Don't Starve expansion Hamlet tells a curly new tale in early access
Plus The Forge event returns for co-op
Just when you thought you'd explored every nook and cranny of Don't Starve's nightmare otherworlds (plural), a new set of porcine problems present themselves. Hamlet, begining a quick spin through early access today, is another expansion for Klei's survival action RPG sandbox. This one takes Wilson and his sketchy pals to a new, far more civilised land. There's a town run by aristocratic pigfolk, trap-laden ruins, the usual bundle of massive new boss monsters to tussle with and the looming threat of a coming Aporkalypse. The launch trailer is hamming it up below.
Up until now, Don't Starve was mostly about self-sufficiency and scraping together the resources you needed from the land. With a town hub full of shops, and houses within that you can buy and live in safely, this puts a fresh spin on the Don't Starve formula, letting players focus a bit more on the dungeon-delving adventure side of things, rather than the titular starvation avoidance. Some of the new creatures lurking in the jungle look pretty intimidating - spiders are bad enough, but a giant spider that's also a gorilla is just silly. Also, is that a hippopotamoose I see in the trailer?
While not officially flagged as early access on Steam, Klei mention that the current version of Hamlet is not quite done, and will be officially in testing for another month. They reckon that everything should be all crackled up and ready to serve by December 6th. Their official early access forum can be found here. Accompanying this early access launch is the return of The Forge event to multiplayer spinoff Don't Starve Together. In it, six players team up and throw down in the arena against swarms of monsters and the significantly less civilised Grand Forge Boarrior.
Don't Stave: Hamlet is out now on Steam for £5.19/€5.69/$6.99. Due to a twist of Steam bundle pricing (and me owning everything but Hamlet and Oxygen Not Included), the Klei Survival Bundle gave me Hamlet for a preposterous £0.03 - yes, three literal pennies - on top of Oxygen Not Included's already-discounted £10.44 price tag. Your mileage may vary.