Pack your bags with all your essentials and go on a soul-searching trip in Albatroz! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Albatroz Review Overview
What is Albatroz?
Albatroz is an adventure survival RPG set in a fictional landscape called the "Forbidden Lands." Hike across different forests, mountains, and even caves as you manage your needs along the way. Venture with other party members, each having their own strengths, weaknesses, and specialties, as you all work together to survive in the wilderness. The game features a deep narrative where you’ll be meeting new friends and embracing new cultures.
Albatroz features:
⚫︎ Adventure Survival RPG Focused on Hiking
⚫︎ Manage Resources, Travel Plans, and Needs As You Go
⚫︎ Improve Your Abilities to Survive
⚫︎ Compelling Narrative with Unique Characters
⚫︎ High Contrast Visuals With Scenic Landscapes
 Albatroz |
||
|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 PSN |
 Xbox |
Albatroz Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Resource and Needs Management Colorful and Appealing Landscapes |
Cheesy Dialogue Performance and Pacing Issues Not a Realistic Experience |
Albatroz Overall - 72/100
Albatroz is an interesting game about a journey of self-discovery, meeting new people, and appreciating good views. It has a lot going for it with its adventure survival gameplay, as it’s more engaging than other walking simulators out there. However, don’t expect an actual, realistic hiking experience. It’s really an RPG built around the foundation of a more lighthearted survival game and basic resource management.
Albatroz Story - 7/10
It has a pretty compelling storyline following Isla’s journey of self-discovery and search for her lost brother. Without going into it too much, it does a good job of leaving you bits and pieces regarding the overarching story while integrating the different characters that appear throughout the game. However, the writing isn’t exactly great either. The dialogue is pretty cheesy, and there is a possibility that it could be misunderstood very badly if you don’t read much of the context.
Albatroz Gameplay - 6/10
It’s really more of a simpler survival game with RPG mechanics. To call it a walking simulator isn’t really accurate as well since you also need to think about your resources during your foray into the wilderness. However, it does lack more survival elements to make it more engaging as a game centered around hiking and being the best backpacker.
It has progression that lets you circumvent more of the survival aspects of the game, as it lengthens the amount of time before you need to refill your needs again. It even has different party members and unique skills that encourage you to switch characters to get to the objectives quicker and more efficiently. It’s more of a party-based and simpler Pacific Drive if you need an actual comparison, and it’s unique in its own right.
Albatroz Visuals - 7/10
While the game boasts good views and beautiful contrasting landscapes, the game’s performance definitely hampers the good visuals. Other than that, the character models and textures look very dated. To put it simply, the overall aesthetic is good, but checking out each element brings out the flaws in the design.
Albatroz Audio - 8/10
It’s decent as a whole, with the music being the biggest draw. The music is great, as it definitely fits the traveler and hiker vibe that they’re going for. The voice acting is passable but isn’t the main highlight of the audio design.
Albatroz Value for Money - 8/10
The game isn’t the most expensive at $39.99, but it does have a slew of performance issues that harm the overall experience. It’s a good cozy game to play once in a while because of the interesting story and characters, but it does leave a bit more to be desired in terms of gameplay.
Albatroz Review: Unique and Cozy Hiking Sim, Minus the Hiking
It’s been a while since I went on a hike, and I definitely do miss the experience of heading towards a peak for a great view. Enter Albatroz, a backpacking adventure RPG focused on hiking. It’s definitely a unique game where it has RPG elements coupled with survival mechanics that you’ll find in other games, but it doesn’t quite hit the right notes when taken as a whole.
Not Your Average Walking Simulator
If you were to call the game a walking simulator, you’d only be half right. While you’ll be doing a lot of walking, running, climbing, vaulting, and even driving, the game is centered around resource management and adapting to the changes that happen in the environment.
The RPG mechanics are weaved in by highlighting each character’s special skills. Isla, the protagonist, specializes in setting up campsites and being able to have a resilient set of legs, as she’s able to sprint and walk for longer periods of time.
Resource management is also a big thing in the game, as you have to balance being able to keep your characters’ hunger, thirst, arms, and legs healthy so that you can move effectively. This was a big highlight for the first few hours of the game, since you’re still pretty limited with your characters and the amount of space that you had in your backpack.
This gets easier quickly, however, as you use the accumulated Travel Points (TP) to strengthen your characters’ stats to lengthen the amount of time before they get hungry or thirsty. Aside from that, you’d need to constantly use your skills to develop their specialties to have access to better amenities and stronger recipes.
Cheesy Dialogue and Pacing Issues
Parts of the game are Isla’s flashbacks that explain the context of her whole journey. These aren’t really well executed when it came down to it, as they’re done in first-person as opposed to the game being fully in a third-person perspective. They were placed little by little throughout the story, which was alright, but how they function was the biggest problem.
The flashbacks are something you’d expect from a visual novel where you have to interact with everything. The main problem is that interacting with something led to a stop in gameplay, which was annoying when you have to interact with the smallest of things. The pacing of certain story segments and the game having long load times lead to a lot of staring at static for an unhealthy amount of time, which isn’t ideal for any game.
Great Views, Bad Performance
The game definitely has its moments when you reach different peaks and areas. The views are definitely photo mode-worthy, but the performance really harms the whole experience. To put into perspective, my mid-level PC had a hard time running the game and even crashed quite a bit.
Additionally, the game’s character models aren’t great either, as they look very dated and don’t match the game’s overall aesthetic. The lackluster models and textures may be attributed to the performance issues, as I was forced to put the game on low settings to avoid stutters and crashes.
Not As Realistic As You’d Expect
The main draw for the game, at least in my eyes, was the hiking and survival aspect of the game. The game does have this with the resource management, but it doesn’t completely have the feel for it. For a hiking-inspired game, it does some things right. It even takes into account the angle of your footing, which affects your characters’ legs and makes them more tired.
But it isn’t perfect. It didn’t really go the distance to make the whole thing feel more realistic, which may have been intended since it is a fictional and fantasy-centered game. They could have more interactions and animations added when setting up camp or having special conversations during nights out with your companions to make it feel more authentic.
A Unique Journey With Issues
Overall, the game has its upsides as a narrative-centric and cozy adventure survival game. But it leaves a lot more to be desired. The performance could definitely be better, but the foundation of the gameplay could’ve been improved a lot more to enhance the survival aspect. It’s really more of a slightly more engaging walking simulator than most, but doesn’t go the distance to really stand out.
Is Albatroz Worth It?
Definitely Unique, But May Not Be What You’re Looking For
Albatroz is definitely unique with its RPG survival concept that’s centered around hiking. However, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to engaging the audience. There are other survival games out there that could fulfill that itch, but they may not fit the cozy aesthetic and vibe that fits the bill. It’s a game worth considering after a few updates but not if you’re into more survival-focused games.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
PlayStation |
Xbox |
|||
| $39.99 | |||||
Albatroz FAQ
What are the System Requirements to play Albatroz?
The System Requirements listed on Steam are as follows:
| Specifications | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 or above | |
| Processor | Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 | |
| Memory | 8GB RAM | |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon Vega 56 Series or better | NNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD RX 5700 XT |
| Storage | 45 GB | |
| Additional Specs | DirectX10 required | |
Game8 Reviews
You may also like...
Albatroz Product Information
|
|
| Title | ALBATROZ |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 1, 2024 |
| Developer | Among Giants |
| Publisher | SOEDESCO |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | RPG, Survival |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| Rating | E 10+ |
| Official Website | Albatroz Official Website |
