Online multiplayer games are often about power, whether gauging strength and depth of a party in World of Warcraft or the all-out action and demands of the likes of Apex Legends. As such, those who want a more relaxed experience may not have found a home in online gaming just yet. This could be about to change, thanks to Book of Travels from developer Might and Delight.

Book of Travels is described as a TMORPG - a Tiny Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. The player awakes in a beautiful and hypnotic fairytale, creating their own character and exploring their environment to find out more about the world and its inhabitants. Along the way they can also meet and support other players, but only with a maximum of seven players per server.

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This small scope doesn't just relate to the number of other players that users will interact with. Book of Travels isn't about saving the world, becoming an all-powerful wizard, or amassing enough wealth and powerful artifacts to make Scrooge McDuck jealous. It's a game that is minimalist in its core approach, a title that is about journeys rather than goals.

Book of Travels Pier

This sparse tone doesn't mean that Book of Travels is empty, as Might and Delight has designed this early build of the game with introspection in mind. This isn't a game of busy work, with the player needing to gather arbitrary items or kill a specific number of rats to grow their levels and get more shiny things. Equally, the choice to keep the number of users smaller means that the game is a more exclusive place to explore, and meeting new players is always exciting, whether going solo or with a group.

It's an ideology that is ingrained into the game from the moment the player creates their character, with builds not based around magic or fighting, but instead around spiritualism and charm. The player's core task is to walk around the world, listening to people, and solving small problems as they slowly gain a greater understanding of the world's lore. Undoubtedly further updates will add more story strands, but at the moment it feels like folklore in action, with the players as minor heroes walking from village to village, creating stories in their wake.

As such Book of Travels has a genuine depth to it, but based on this preview build it will be entirely reliant on what the player puts in. Users who go in with the right attitude to enjoy the atmosphere will definitely get more out of it, allowing the wonderful score and the rhythm of the gameplay to wash over them. Those who want something more structured and traditional will likely want to go elsewhere.

Book of Travels Conversation

Book of Travels is just as bold when it comes to its visual design, with Might and Delight building on what worked so well for its Shelter series. The game is lovely to look at, with layers in the background and foreground shifting in and out of view as the player traverses the world. It’s very atmospheric, almost akin to the final chapter of Kentucky Route Zero.

That said, it's clear that Book of Travels is not quite the full experience yet, with Might and Delight not rushing the game when it enters Early Access soon. For now solo players may enjoy the groove of its gameplay and the isolation of their journey, but playing with others is the best choice at the moment. It doesn't make a difference to the atmosphere, but experiencing it with friends will likely improve matters - and it will help with the game's rare moments of combat.

Overall, Book of Travels is an interesting prospect that sits in a unique place in the online multiplayer space. Might and Delight has crafted something that is contemplative and nuanced in a genre that is rarely focused on such matters, and as such players who normally shy away will be interested in what Book of Travels has to offer. It's certainly a daring venture, and one to keep an eye on.

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Book of Travels is out in Early Access on 11 October 2021 for PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC download code for the purposes of this preview.