Games worth discovering

Relax with anime friends in this slow-but-adorable camping game

2K View2023-06-19

Laid-Back Camp All -in -one is a cute game about camping that's sure to give you cozy vibes, but the gameplay doesn't live up to it's charming setting. Based on the anime series Laid-Back Camp, this story-drive gacha game follows a group of friends that travel around Japan, setting up campsites in different locations. It does a terrific job capturing the look and feel of the anime, but the actual game could use some work.

Before I could start playing, I had to get through a long, drawn-out tutorial that went over the game's mechanics one-by-one. I appreciate having some guidance when I start a new game, but this series of tutorials took forever to get through. By the time the game let me play on my own, I was starting to feel frustrated.

Things got better once Laid-Back Camp took the training wheels off, but the game never really got its hooks in me. When I arrived at a campsite, I was given a series of missions I needed to complete before I moved onto the next chapter. Most of the missions asked me to carry out simple tasks, like crafting camping gear and placing that gear on the campsite. It was fine, but it wasn't that exciting, and like the tutorial, the game moved forward at an absolute crawl.

Once I'd gotten through the easy taks, I was free to complete campsites challenges. These challenges revolved around fun camping activities, like hosting a firewood chopping contest or cooking crazy dishes. had a certain amount of turns to build up points in various categories, and at the end, my ratings were used to give me a score. The only thing I needed to do was select various tasks, and it wounwould up feeling less like a game and more like a vehicle for delivering cutesy camping-themed skits.

I was given some free gacha pulls and in-game currency when I started the game, which I used to collect more costumes and cards. Each gacha pull feels like watching the opening movie of an anime, which is a ton of fun. I was able to earn more currency via free gameplay, but I collected it pretty slowly, so it'll take free players a while to save up for pulls. Currently, the prices in the in-game store seem pretty high, so I didn't think it was worth it to pay for more pulls.

Laid-Back Camp is ridiculously charming, but charm can only take a game so far. The visuals are delightful, and the character interactions are pretty fun, but it's a slow-paced game, and the core mechanics aren't compelling enough to keep my interest. This isn't quite the relaxing camping sim that I wanted it to be, but it does have potential, so it's still worth keeping an eye on, especially if you're a fan of the anime.