Lumberhill from 2BIGo, ARP Games and All in! Games is a great multiplayer title that was released onto Steam on June 13 2021. If you’re a fan of games such as Overcooked and Overcooked 2, Lumberhill will definitely appeal to you because it follows a very similar formula. Does the game do enough to set it apart though and should you purchase it ? Let’s explore this.
In Lumberhill, players will take on the role of a lumberjack. Players can initially choose from either a burly lumberjack man or a lumberjack lady to play as. As you progress throughout the game you’ll unlock a lot more characters such as Sofia or Janus. After selecting your character, players will load up a map and be tasked with accumulating points until the timer runs out. Accumulate enough points and you’ll earn stars. Each level has 3 starts to unlock and an additional challenge which unlocks a bonus axe. Collecting stars and axes unlocks even more content in the game.
From the above, it sounds pretty simple and formulaic and to be quite honest, it is. However, that’s not a bad thing at all since this is a formula that works. Gameplay in Lumberhill revolves around chopping trees for wood for a sawmill and herding animals such as sheep, pandas, pigs and more into a barn. Players will have to follow the on-screen visual prompt which will show up at the bottom of the screen as to what is required to earn points. You can have multiple of these requests show up so you’ll be juggling the chopping and collecting of wood for the sawmill while trying to herd animals to the barn too.
Things escalate further when the game decides to kick it up a notch and introduce environmental obstacles and weather effects such as wind and lightning. Oh and there’s fire too. SO, MUCH, FIRE! Seriously, the panic really sets in when fire starts spreading. Players will have to rush to get buckets of water to put out fires before trees start burning and everything else caught in its path catches alight.
As you progress throughout the levels, they become increasingly more difficult. The game starts off incredibly relaxed with some easy to play levels but becomes frantically intense towards the end of a world. There are multiple worlds to unlock and each world has a large set of levels to get through. Players can also reconstruct bridges in levels by chopping trees and throwing wood at the broken bridge remnants to rebuild them.
Each world also has its own unique aesthetic and variations to the core gameplay aspects. For example, the Asia world has pandas and bamboo trees as opposed to the Hawaii world which has banana trees and pigs. The individual levels are also varied enough with environmental hazards such as broken bridges, rivers, ocean water, lava and more to get in your way and make things more challenging. After you complete a level, your characters score is tallied up, stars are awarded and they pose for a photograph. It feels rewarding and is quite a nice touch.
Graphically, Lumberhill looks great with a cartoony aesthetic and vibrant colours. Each world and level has had a lot of attention to detail paid to it with even subtle things such as the wind blowing trees and shadows from clouds looking absolutely gorgeous. Kudos to the development teams here since they did a great job with the game’s colourful graphics.
The soundtrack used in Lumberhill suits the game’s frantic mood perfectly with music that’s upbeat. There’s no voice acting in the game apart from some bare minimum character sounds when confirming yourself as “Ready” before loading up a level.
Lumberhill also features a competitive Player versus Player mode and thankfully, players can choose to play the game solo or online with other people. Players can also host their own private lobbies for playing the game with their friends. Running the game on PC, players are advised to enable Vsync otherwise the game will crash. This happened during our play session.
In summary, Lumberhill is an excellent game that follows a similar formula to Overcooked. There isn’t an overarching storyline here but playing through all the levels in each of the worlds is rewarding especially when you unlock new characters and additional levels. Playing the game with friends is even more rewarding since you’ll find yourselves having truckloads of fun while dealing with the game’s environmental hazards and other challenges. Lumberhill comes highly recommended from us if you’re looking for a solid indie title with a fun yet formulaic co-op focus.
Publisher: All in! Games SA
Developers: 2BIGo, ARP GAMES, 2BIGo Sp. z o.o.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch and PC
This version is based on the PC version of the game which can be purchased here for £11.39
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