Tree of Life: Oddria! is a Brand New Open-World Survival RPG!

Man, I must’ve had a lot to drink last night because I don’t remember falling asleep on the beach, and uh.. wait, what happened to my clothes? Eh well, y’know what? Doesn’t matter.
Mrs Stix and I have always been pretty big fans of the survival genre. We’ve played every new survival game announced over the last few years, and here we are, in December 2020, jumping into yet another one – Tree of Life: Oddria! An upcoming co-operative survival game!

So we wake up on a tropical island. Naked. No gear. No items. But that’s only temporary, as as one would expect, we’re capable of smacking trees and obtaining wood to begin crafting the necessary items for our ultimate domination of the island.
So we got wood – which if you know me shouldn’t be difficult to believe, we made our trusty torch and begun to explore the island.
We did notice before going any further that there was plenty to craft: Basic items, crafting stations, structures to aid in the construction of your house.
There were also various Masteries you could choose to invest into: Adventure, Crafting, Community and Living. These Masteries allowed for you to unlock additional items to craft, essentially acting as the main form of progression in the game.

After we took the time to learn everything we could, we set out on our grand adventure. Smacking trees. Smacking stones. Smacking barrels. Smacking more trees. One might be lead to believe that we have a weird obsession with smacking trees, but this was taken from Mrs Stix’s perspective, so I can’t confirm nor deny specifics.
At a certain point we unlocked the ability to craft weapons and armor. Obviously the first thing any adventurer should craft is a weapon, right? So we prepared a sword for our journey.
Then we ran head-first into the woods to begin engaging enemies, getting XP from murdering the wildlife on the island – not for food, but just to set an example to the rest of the woodland creatures.

Admittedly, the combat was pretty solid for a game in this stage of development. I noticed that the enemies we encountered, the shark guys were mostly resistant to knockback and CC. You’d start smacking them and they’d pretty much smack you back, requiring you to either dodge, parry or.. well, take the damage.
And considering the little we had on in terms of gear, it’s probably ideal to attempt to defend in some form.
There were a variety of different monsters on the island: Slimes, Goblins, Spiders, Street Sharks – yes, I’m old enough where I can make that reference, innocent little piggies, bunnies, baby chic’s.
There’s also plenty to do on the island, and surprisingly various different NPC’s to meet. Typically in survival games you’re thrown into a world, you seek out resources, you craft. But that’s it.
In Tree of Life, while yes that’s still the bulk of the game it’s refreshing to see that there are NPC’s present as well. I dunno. It adds a little personality to the game in my opinion and helps fill out the world with more than just.. everything being out there to kill you.

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw playing through Tree of Life: Oddria!
I’ve always been a fan of survival games. They really appeal to both Mrs Stix and I. They present a certain sense of freedom that really isn’t replicated outside of that specific genre.
Tree of Life is no different. You have countless, endless freedom to play how you want. You can spend most your time hunting monsters or you can slowly explore the enormous island you’re presented with, crafting your own dream home.
The game will feature full co-operative play, allowing groups of players to all co-exist – peacefully? Maybe that’s asking too much. But they’ll co-exist for sure in some capacity.
You’ll either work together, or struggle alone. But I feel like that’s part of the fun of a survival game, right? Deciding how you want to play, forging allegiances, breaking alliances, making enemies, working together or against one another towards a common or uncommon goal.

This is still technically a work in progress, with Tree of Life having a planned release of some time during the first quarter of 2021.
So you can bet there will be plenty expanded on by the time you ultimately get the chance to get in-game yourself.

I’m curious where Tree of Life: Oddria! is going to end up going in the future, and am more than happy to have been presented the opportunity to play the game ahead of it releasing to the public.