Going Medieval Review Summary

Last updated: 2026-03-18
  • Addictive and engaging gameplay experience.
  • Freedom in building and detailed design.
  • Excellent colony simulation mechanics.
  • Regular updates and improvements.
  • Pathfinding and AI inefficiency issues.
  • Performance and optimization problems.
Going Medieval header

Emotions

Archetypes

What players like:

Common complaints:

Gameplay feedback:

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Recommendations:

Other player notes:

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Review evidence

Why players say this

What players like

Addictive and engaging gameplay: The gameplay is frequently described as addictive, challenging, and engaging. Players highlight its depth, complexity, and high replayability, which keeps them invested for many hours.

Freedom in building and design: Players appreciate the freedom and creativity allowed in building and design. The game offers simplicity and a clear design vision, enabling players to build as they desire.

Excellent colony simulation: The game is praised for its deep colony simulation aspects, with many players comparing it favorably to other colony sim games like Rimworld. It offers enjoyable and addictive colony-building experiences.

Positive overall game experience: Many players express their enjoyment and satisfaction with the game, describing it as amazing, brilliant, relaxing, and one of their favorites. The game is often praised for its addictive nature and overall quality.

Regular updates and improvements: The developers are commended for providing regular updates, bug fixes, and new content. This continuous improvement keeps the game fresh and engaging.

Common complaints

Pathfinding problems: The pathfinding system is frequently mentioned as broken or poorly implemented, causing issues with AI movement and navigation.

AI inefficiency and issues: The AI is often criticized for being inefficient, stupid, and sometimes non-functional. It frequently gets stuck and exhibits problematic behavior.

Slow gameplay pace: The game feels slow in terms of both gameplay pace and development progress, with updates being infrequent and incremental.

Lack of content variety: Players have noted a lack of terrain variety, events, and overall content, leading to a less engaging experience.

Frequent bugs reported: Players have reported a variety of bugs, ranging from minor issues to significant errors, including problems with modding.

Gameplay and performance

Detailed building and settlement mechanics: Players can build and manage settlements, ranging from simple structures to complex castles, with a focus on detailed construction and growth.

Colony simulation focus: The game is centered around colony simulation mechanics, including city-building and colony management aspects.

Settler behavior and interactions: Settlers in the game have various needs, skills, traits, and activities, with a focus on their behavior and interactions.

3D gameplay and environment: The game features a 3D environment with 3D building systems and gameplay mechanics.

Strategic combat and planning: The game offers strategic depth in managing settlers' needs, assigning tasks, and preparing defenses against raiders, with a focus on combat and war planning.

Optimization and performance issues: Many players report various optimization and performance issues, including lag spikes, high resource consumption, and general performance problems.

Bugs and glitches: There are reports of various bugs and glitches, including issues with specific mechanics like pathfinding, water physics, and construction.

Frequent crashes and save issues: Several players encounter frequent crashes and problems with saving and loading the game, which significantly impacts the gaming experience.

High system requirements: The game has high system requirements, making it difficult for players with lower-end hardware to run the game smoothly.

Menu and transition fluidity: Players appreciate the intuitive menus and fluid transitions between terrain layers, which enhance the overall user experience.

Recommendations

RimWorld comparison and recommendation: Many players recommend this game to fans of RimWorld, suggesting it as a good alternative or complementary experience. Some reviews advise playing RimWorld first, indicating a high standard set by RimWorld in the colony sim genre.

Appeal to colony sim fans: The game is frequently recommended for fans of colony simulation games, indicating that it caters well to this specific audience. Players who enjoy building and managing colonies are likely to find this game appealing.

Highly recommended purchase: A significant number of reviews highly recommend purchasing the game, praising its quality and enjoyment factor. This indicates a strong positive reception among players.

Specific gameplay improvements suggested: Players have suggested specific improvements such as adding diagonal wall styles, solving infinite loading issues, and enhancing combat mechanics. These suggestions indicate areas where players feel the game could be improved.

Mixed recommendations on purchase: There are mixed reviews regarding the recommendation to purchase the game, with some strongly recommending it and others advising against it. This indicates a divide in player experiences and satisfaction.

Buying context

Community fair range: $25.00 - $30.00.

Game completion: 20.0h.

Story completion: 10.0h.

Session length: 3.6h.

The game starts with challenging survival mechanics and a learning curve, but becomes enjoyable and addictive once players overcome these initial hurdles and engage with the building and management systems.

Reported time to anchor: 2h.

Friction: Survival struggles in the early game; Shortage of people and resources; Steep learning curve for controls and mechanics.

Player profiles

Relaxed Colony Builder: Casual and relaxed, focusing on building and managing a colony at a leisurely pace. Motivation: Enjoyment of a casual and relaxing colony-building experience. Stance: buy.

Strategy Enthusiast: Highly engaged and strategic, focusing on detailed management and long-term planning. Motivation: Mastery of complex game mechanics and strategic depth. Stance: buy.

Critical Observer: Observant and critical, focusing on the game's development progress and content updates. Motivation: Desire for a polished and fully developed game. Stance: no buy.

Platform notes

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback for the Steam Deck experience reveals several key issues. Stability problems, particularly with crashes in the main menu under Linux, are a significant concern. Game mechanics, such as auto-save crashes and multi-floor command issues, also pose challenges. Additionally, gameplay experience issues, including complicated controls and settler behavior, are noted. These issues collectively impact the user experience and highlight areas needing improvement.

Extra review signals

Monetization: The reviews indicate some concerns about potential Day-1 DLC and the overall value for money of the game. While there are mentions of DLC and pricing, there are no strong indications of predatory monetization practices such as pay-to-win mechanics or aggressive FOMO tactics.

External guides: The primary user complaints revolve around the lack of sufficient in-game information and guidance, particularly regarding complex mechanics and build guides. Users frequently rely on external resources like wikis and forums to understand the game, which suggests that the in-game documentation and tutorials are inadequate.