot. And yes, I mean that positively.
If I were to nitpick, I only had one problem with the game. That being that every time I start it up, it takes 10 minutes to load. Admittedly, it plays flawlessly after that, and more importantly, it’s probably due to my PC being a russet potato. It’s really just my fault, but I figured I’d bring it up.
So I’d definitely recommend Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator. Sure, it’s not the epic quest, or adrenaline-pumping thrill ride that most prefer. But if you just want to settle in and make some potions to unwind, it’s great for that. It’s the sort of game that I kind of wish tinyBuild advertised a bit more.
Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator is great game to chill with, and there’s little more you could ask for.
Pros:
+ Perfect little chill game to jump into
+ Bardcore AF
+ Not demanding
+ “Jesse, we have to cook.”
Cons:
− Probably won’t satisfy those looking for a complex game
− Sometimes your customers are dumb
−Takes 10 minutes to load on a potato
Final Score:
RELEASE DATE: Dec 13, 2022
DEVELOPER: Niceplay Games
PUBLISHER: tinyBuild
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