- Flexible city-building system allows organic growth.
- Visually stunning, authentic medieval world.
- Fun and engaging gameplay with high replayability.
- Game feels incomplete and lacks content.
- Buggy, unpolished, and unstable experience.
- Inadequate tutorials and unclear explanations.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 77% · Negative 23%. Score: 23 / 100
Positives:
- The game offers a flexible and organic city-building system, allowing for unique and realistic settlement layouts. Players can freely design roads and buildings, unconstrained by rigid grids, leading to diverse and personalized towns. This freedom extends to building upgrades and customization options, enhancing the sense of ownership and creativity.
- The game features stunning, detailed graphics and a historically accurate medieval setting. Players are immersed in a living, breathing world with realistic environments, architecture, and character animations. The visuals avoid the typical drabness of medieval depictions, offering a refreshing and beautiful aesthetic.
- The game is fun, engaging, and has high replay value. The game offers a unique blend of mechanics that no other game has done so far. The game is also challenging in all the right ways for the most part.
- The game emphasizes realism in its mechanics, requiring strategic resource management, economic planning, and attention to seasonal changes. Players must balance the needs of their population with the available resources, creating a challenging and rewarding experience. This focus on realism extends to the game's economic systems and population behavior.
- The developer is passionate, communicative, and actively incorporates community feedback into the game's development. Regular updates, bug fixes, and new features demonstrate a commitment to improving the player experience. This responsiveness fosters a strong sense of community and ensures the game continues to evolve in a positive direction.
Negatives:
- Many reviewers feel the game is incomplete and lacking in content, with missing features and underdeveloped mechanics. The game feels like an extended demo or a basic skeleton, failing to deliver a satisfying and engaging experience. This is often attributed to its early access state, but the extent of missing content is a major concern.
- Numerous reviews mention bugs, glitches, and a general lack of polish, with some even describing the game as unplayable. Frequent crashes, freezes, and corrupted save files are common complaints. The game's early access status is often cited, but the severity and persistence of these issues detract significantly from the player experience.
- The game lacks adequate tutorials and explanations of core mechanics, leading to a steep learning curve and reliance on external resources. Players find themselves overwhelmed and confused, struggling to understand basic gameplay loops and systems. This issue is exacerbated by an unorganized in-game index and a lack of clear guidance on objectives.
- Resource management is a frequent challenge, with players struggling to balance production and consumption. Resources deplete quickly, and the game lacks clear indications of building requirements and outputs. This leads to constant shortages, economic instability, and a frustrating gameplay loop.
- The enemy AI is often criticized for being unintelligent, unbalanced, and overly aggressive. Players report that the AI has unfair advantages, such as infinite resources and the ability to spawn troops without needing population. The lack of diplomacy and meaningful interactions with the AI makes the game feel lifeless and unengaging.
Gameplay:
- The game features in-depth resource management across multiple regions, each with unique resources and specializations. Players must balance production chains, trade, and expansion to thrive. This core loop of gathering, producing, and trading resources is central to the gameplay experience.
- The game blends city-building and RTS elements within a medieval setting, drawing comparisons to titles like Cities Skylines, Total War, and Anno. Players manage settlements, raise armies, and engage in tactical battles. The balance between these elements varies, with some reviews emphasizing the city-building aspects more.
- The game features real-time tactical battles where terrain, troop morale, and formations matter. While not the primary focus, combat requires strategic thinking and tactical skill. Some reviewers find the battles impressive, while others note they are simplified or chaotic.
- Players manage villages and assign families to tasks, with a focus on careful building placement and resource management. The game allows for a third-person view of the town. The distance of houses from market stalls significantly impacts the population's happiness.
- The game incorporates dynamic seasons, weather, and events like bandit raids, adding realism and challenge. Players must adapt their strategies to these changing conditions. This creates a more immersive and engaging experience.
Performance:
- Many reviewers report that the game generally runs smoothly and is well-optimized, especially considering it is in early access. Some players experience near-flawless performance with high frame rates and minimal bugs or crashes. Recent updates have further improved stability.
- The game's graphics are impressive, especially with Unreal Engine, but can be resource-intensive. Some users have reported high CPU/GPU temperatures and the need to lower graphics settings to maintain performance.
- Several reviewers mention issues with pathfinding. These issues can cause delivery failures, buildings not functioning correctly, and inefficient unit movement.
- Some users have reported needing to lower graphics settings or limit the frame rate to achieve smooth performance on the Steam Deck.
- There is a known issue with AMD FSRS default configurations that requires modification in the ini file, to be resolved later.
Recommendations:
- The game shows great promise but is currently incomplete, with many reviewers eagerly awaiting future updates, content additions, and the full 1.0 release. Many believe it has the potential to become a classic in its genre, with some even considering it a potential game of the year.
- Many reviewers suggest caution due to the game's early access state, recommending potential buyers to wait for further development or purchase if they want to support the developer. Some suggest that the game is not yet ready for early access, while others find it worth purchasing to support the developer and encourage further updates.
- The game is highly recommended for fans of city-building, strategy, and medieval settings, with many reviewers considering it a must-try or a must-have. It is praised for its unique blend of strategy, management, and tactics, as well as its realistic visuals, depth of management mechanics, and historical authenticity.
- Many reviewers express strong positive sentiment, rating the game highly and recommending it without hesitation. They find the game enjoyable, well worth the money, and are excited about its future development.
- Many reviewers feel the game is overpriced for its current state, often recommending a purchase only on sale. Some reviewers feel the game is more of a demo than an early access title, lacking sufficient content to justify the full price.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is in early access/alpha/beta, with many features incomplete, missing, or locked. Reviewers acknowledge this status, tempering expectations and anticipating future updates, content, and polish. Some express concern about the indefinite nature of early access and the risk of unfinished games.
- The game is primarily developed by a solo developer or a small team, who are actively engaged with the community. They are responsive to feedback, incorporating suggestions and prioritizing features based on player input, which inspires confidence in the game's future.
- The game is primarily developed by a solo developer or a small team, which is impressive given the game's detail and scope. However, the small team size may affect the frequency of updates and the overall development timeline.
- Many reviewers express excitement and anticipation for the full release of the game. They are looking forward to the finished product and the addition of more content and features.
- Reviewers often specify the version of the game they are playing and sometimes mention their playtime. Some reviewers have updated their reviews based on changes in the game.
