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I held off because I've been stung by early access before. A decent EA buy?
But between this and the new KC:D I might be on a medieval theme for a while
I bought it last night and only have a few hours in. So far it's pretty great though. I look forward to seeing it continue to develop, and according to reviews posted by pre-release testers the developer is very open to community feedback.
It's definitely not a fully complete game yet, but I expect I'll get at least a couple weekend binges out of it before I shelve it and wait for more content.
Also, it's working perfectly in Linux (through Proton) so extra points there.
It’s still very much EA. There’s already a great game loop there, but it’s still janky, barebones, missing features, and unbalanced.
Nothing wrong with waiting. I bought it to support the dev, but I’m going to shelve it for 6 months or so to let it cook more.
I played some last night going in completely blind. I enjoyed it, but there isn't really a tutorial, just tooltips that come up periodically. Unfortunately my town died after a few hours because I didn't understand I was supposed to be preparing food for as soon as possible (crops grow on a year cycle, so you need the seeds in ASAP). Makes logical sense, but the game doesn't tell you and then I was stuffed.
I think it's totally fun as a sandbox/run-based game, but if you're looking for something more you'll need to wait.
It's better to start with berries and hunting first. Farming takes too long to start with.
Based on reviews I've read there are some issues but it's a small dev team (1 man shop iirc) and it's the best medieval city builder since Banished according to reviews.
Banished is a low bar. It had a lot of issues. I would argue the recently released Farthest Frontier is a better comparison. It also has some flaws but is leaps and bounds better than Banished.
Banished felt like a slightly interactive ant farm. Not a lot of stuff happened. Just everyone slowly died over the course of a decade.
Think you just described colony builders quite accurately. Loved the idea of an ant farm when I was a kid until I put the small ones in instead of the big ones
It definitely still feels like it's in EA. There's only one map and there are a ton of buttons that do nothing. But the game is aesthetic AF and the core gameplay is solid.
unfinished release
I feel "early access" has this implication that it's not just a product that is unfinished being sold for money with a pinky promise that it'll get better in the future. It's better than a normal release that ends up being unfinished, but only by being somewhat open about it.
That being said, game looks fantastic. If they keep at this, could become something really really cool in the future.
Early access is extremely effective, when used correctly. It lets smaller studios get an income stream a lot earlier, which helps significantly. It also lets them form a tight feedback loop with fans. They can find out what works and what doesn't. Some examples of it working well would be Rimworld, Kerbal Space Program, and Factorio. All released as amazing games, primarily due to early access.
Unfortunately, a lot of companies seem to be abusing the idea right now. Particularly bigger studios.
Yeah plus from a consumer perspective it's nothing special.
It's just a buggy release, only the bugginess and unfinishedness is known and openly announced. Which makes it more earnest, of course. On the other hand just like with any other release you have 0 guarantee or influence over whether missing features get added in the future and/or bugs get fixed. If the content is worth the money asked it's a buy, if not it's a wait.
Looks really promising but way too much in early access for me to risk that price tag, I'd rather try furthest frontier or the game from the settlers creator since they are further along iirc. I do look forward to trying it out one day tho, seems right up my valley if they manage to add some meaningful late game goals or challenges!
It's on game pass if you just want to try it out.
I'm really enjoying watching City Planner Plays play it. There's lots of attention to detail, easy to immerse yourself in it.
Watching him play combat though drives me mad.
The combat looks like it needs work. I hope that something will do it just walk near enemy to attack
It’s remarkable how well this game looks, plays, and performs. The game was somehow made by a single guy, yet it puts just about every other medieval city builder that’s come before it to shame. Only real issue with the game is a lack of content due to being early access, but everything that’s there is incredible.