Pine is a very weird game. I remember one day I was on the bus ride home from target and I saw this game online because of how much it was on sale on a specific website. The game costs $25 and rarely goes on sale but I found a download code for only $4 and supposedly the game was some sort of a hidden gem.

At the time, everybody was talking about it and how the game was supposed to be amazing. It was supposed to be this brilliant open world game with all sorts of things to do and great graphics. But in the end, it was a lot like what Cyberpunk 2077 went through. Supposedly, when Pine was first released, it was a horrible mess. Graphics were broken, gameplay was a mess, and there were so many bugs.

But here’s the thing, the developers listened to everything that was wrong with the game and slowly but surely tried to bring the game back up to what it was originally supposed to be like. Right now, the games official Metacritic score is a low 45 but if you look at each score, you can tell that they go up over time.

On November 26th 2019, Screen Rant gave the game a 20. On December 7th, NintendoLife gave it a 40. Then all their grades for the next month were in the 50’s. But there haven’t been any reviews since last January, none since all the upgrades, so that 45 score isn’t doing the game any justice.

When I played in May, I noticed a bug right away. Within minutes of starting the game, I was walking around the starting area and I touched a rock. Then for no reason, I just started floating, going higher and higher. I posted the video to Twitter and the developers instantly responded and got to work on fixing that bug.

They were constantly fixing the game ever since then. There was a massive update less than 4 months ago that featured so many fixes and the expectation is that there will be even more in the future to make the game even better.

GRAPHICS: 8/10

The graphics of Pine are pretty good. I’m not a big fan of the looks when it comes to the character designs or the textures, but everything else about how the game looks is pretty. It’s an open world game with lots to explore and when you look at the large environment spread out in front of you, it’s not bad at all.

There’s plenty of times where the color of the sky and clouds works nicely with the way that the trees or mountains off in the distance looks. It’s not spectacular like Breath of the Wild or Immortals Fenyx Rising, but it’s really nice to look at. The fact that you get so much stuffed on screen together mixed with the quality, it came out as a pretty good look and feel to the game.

My overall grade for graphics is going to be an 8 out of 10 but if the character designs were any better, I think my score for graphics may have been a bit higher.

SOUND: 8/10

The sound is probably the aspect of the game that I like the least but it’s still good for a couple reasons. First of all you have the music and while there aren’t any songs that I would consider to be iconic, there’s rarely any moments without a song playing and most of them are either okay or good. There’s also a couple points where the music helps the game feel calm and relaxing while exploring the massive world.

Then you have the generic sounds of the game, which encompass not only the regular sounds but the “voice acting” as well. This is one of those games where there’s a fake language or random noises and words instead of full English voice acting. While it would have been nice to be able to understand what they’re actually saying, this route is still way better than not having anything to listen to and just quietly reading the text.

Elsewhere, there’s a bunch of other sounds but there are a handful of times where it seems a bit loud, but that’s not a real issue. My grade for sound is going to be another solid 8 out of 10.

ADDICTIVENESS: 9/10

The game is a lot of fun and there’s a decent amount of stuff to do in the world. For starters, you have this nice open world for you to explore with lots of different places to visit and characters to meet. Learning about the world and its characters while seeing all the new places is overall are really fun experience and when you’re battling, combat can be a lot of fun at times as well.

But that’s not all you can do in the game. My most favorite thing of the game is that your relationship with different NPC’s can change based on your interactions with them or their stuff. So with any given NPC you could be friendly with them or they could become hostile towards you based on what you do, which is a cool feature. The foundation of this feature is in so many other games but it’s actually evolved and working in this game.

Plus there’s also a bunch of puzzles throughout the world that you have to solve and there’s a cool market system where you can trade items. As a result, there’s a bunch of cool things to collect and secrets to discover. There’s also a bunch of quests that you can take on from those NPC’s and if you ever get bored or want to try something new, you can always come back and try different things like messing with the NPC’s that you’re already friends with or other stuff.

You’re going to have quite a few simple reasons to come back with Pine and because of that you’re going to be looking at 30 hours at least, and that will probably increase as more updates come out and the game becomes even more fun. My grade for addictiveness has to be a 9 out of 10 as a result and who knows, maybe it can go higher in the future.

STORY: 8/10

You live on a rock. That’s basically the entire thing. There’s this giant rock area that you live on that kind of resembles the Great Plateau in Breath of the Wild. There’s a small makeshift village at the top that you live on with the rest of your people. But the problem is that there’s lots of problems with your village but the people don’t want you to leave, even if it means solving all the problems because there’s monsters and such on the surface.

But you end up out there in the real world left to defend for yourself and fight as you explore the world for the first time in your life. In Pine, all the animals on the surface developed and evolved more than people, so they all want to eat you and your family. As you explore the surface world, you learnt that a long time ago there were other humans on the surface and throughout your journey you discover what happened.

The story isn’t too great but the focus of the game in my opinion is the gameplay and open world exploration, so the story doesn’t have to try to hard to begin with. My grade for story will be an 8 out of 10.

DEPTH: 9/10

I already mentioned most of what the game has to offer, so this will just be a quick recap for depth. The game features the following thing that make the game full of depth:

1: Big open world. The world is a good size with lots to explore. As a result, it might take you hours to run through the entire world plus there’s a ton of characters and puzzles to interact with throughout the world.

2: Characters. There’s a bunch of cool NPC’s to interact with. There’s multiple species and you can interact with all of them. Depending on how you interact with them, they will either be your friends or they will the you forever. That’s a cool feature and you can also trade with them or accept quests.

3: Combat. The combat system is also pretty cool, apparently the AI learns from how you fight but I never really paid attention to that aspect. It sounds cool though. The actual combat experience is pretty good too, especially now that the game barely has any frame rate drops, which was a big issue before all the updates.

There’s also 15 different weapons to choose from and like 50 or so pieces of armor. Add all of those aspects together and it’s easy to see where all the playtime comes from.

There’s a lot to do and a lot to explore, and if you really enjoy doing everything and exploring every nook and cranny, then you should be able to get 50 hours out of the game. For that, I give depth a 9 out of 10.

DIFFICULTY: 4

Maybe some of the puzzles and be a challenge. People who aren’t that great at puzzles or who don’t like puzzles to begin with might find some parts of the game to be hard, but that’s pretty much all there is to the game when it comes to difficulty. If you’re having trouble with combat, then use or acquire better weapons and equipment. If you’re having trouble with so many NPC’s trying to kill you, then try being nice to them. That’s really all there is to difficulty, it can get hard at times for some people but it’s usually fairly easy.

OVERALL: 8.4/10

It’s easy to be discouraged by all of the bad reviews from more than a year ago, but the game has went through so many changes since then. 14 months ago the game would easily have been a 4 or 5 out of 10 and wouldn’t have had anything top do with the gameplay or the content, it would have been because of all the issues, bugs, and glitches. Heck, at one point the initial load took like 4 or 5 minutes, which was a nightmare and it only takes like 30 to 40 seconds now.

With all the updates, the game is not only good and playable, but is amazing in some aspects. I probably wouldn’t agree to paying the full price of $25 for a game that might only last you 20 to 30 hours, but I have two things to point out. With future updates, full price will be even more worth it later on, regardless how how long the game is because it will be getting better over time. It’s also possible to get the game on sale, and if you can get it for like $15 or less, then it will be a steal.

Overall, Pine for the Switch is a lot better than it used to be and right now is a great game in its own right. I love it and I think there are a lot of gamers out there who will enjoy it as well. As such, my overall grade is going to be a very solid 8.4 out of 10.