SMALLAND: Survive the Wilds is a fantasy open-world game produced by Merge Games. It's 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, but to your character. they're massive.
- After the End: The game takes place after an unspecified incident has apparently rendered "Giants" (humans) extinct. The Greylands region is simply a broken-up street, complete with vehicles covered in overgrowth, and the Marsh has several human skeletons in it- including the ribcage that houses Lisandra's base.
- Ant Assault: Ants are a common enemy type that appear 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. One of them is huge but not gargantuan, implying that that skeleton is a child's.
- Falling Damage: Falling far enough hurts you, although you can avoid the trope with flying mounts and armor sets that enable you to 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 with components like wasp stingers. Some enemy attacks can poison YOU, as well.
- Shout-Out: A team of elite troubleshooters led by a King Valdemar? Wait...
