Introduction

Stardew Valley was probably one of the few sim games I’ve poured a lot of free time into ever since it released back in 2016. One thing I always wished they would have thrown in though is zombies. The idea of building up a farm all while surviving waves of the undead wishing to eat your brains sounds like a neat idea. Well, I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought that would be cool, as developer BitQuest Studio seemed to agree, as they are working on a title that fuses Stardew Valley with zombies. Ashfield Hollow has you play a survivor of a zombie apocalypse that needs to help their community rebuild a society. Sounds good, right? I have played many…many Stardew Valley clones and many are quite terrible. Is Ashfield Hollow the closest we will get to a similar sim game like Stardew Valley, or should you just mod the base game for that experience? We find out in our demo review of Ashfield Hollow! Big thanks to Ashfield Hollow for the demo build code!

Gameplay

I mentioned Stardew Valley earlier for a very specific reason. I can’t help but feel Ashfield Hollow was heavily inspired by the popular indie farming and living sim. You create a custom character, give them a specified background (which changes their special abilities, like playing as a police officer gives you better gun accuracy) and awaken on a farm. Here you will learn the world has turned to hell while you slept and a small band of survivors, who are very wary of you, have come together to try and survive. The first days of your not so peaceful life begin here in Ashfield Hollow.

You start off Ashfield Hollow with next to nothing aside from a crafting bench and a small field to plant. The demo gives you plenty of time to do whatever you want, but just like Stardew Valley, there are events and activities you can accomplish by playing. I do find myself laughing when I was given some supplies and a gun to survive the zombies right next door. Literally, leave your nice farm and you’re going to see this isn’t the peaceful sim life game you may think it’s trying to be…there’s zombies waiting to take you down.

Controls are…okay. I had to use my mouse and keyboard over my controller as I ran into several weird issues with controller mapping. Again, this is a demo so I’m not going to hold any technical issues against Ashfield Hollow, but they are important to note at the very least.

Now, aside from the controller issues, Ashfield Hollow‘s gameplay shows a lot of potential in the demo. When you aren’t cutting down trees for wood and/or planting crops and raising cattle, you’ll be exploring, and where Ashfield Hollow succeeds over Stardew Valley in some ways is the action heavy tones it can switch to. As you explore abandoned cities and buildings, you’ll encounter zombies and have to fight them or flee. You can loot random locations for a chance at gaining supplies or just kill as many zombies as you can.

Ultimately, Ashfield Hollow‘s gameplay is…good but nothing phenomenal. It works and there’s a deep game to be seen here with perks, items to be crafted, and a large world to explore, but as of right now I’m on the fence if I love Ashfield Hollow or not. Everything it does is a mirror to games like Stardew Valley, and when it deviates from that it still doesn’t feel like a superior game. As a demo, I withhold saying that I wouldn’t enjoy Ashfield Hollow when it has everything unlocked, but right now gameplay is fine and does a good enough job as is.

Graphics

Visually, Ashfield Hollow is solid. Utilizing the typical sprite design one can see in, you guessed it, Stardew Valley (I should have made a disclaimer earlier on about me saying those two words over and over in this review), Ashfield Hollow looks pretty good. I do think some of the designs, especially the menus, look a bit cheap, but overall Ashfield Hollow visually is okay.

Sound

Sim games always have peaceful music and relaxing tunes. Seeing that Ashfield Hollow is trying to be a sim game with zombies, obviously the peaceful tones only exist in safe areas while the creepier melodies and OST can be found the minute you stray from the farm. I actually think it’s kind of nice to have this switch between tones as it keeps you from ever wanting to just pass out after playing long sessions. I was on edge hearing the moans of the undead or the creepy background music when I was in the city or field.

Overall Impression

As a demo, Ashfield Hollow shows its hand and really aims to tell you here’s what to expect, which I appreciate greatly. The issue is, will Ashfield Hollow be that sim game I need to deviate from the already ocean sized amounts of games like it out there? In my opinion, not really. I think Ashfield Hollow has some clever tricks and some cool concepts to make this a better sim than most, but I never felt the excitement I had playing Stardew Valley or a game like it. Still, I did enjoy my short stint with the demo and would love to see if the full game does anything to enhance this already solid game.

Conclusion

Ashfield Hollow has a chance at being a solid sim and survival game and I can see what the developer is going for here. As a demo, there are minor issues that are present which could be a problem in the finished product, but this is why demos are great, they allow the developers to hear the responses from the players. I think Ashfield Hollow has plenty of potential but I can also see myself playing this for a few hours and then never playing again. Price, replay value, and gameplay will be what determines a true final score for Ashfield Hollow, but as of right now, I liked what I played and can see many others agreeing. Developer BitQuest Studio has a year to do more with Ashfield Hollow as it’s slated for a Q1 2027 release, so let’s see what magic they can do with their undead survival and farming sim!