Grade: C
Third-person action game where you defend against deforestation robots.
In SAI, you play a druid protecting their forest from molten logger automatons. Nature is on the verge of destruction, and the spirit of the forest summons you into the fray. SAI has a laser focus on battle encounters. Between enemy waves, the game gives only tiny chunks of time for story or exploration. All told, SAI is a quick action game that runs a tight 30-45 minutes. While the game was not a standout for me, SAI’s pro-conservation message and visual effects were highlights.
Missed opportunities in the conservation message.
The group behind SAI, Mutiny Studios, was a young set of developers from Cornwall, England. Mutiny Studio’s mission was to donate a significant portion of revenue to conservation charities, and SAI was the studio’s first (and last) foray into game development. While Mutiny Studios went their separate ways in July 2020, I admire the studio for still accomplishing its goal of donating 80% of the revenue to charity.
While I appreciated the pro-conservation intent of the game, the execution of the message fell flat. The studio focused SAI singularly on combat, which led to some missed opportunities. Why are we protecting this land? What’s so special about nature that we should be champion defenders? The game leaves these questions mostly unexplored.
I would have loved some factoids and notes about the Celtic wilderness throughout the game to support the conservation concepts. Mutiny Studio implemented a journal feature that unlocked items as you progressed, but our druid did not use the journal for natural science observations. Instead of wilderness points of interest, our druid warrior’s diary was full of descriptions of “Merlinite” and other fantasy concepts.
For me, the focus on the combat and fantasy elements meant that the game’s conservation message didn’t come through as strongly as it could have.
Animations and VFX were gorgeous.
Once you get into the game, you soon find that the most substantial part of SAI is the environment and visuals. The 3D Celtic forest you traverse has appealing ambient sounds, detailed landscaping, and wonderfully balanced colors. Lovingly crafted with depth and character, each stone, tree, and object is a joy to look at.
A standout was the logger bot’s lava red core. Animated and colored in a way that popped, I could feel the heat emanating out of the center.
Another highlight was the nature bow that sprouted flowers where the arrows landed. I enjoyed my time shooting arrows all around me and popping up flowers. That soon became my favorite part of SAI.
Felt like an early release.
Even though everything presented on screen was beautiful, SAI’s gameplay felt more like an early release than a finished product. Several smaller things added up that left the game feeling unfinished.
For one, there was no HP bar for my druid. When hit multiple times, you saw red coloring at the edge of the screen, but it was unnerving not knowing when the ax would drop.
Also, a jump ability would have been nice. Stopping at a one-foot barrier you can’t leap over is an unheroic feeling, and it breaks the immersion. I’m sure jumping is a difficult feature to implement in a game, though, and perhaps there wasn’t time.
The robot enemies were well-designed, but they were repetitive. The monsters only had a couple of variations throughout, and while the battle maps kept shifting, it was the same walking log-bot and flying log-bot that I was fighting wave after wave.
Together, these smaller issues added up to make the game feel unfinished.
Impressive first effort into game development.
Mutiny Studios is a group of young developers making their studio’s first game. For the first foray into game development, SAI is an impressive accomplishment. I wish the members of Mutiny Studios well in their next endeavors, and I’m sure each team member will be successful at what they set their minds to next.
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