Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers review (PC): an AI-powered island life

As we’ve seen already, the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence are currently being explored across all industries. Considering this, it should come as no surprise that video game developers are also toying with the concept of AI-centered gameplay. Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers is one of these experiments — an upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons-esque game from new developer Campfire Expeditions Inc. In this game, players find themselves on a deserted island, with the task of engaging in open-ended text conversations with a unique cast of AI-powered animal villagers. As with most generative AI chatbots, the animals in Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers can react to any conversion topic the player thinks of. This allows for the opportunity to have some pretty unique interactions, which I put to the test for this review — as well as the usual gameplay mechanics that players might have already expected from this type of game. 

More character creator options, please! From: a character creation enthusiast

As of writing this review, I found the initial character creator screen of Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers to be uninspiring. As someone who likes to spend a lot of time in the character creator of games, I found the options here to be extremely limited, especially when choosing from hairstyles, mouths, and skin tones. Although I was somewhat successful in making a character that resembled me, I found myself wishing there were more options to give my character that extra bit of personalization. While you can later unlock more accessories and clothing as the game progresses, don’t go in expecting to have too many options when it comes to character creation. Here’s hoping (because this game is technically still in early access) that there might be more options available in the future!

No bells or raccoon debts on this island, but it feels like there should be?

The gameplay of Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers is very reminiscent of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Quests are focused on foraging, fishing, hitting rocks, and talking to animal villagers — which are all completed in the interest of developing an island. Achievements in Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers are also tracked similarly to the Nook Miles Achievements in ACNH, with each achievement filling up a stamp booklet.

Exploring the idea that this game was heavily inspired by ACNH, I decided to embark on a personal quest of asking all the villagers I encountered if they knew about Tom Nook from ACNH — to which they all responded with fun jokes that referenced him. My favorite exchange involved Mayor Thompson. When I asked him if he knew Tom Nook, the mayor’s AI response was “Maybe one day we’ll meet at a conference for animal-themed leaders.” When I then asked if I would also find myself in financial debt to him, Mayor Thompson reassured me that this would not be the case, “Here on Camp Island, we deal in fun, friendship, and a whole lot of coconut shakes! No need to worry about bells or loans. Just enjoy island life!”

AI-generated dialogue aside, even the scripted dialogue in Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers is upfront with its resemblance to ACNH. At one point, a raccoon character goes so far as to reference one of Tom Nook’s famous catchphrases, “for a small fee, of course.” I actually quite enjoyed the fact that this game jokes about its resemblance to ACNH. However, beneath these fun references, I found the gameplay disappointingly similar to the game’s character creation screen with how simplistic it was. The mechanics are fine, but I struggled to stay motivated when completing the more mundane tasks like fishing and foraging.

Overall, the least enjoyable aspect of the game has to be the timed tasks. Whenever I built a new structure, crafted something, or requested for a path to be cleared, it took real time to complete that task. This time could be skipped with the use of diamonds, but those are rare to obtain. This mechanic made the game feel more like one of those mobile app store games to me, and I found the prolonging of each simple task to be discouraging and hindered my relaxing island experience. On one occasion, I also encountered an especially inconvenient issue with this mechanic when I glitched through a barrier, which was in the process of being removed, and I found myself stuck in a small area by the lighthouse for thirty minutes. 

However, other than my frustrations with that specific bug, I was able to use the time waiting for tasks as an opportunity to talk to the villagers, which I would argue is the most compelling part of this otherwise lackluster game.

Engaging AI chatbots that feel like genuine conversations

Hands down the most enjoyment I got from Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers was when I was talking with the AI. I especially loved how each villager was programmed to have a different personality. Their responses to my questions, even if I asked the same question to multiple villagers, varied greatly depending on their personalities, which made it genuinely entertaining and engaging to talk to them.

One of my favorite interactions was with Steve Cheffington, a lion who acts as the island’s chef. I found it really cute how he related all his responses to cooking. It’s those little details that make the roleplay aspect of this game all the more convincing. When I asked Steve if he thought AI was bad, his cooking-oriented response felt real because it was so on-brand for him: “It’s all about how we use it. Just like a sharp knife in the kitchen, it can be a powerful tool for good or, you know, slicing tomatoes. As long as we keep an eye on it and use it responsibly, we’ll be cooking up a storm without any burnt souffles!”

While I enjoyed talking with Steve about AI, my ultimate favorite villager interactions have to be the ones I had with Valentina Falsetto, a cow that lives at the lighthouse on top of the island’s mountain. Reinforcing this game’s strength that every villager feels unique, Valentina’s personality was a very feminine, “girl’s girl” one that reminded me a lot of the interactions I have with my actual friends. I learned that Valentina also shared my love of traveling, and, when I noticed she was incorporating Italian into her dialogue, she even agreed to teach me a few words. Besides feeling like a genuine human interaction, it was also interesting to watch how this game was able to branch into an educational moment.

Final verdict

What you see is what you get with Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers. The character style, which is obviously very similar to ACNH, is the first giveaway of the almost identical gameplay. However, the added AI component, which is marketed as the game’s main selling point, is compelling enough to allow Campfire: Cozy AI Villagers the ability to stand out as not simply an ACNH knockoff. Overall, I would highly recommend trying this game, if only for the purpose of playing around with the AI villagers. Just don’t expect too much outside of the chatbot.

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