Night is Coming Review Summary

Despite its appealing Slavic mythology, excellent atmosphere and music, and strong early access potential, the game feels abandoned, buggy with frequent crashes, and underdeveloped.

Game concept and idea appealing: Many reviewers find the core concept and idea of the game appealing, interesting, and full of potential. The unique blend of strategy and survival elements is highlighted as a strong foundation.

Slavic mythology atmosphere praised: Players consistently praise the game's unique Slavic setting, mythology, and atmosphere, noting its creative execution and varied legendary creatures. This cultural distinctiveness is a major positive across reviews.

Atmosphere and music excellent: The game's atmosphere, music, and sound design are frequently commended, with specific praise for the soundtrack and menu music. These elements significantly enhance the overall experience.

Strong early access potential: Reviewers see significant potential in the game, especially for early access, and appreciate the developers' responsiveness to feedback and ongoing bug fixes. This proactive development approach builds confidence.

Graphics and visuals pleasant: The game's graphics and creature visuals are generally well-received, with players noting the pleasant aesthetic and interesting monster designs. Visual appeal contributes to the overall positive impression.

Game appears abandoned: Multiple reviews state the game is abandoned, with developers taking money and ceasing updates. This is supported by a lack of communication and no meaningful content updates for extended periods.

Game is too buggy: Players report the game is riddled with bugs, glitches, and errors that severely impact gameplay, making it unplayable or hard to recommend. Issues range from minor glitches to crippling bugs that prevent progress.

Frequent crashes and freezes: The game frequently crashes, freezes during auto-saves, and can get stuck on loading screens. These technical issues disrupt gameplay and can cause loss of progress.

Game is underdeveloped: The game is described as unfinished, bare bones, and lacking content, with an unpolished introduction. Players feel it was released too early and needs substantial work to be considered complete.

Settlers get stuck: A common bug causes settlers and villagers to get stuck, standing idle or twitching in place, which halts production and can lead to starvation. This affects core gameplay mechanics.

RTS and city building hybrid: The game combines real-time strategy with city building and base defense, offering a unique blend of genres. Players manage a settlement while engaging in RTS-style combat.

Slavic folklore setting: The game is heavily inspired by Slavic mythology, featuring a medieval fantasy Eastern European setting with monsters and atmosphere from that folklore. This is a core theme that shapes the game's identity.

Settlement development and survival: The game focuses on developing a settlement, managing resources, and ensuring survival. It combines survival elements with city building and strategy, requiring careful planning.

Construction and building mechanics: Building and construction are central to gameplay, including constructing houses, walls, and other structures. Workers are tasked with building and repairing, which is essential for progression.

Resource gathering and production: Resource gathering is a key mechanic, with various resources that are gathered, processed, and consumed. The production system includes wooden and metal products, and villagers collect resources.

High memory consumption at startup: The game uses 12-17 GB of RAM just to launch, which can freeze the system for several minutes. This is a severe issue for players with limited memory, especially on Linux.

Freezes during saving and loading: Auto-saves cause the game to freeze, and loading save files can take over 5 minutes or crash entirely. This disrupts progress and makes saving unreliable.

Long launch times: The game takes 30 seconds to 5 minutes to start, even on high-end hardware like an i9-13950HX with a 4090. This delays gameplay and frustrates players expecting quick access.

FPS drops during gameplay: Sudden FPS drops from 40 to 2 occur in specific levels, and performance degrades after 1-5 hours of play. These drops are not resolved by reloading or restarting.

High GPU load and temperature: The GPU runs at 100% load with high temperatures, and the PC fan becomes loud. This indicates inefficient resource usage and potential hardware strain.

Do not buy: Multiple reviewers strongly advise against purchasing the game in its current state, citing bugs, unfinished content, and overall poor experience. They recommend waiting for updates or a significant discount before considering a purchase.

Wait for bug fixes: Many reviewers recommend waiting until critical bugs, such as the warehouse bug and AI standing around issues, are fixed before purchasing. They believe the game has potential but is not ready in its current state.

Not worth full price: Reviewers feel the game is overpriced for its current quality, suggesting it is only worth buying at a heavy discount or on sale. Some mention specific price thresholds like 90% off or under 5 euros.

Recommended for genre fans: Several reviewers recommend the game to fans of specific genres or titles, such as survival management, atmospheric strategy, and games like Frostpunk, Banished, and RimWorld. They highlight the game's appeal to those who enjoy challenging, long-term planning experiences.

Not for casual players: Reviewers warn that the game is challenging and may not suit casual players, recommending it only for those who enjoy tough, unfair challenges and are willing to restart. They advise setting low difficulty for newcomers.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Game completion: 4.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

The game has a steep early learning curve and a long tutorial, but once players finish the tutorial and understand the mechanics, it becomes fun. However, enjoyment may decline later due to repetitiveness.

Friction: long tutorial with limited control over gathering priorities; lack of control over villager actions requiring many clicks; steep learning curve and difficulty; early game ghosts causing instant restarts; complex mechanics that are not well explained; possibility of failing the tutorial.

Unlock drivers: finishing the tutorial; getting the hang of the mechanics; learning what you're doing; understanding priorities and resource management.

Abandoned Early Access Victim: Played early on, engaged with the game's systems, but stopped due to lack of updates and communication. Motivation: To warn others and prevent them from wasting money on an abandoned game. Stance: no buy.

Bug-Tolerant Genre Enthusiast: Plays repeatedly, explores mechanics, tolerates bugs, and uses workarounds to continue playing. Motivation: To enjoy the survival/management/construction gameplay despite bugs, hoping for future fixes. Stance: no buy.

Hardcore Challenge Seeker: Embraces difficulty, learns from failures, plays strategically, and enjoys the tension. Motivation: To experience brutal survival and challenge where every life matters. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The game exhibits severe stability issues with frequent crashes and freezes, making it unplayable for some users. Additionally, the manual priorities menu is unreadable and the control system is unreliable, further degrading the experience on Steam Deck. While some users report improvement over time, the overall friction is high.

Unfinished early access product: The game is widely criticized as an unfinished early access release, with many calling it half-finished and lacking polish. This is a common theme across reviews.

Comparisons to similar games: Reviewers frequently compare the game to titles like Banished, RimWorld, and Frostpunk, suggesting it draws inspiration from popular colony sims. This indicates the game's genre and expected features.

Lack of developer communication: Players report zero communication from developers, who ignore requests and only advertise. This contributes to the feeling of abandonment.

Game has limited content: The game currently has only 4 maps and a 2-hour experience, though some claim 20 hours of content. This indicates a lack of depth.

No updates for months: The game has not received updates since June, with the last regular update being June 3, 2025. This is a concrete sign of abandonment.