Rise of the Merchants Review Summary

A rich, polished medieval trading sim with satisfying depth and engaging multiplayer, though forced online single-player and persistent bugs and crashes hold it back.

Rich medieval trading simulation: The game offers a deep trading and logistics experience set in an authentic medieval world. Players enjoy building merchant empires, optimizing trade routes, and engaging in political intrigues.

Polished and detailed presentation: Reviewers appreciate the attention to detail, from graphics and soundtrack to authentic names and dialogues. The game is visually appealing and runs smoothly.

Satisfying progression and depth: The game offers a rewarding sense of progression, with earned advancement and increasing complexity. Players enjoy the strategic thinking and long-term planning required.

Engaging multiplayer and community: The optional multiplayer adds an interesting dimension, with player interactions, trading, and cooperation enhancing the experience. The community is friendly and helpful.

Positive overall impressions: Players widely describe the game as very good, recommendable, and full of charm. Even those new to the title find it surprisingly enjoyable.

Forced Online Single-Player: The game requires a constant internet connection and lacks any offline or single-player mode, even though multiplayer interactions are minimal. This prevents play during server outages and on platforms like Steam Deck.

Bugs and Crashes: The game suffers from frequent bugs, crashes, and performance issues including lag, low FPS, and launch failures. An update even made the game unable to start.

Poor Tutorial Experience: The tutorial is inefficient, fails to explain core mechanics, and forces suboptimal decisions. Players feel unsupported and confused about what to do next.

Cumbersome UI Navigation: The interface requires excessive busy work and screen switching, especially for convoy management and settlement needs. The UI is not cohesive, hides important information, and is difficult to navigate.

Steep Learning Curve: The game is confusing and poorly explained, with a steep learning curve that requires multiple restarts. Many mechanics and efficient strategies are not taught, forcing players to research externally.

Online multiplayer and interaction: Many players highlight the multiplayer component, including global play, trading with friends, chatting, and direct competition. Some note that multiplayer interaction is optional and can be avoided.

Trading is core gameplay: Trading goods between locations, seeking favorable deals, and optimizing trade routes form the heart of the experience. Players describe it as a trading simulation where buying and selling drives progression.

Settlement building and management: Players develop a starting village into a city, managing resources, citizens' needs, and reputation. Building and economic management are central to survival and growth.

Turn-based economic strategy: The game is characterized as a turn-based economic management and strategy game with medieval trading simulation elements. It combines management, strategy, and social mechanics.

Convoy and route management: Players organize convoys, assign routes, and manage transport with movement and carrying capacity limits. Route planning and logistics are key activities.

Severe lag and low FPS: Players report heavy lag during loading and gameplay, and FPS so low that the game becomes unplayable in some cases. Specific examples include the world map running at 4 FPS and FPS dropping below 10 even in the main menu.

Poor optimization despite capable hardware: Performance issues persist even on hardware that exceeds requirements and with current drivers, and lowering all graphics settings fails to improve performance. This indicates a fundamental optimization problem rather than a hardware limitation.

High latency and disconnections: Players experience high network latency and frequent disconnections, impacting online play. These connectivity issues are separate from local performance problems.

Patch resolved initial stutters: Initial stutters and delays were completely fixed by a patch, and the game now runs smoothly. This shows that some performance issues were successfully addressed.

Runs well on low-end systems: The game runs smoothly on an old work laptop with integrated graphics at low-mid settings, and launches fast after initial load. This indicates good scalability for some users.

Favorable for economy simulation fans: Multiple reviewers recommend the game to players who enjoy economic, trading, and global strategy simulations. It appeals especially to those who like planning, organizing, and building trade empires.

Not recommended in current state: Several reviewers say the game is not recommendable as it currently stands, citing incomplete Early Access issues and performance problems. Some suggest waiting for updates before purchasing.

Multiplayer presence disappoints solo players: Reviewers warn that players seeking a pure single-player experience should avoid the game. The forced online mode led at least one reviewer to refund immediately.

Chill and relaxing trading experience: Many players describe the game as a solid, relaxing experience ideal for winding down. It offers plenty to learn without being overly difficult.

Geared toward hardcore strategy players: The game is recommended for hardcore strategy and management enthusiasts, not casual players. Newcomers are advised to bring patience or look elsewhere.

Session length: 1.5h.

Players often describe a heavy or overwhelming onboarding with tutorial and pacing frustrations, but some report that working through the start and learning the systems makes the game rewarding. Others find it addictive immediately, so sentiment is mixed.

Friction: Heavy, overwhelming start; Interface and pacing frustrations; Tutorial that forces suboptimal play; Poorly explained or unhelpful tutorial; Slow animations; Online or multiplayer requirements that can block solo play.

Unlock drivers: Working through the initial heaviness; Spending time learning the systems; Helpful tutorial guiding the first steps.

Solo-First Offline Player: Plays solo sessions and avoids or minimizes multiplayer interaction, trading, and PvP. Motivation: To play the game solo without being blocked or constrained by online and multiplayer systems. Stance: buy.

Chill Management Learner: Plays leisurely, follows tutorials, and learns systems at their own pace without pushing for hardcore competition. Motivation: To relax and enjoy a accessible management game with gradual learning and low stress. Stance: buy.

Competitive PvP Ladder Player: Builds toward PvP and ranked play, using optional structures strategically while still enjoying the base management loop. Motivation: To compete on the ranked ladder and engage with multiplayer/PvP systems. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The audit found limited but significant feedback: one reviewer reports multiple bugs and several crashes on the first day, which meets the criteria for a broken experience. Two other reviewers request offline mode and separation of single-player and multiplayer, indicating server dependency that can affect Steam Deck portability. No explicit Proton Experimental or launcher-navigation issue was present in the evidence.

Early Access but polished: Reviewers note the game is in Early Access yet already feels very refined for that stage. Several players highlight that it is surprisingly polished and content-rich given its unfinished status.

Compared to classic trading games: The game is frequently compared to Patrizier, Die Fugger, Gilde, and Port Royale, evoking familiar feelings for fans of classic trading simulations. Some also see it as an evolution of 1990s strategy-builders.

Unfinished but actively developed: Some feedback points out the game is unfinished and still in ongoing development. This is often framed alongside the active development team and patches that steadily improve the game.

Evolution of 1990s strategy-builders: The game feels like an evolution of the strategy-builder games of the 1990s, appealing to fans of classic German business simulations. This nostalgic connection is a recurring theme.

Demo and playtest availability: A free demo and a pre-release playtest were available, giving players early access to try the game. Reviewers note that the full game differs significantly from the demo.