Alchemist Simulator [Xbox]

Art Games Studio’s Alchemist Simulator sees you in the role of a novice alchemy student, taking over their famous relative’s studio. You’ll learn how to utilise the different parts of the studio, from the Cutting Board, Mortar and Pestle, and Drying area, to your trusty Almanac that will guide you along the way, and your cauldron where you’ll brew all your magical potions. As you grow in skill, learning more and more - you will move up the ranks in Fame, with higher Fame levels leading to additional areas becoming unlockable, and upgrades to your existing workstations being available.

There are a few different potions available for you to craft, and it will take a good bit of trial of error to figure out the best (and most cost-effective) ways of completing each contract. You’ve got an Almanac that you can refer to in order to get an idea of what ingredients you can use, and what attributes they have that can be used for each recipe. Any potions that you’ve learned will have information added to the Almanac, and whilst there aren’t a huge number of them, they can be made in different ways - and with other workstations being able to be unlocked, the complexity and variety of craftable potions will increase in time. You can also upgrade the workstations in order to improve them and to make them more useful, completing contracts faster.

Potions require ingredients to be treated in different ways in order to diminish certain effects, and make others more potent. These treatments have to be done in a specific order, but won’t all be necessary for each targeted attribute, with some needing minor changes to be made. Viewing items in the shop catalog (run by the little mouse next to your Almanac) will allow you to view what effects each ingredient has within them as standard, but processing these materials will take a built of learning. Thankfully, there’s a handy-dandy guide above the cutting board that allows you to view the range of effects in each line, but it can be easy to muddle up which direction you’ll go when using the mortar or drying rack - a costly mistake that can waste precious materials.

It’s got quite a quaint look to it, with a cosy looking studio - even in spite of the abundance of mouse holes in the walls, and the little friends that will often be crawling around on your shelves - not far from the ingredients you’ve spent so much money on for your stock. After all, there is a mouse guiding you on your journey - and serving as the port of call for making any purchases as well as handing in potions to complete any quests. The studio is the only place you’ll really get to explore, with even your own bedroom being inaccessible - limited to a quick timelapse over a day/night cycle timer in front of your bedroom door when you go to sleep. Having more to look at in the studio, as well as including little secrets to find (or collectible items that you could have viewed within your bedroom), would have helped to flesh out the space, and save it from feeling quite so empty. The soundtrack is very soothing, with peaceful tunes that keep things feeling joyful, even if you mess up an ingredient for the third time in a row.

Alchemist Simulator is a very relaxing game, although the repetitiveness of everything can begin to get a tedious after a while. There are time limits on contracts for you to complete, but these are usually always long enough to not need too much consideration. You’ll have a bunch of recipes in your arsenal, and whilst you’ll get a variety of different contracts to sign, they boil down to the same limited number of potions, so you’ll easily master the list, after making a few mistakes along the way.

If this type of game sounds like it would be right up your alley, then you can nab Alchemist Simulator for the price of £10.49 on the Xbox Store. I’d like to see more being added to this over time - and that would easily bolster our rating - whether that be new potions and ingredients, or an alternate game mode to up the stress-factor to make things more challenging, but as it stands, it’s still an enjoyable time if you’re looking for something fairly relaxed.

In the end, we decided to give Alchemist Simulator the Collecting Asylum rating of 6.5/10.

Have you played Alchemist Simulator yet? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Art Games Studio for the Alchemist Simulator Xbox review code!