Collector’s Cove Review – Relax In the Sun

Collector’s Cove is a sea-based farming sim that has you exploring pleasant archipelagos in a relaxing gameplay loop.

We live in an era of riches in gaming. There is virtually so much creativity—sometimes releasing every week—that we tend to forget how good we really have it. Looking back, to have such a consistent library of verifiably great experiences with a unique twist to them is nothing short of a miracle, considering how the video game industry at large is doing. What defines a classic varies from person to person, but in a case such as Collector’s Cove, I knew that while playing it could become someone’s favorite game. You have seen most of what it is doing before, but the little details are what ended up winning me over.

Cozy farming sims are a dime a dozen, sure, and to stand out amongst the crowd, a game needs to do everything it sets out to do right. In that sense, Collector’s Cove rises to the occasion. It all starts with the character creator. The cute animation with a warm hue imposes a relaxing tone that pretty much permeates its every moment. Choosing your eye color, lashes, and dashing polka-dot blouse and bright skirt—or any other option—inspires a deeper connection with your player character from the get-go. The tutorial is as you would expect in a game of its type.

One thing the game does well is its onboarding. Aided by an axe to chop trees, a pickaxe to mine ore, a watering can to water your plants, a hammer to craft furniture, and fishing to, well, you know, Collector’s Cove takes no time to let you free. With the overarching plot of your parents being far away collecting elusive flora and fauna to fill their encyclopedia, you must do the same. Increasing your level in the Collector’s Compendium will unlock new areas to visit and items to craft, like a sorely needed bigger storage box.

One Halloween-themed islet, which left me a bit puzzled as to why it was inspired by that holiday, still felt like a warm welcome with no horrors to speak of. As there is hardly any friction to speak of in-game, like food not perishing or having no penalty for staying up late (I still resent you, Harvest Moon), it was surprising that one region’s crops were incompatible with another. To neatly tie up each area like that meant completing any unfinished business before embarking into the new lands.

Navigating the seas with your endearing sea turtle, which you can hug in one of the most heartwarming animations I’ve seen in recent cozy games, never gets old. You will spend a lot of time on your ship in Collector’s Cove. Traveling between islands, the transition between areas will have you waiting to get there. But you won’t be fiddling your thumbs, no. You can grow and tend to your crops on the ship, craft items, call a fellow ship to buy or sell items, salvage flotsam, and go fishing. To have your uncles Jerry, Terry, and Perry appear at your beck and call is equally silly and handy.

I love the beach. Feeling the salty breeze as the sound of the waves and seagulls circling by elicit so much peace. Eating a popsicle before it melts and taking a dip into the sea to freshen up is an unmatched memory for me. If you connect with anything I describe, then Collector’s Cove is the game for you. Exploring across several archipelagos on your ship to exhaust them of their resources to craft better tools, the goal of the game is unassuming: register every type of vegetable and fish in your encyclopedia.

The most memorable mechanic is that of the Fabled species. This distinct feature makes you do specific actions to make an exclusive variant of fish or veggie appear. What type of actions? Well, they don’t have a rhyme or reason, but they speak of the game’s quirky nature. For example, to get the special version of a watermelon, you need to grow it next to potted flowers. If you’re fishing for a certain species, using a parrot’s feather as bait might make the shy animal come out of hiding. These variants can be fed to your sea companion, which will increase your bond and reap all sorts of rewards, like swimming faster to a destination or getting its blessing to collect more resources.

Collector’s Cove is a repetitive game. You will have to do many of the activities described a lot. Like, a lot. But you probably already knew that heading into a game like this. The tropical soundtrack helps you unwind and just lets you focus on the task at hand, be it trying to catch a slippery fish or grinding to collect specific items to trade for funny glasses for your sea turtle.

Its gameplay loop allowed me to relax while playing. Because working towards every improvement in the game takes time, I learned to enjoy the menial tasks at hand. The more you do an activity, the better you get at it, so I was pleasantly surprised when the option to pull the fishing rod and not simply try to reel them in signaled a general upgrade. Eventually, I even smiled when I reached the personal objective I had in a certain play session. And then I did it again.