SMALLAND: Survive the Wilds is a fantasy open-world game produced by Merge Games. Its Early Access version was released in March 2023 on Steam.
You play as a tiny fairy, one of many in a vast and beautiful Mouse World. Your queen has fallen gravely ill, and so King Valdemar has directed his Vanguard Corps to venture into the dangerous Overland and find a cure. As a member of the Corps, you must explore, survive, and pacify this strange land.
This game includes the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Zig-Zagged, to a human, the sewers under the Greylands would barely be big enough to fit a hand into, to your character, it's massive.
- After the End: The game takes place after an unspecified incident has apparently rendered "Giants" (Humans) extinct, evidenced by two areas specifically, the Greylands is simply a broken part of a street, with a couple of vehicles covered in overgrowth, and the Marsh, which has several human skeletons in it, including the faction leader Lisandra's base, inside a ribcage.
- Ant Assault: One of the more common enemy types, appears in several sizes and colors. Anything larger than a small worker ant will attack you on sight.
- Breakable Weapons: All tools, weapons and armor have durability bars and break when they are depleted. They can be repaired at workbenches, but the more damaged the item is, the more materials you'll need to repair it.
- Death of a Child: In the Marsh, you find several skeletons, judging by the fact that you are smaller than an ant, and at least one skeleton is, while huge, not gargantuan, implies that skeleton is a childs.
- Falling Damage: Falling far enough hurts you, although you can mitigate it with certain flying mounts and armor sets that let you glide.
- Find the Cure!: The reason the Vanguards are sent beyond the Burrows. No pressure, though.
- Horse of a Different Color: The player can tame grasshopper and gecko mounts, among others.
- Improvised Armor / Improvised Weapon: Tools, weapons and armor can be made from grass fibers, stone, insect parts, bottle caps and all sorts of other materials.
- Nemean Skinning: Bug heads, mandibles and other insect organs are used to craft various armor sets.
- Not Quite Flight: The Regal Armor breastplate has wings that allow the player to glide while in the air, letting them cross large gaps and avoid Falling Damage.
- Player Headquarters: Climbing an unoccupied Great Tree lets you claim it. The very top of a claimed tree acts as a giant flat space free of mobs or obstacles, allowing players to build elaborate bases safe from hostile insects. You can even transfer what you've built to another unclaimed Great Tree if you want to move it somewhere else.
- Poisoned Weapons: Poisonous melee weapons and arrows can be crafted using components such as wasp stingers. Some enemy attacks are are capable of poisoning YOU, as well.
- Shout-Out: A team of elite troubleshooters led by a King Valdemar? Wait...
