Haven Park is a short and cozy island management game that I never want to end

Haven Park
(Image credit: Fabien Weibel)

Remember how Untitled Goose Game had a dedicated 'honk' button we never got tired of tapping? Haven Park, released today on Steam, GoG, and itch.io, is another game starring a bird, but instead of an asshole goose you're the sweetest little bird ever equipped with a dedicated 'pew' button.

As in pew-pew, pew-pew. I've been playing for about four hours and I haven't gotten sick of tapping that button either.

Our bird, Flint, is a young, cute little round bird a bit intimidated by his new responsibilities. With his grandma having gotten a little too old to act as manager of a picturesque island and camping destination, Flint has to become the new caretaker, fix up the various campsites, and lure the visitors back to the island paradise.

At first Haven Park mostly feels like a lot of running around picking up wood, metal, and cloth, and using them to build some simple camping equipment like tents and park benches. But as I fixed things up, guests began to show up in the park, and the island began to come alive. The island is also completely gorgeous, and the more of it I uncovered, the more magical it began to feel, with lush woods, snowcapped mountains, butterfly-filled meadows, refreshing waterfalls, and even a few areas that felt a bit spooky, especially at night, like nature sometimes does.

As I found new campsites to fix up, more and more campers arrived, and a few even gave me additional quests that help break up the constant scrounging for supplies. One visitor is full of island trivia and keeps betting more and more money that he can stump me (he hasn't yet). Another fellow fancies himself a monarch and demands I bring him a crown, which turns into a multi-part quest that took quite a bit of exploring to complete.

One camper asked to play hide and seek, and after I closed my eyes and counted to ten, he vanished. That was a couple of hours ago. I still have no idea where he went. In another sort of game I'd be worried something horrifying had happened to him, but Haven Park is incredibly sweet and wholesome. I'm sure (pretty sure) he's fine.

And some characters are just amusing even if they don't give you quests. It's fun watching them enjoy the things you build: they'll swing on swings, cook food at barbeques, sleep in tents (you can sleep in the tents, too), ooh-and-ah over fireworks, and even take a dip in the small swimming pools you can build for them. You can chat with all of them: one told me he rated my park four stars, which made me happy before he quickly added that his scale was out of ten. He then said what I really needed to make the island great was paintball. Another asked if I'd found a toy boat, which I had. I was honest and told her I'd used it for scrap wood. Now she's adorably furious with me. Hopefully there's a replacement somewhere on the island I can find and give to her.

And there's a lot of surprising stuff to find in Haven Park. At one point I came across a book which turned out to be a game inside the game—a choose your own adventure style story that not only asks me to pick actions (like whether I should try to sneak past a dragon or speak to it) but also acts as a scavenger hunt, where I have to find several physical objects on the island that are needed to make it through the book's adventure. Haven Park is a great balance of resource-based tasks and fun distractions that let you forget those tasks for a while.

And it's just so darn cute, wholesome, and a joy to explore. Just don't expect an endless Animal Crossing-esque because Haven Park probably won't take you all that long to finish. I've played for about four hours, my park repair meter is at 71% and I've got a handful of quests left to complete (including finding my incredibly skilled hide and seek partner). But each time I make another run around the island I seem to find a new little quest hiding somewhere, so I honestly don't know how much left I've got to do.

But I'm happy to keep looking. This may be the one game this year I complete 100%, mostly because Haven Park is such a beautiful and gentle place I'm just not ready to leave it yet.

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
Birds in a garden in Birdfull
This cosy birdwatching idle game has me leaving behind my binoculars and enjoying the hobby from the comfort of my desktop
Ropuka cutting grass with a blue-roofed house and red television.
I've already spent 25 hours with this idle game where an adorable grass-cutting frog keeps me company on my desktop, and it's safe to say I'm obsessed
Islanders on Hello Kitty Island Adventure
At long last, Hello Kitty Island Adventure has come to PC after 2 excruciating years and it's the perfect outlet for my ever-growing Sanrio obsession
A cartoonish man gestures with his arms wide open in front of a Tuna interactive display, while his two children have their backs turned to him.
Two Point Museum review
Thank Goodness You're Here review
Thank Goodness You're Here! review
Morels: The Hunt 2
Morels: The Hunt 2 is a great outdoors vibe when you're stuck indoors
Latest in Adventure
Image of illuminated manuscript-style drawings from the game Pentiment.
Random characters kept swearing in Obsidian's font-obsessed murder-mystery when its procedural error system ran amok: 'Naughtiness abounded'
An image of a corpse with the text "You've been re-educated."
I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Rosella encounters a satyr in a forest in King's Quest 4
Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
Myst puzzle game
'You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening': Myst remake adds a whole new world to the classic adventure, one originally introduced in another overhaul from 25 years ago
The character takes a test in a school room.
Expelled! review
Max, protagonist of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Double Exposure, stares with trepidation at something off-screen with her friend.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure reportedly a 'large loss' for Square Enix, says analyst, who adds: 'The company's IP fundamentally varies too much between good and bad'
Latest in Features
kingdom come deliverance 2 thunderstone quest
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's masterful quest design can be summed up by one wonderfully weird search for a magic stone
Blue Protocol players dancing minutes before the game closes forever
What will we do at the end of the world? If MMOs are any indication: mostly what we already do, plus a lot of dancing
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Several tight-wearing superheroes surge towards the camera in a heroic fashion in City of Heroes.
One year later, City of Heroes' officially recognized fan server has me praying it's the future of dead MMOs
Immortal Pillars expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold
Age of Mythology Retold's new Chinese pantheon expansion takes a bold stance on updating an old game: Just make good new stuff
Ragnarok Battle Offline
After punishing my graphics card with Monster Hunter Wilds, I've returned to the rock-solid frame rates of my old hunting grounds: Windows XP