Dawn of Man

It's alright. Looks nice and runs well. I didn't encounter any glaring bugs. The UI is pretty good with some fairly minor nitpicks, fiddly zone adjustment being one. Both UI- and gameplay-wise, everything in the game mostly works how you'd expect. One small gripe I had with balance is that towers might as well be made out of wet tissue, they get melted in seconds during raids, and have to be rebuilt every time. Dynamic world with predator-prey interactions is neat but doesn't really make the game deeper or anything. No interesting decisions beyond the very early game, thus little replayability. I filled out the tech tree and the "goals" in the base freeplay mode on hardcore in around 7-8 hours. Disasters and attacks honestly weren't very punishing. To sum up, a comfy builder with good feeling of progression that may take up a lazy Saturday or help you relax over a few evenings, but not something with enough substance that you'll keep coming back to it.

Starts-off well and keeps you engrossed for a few hours, once you get to 50+ population, the game really starts to reveal all of its flaws. Some examples: My goats bred like rabbits then suddenly dropped off a cliff after I culled their population by slaughtering a relatively small % of them. I have no idea why, so now my 4-5 stables are mostly empty. Hunters get tired and hungry because they chase animals into the wild and don't bother to take any supplies, and no camping or control over the "group" of them is possible, outside of the resource limit and work area you can set - which is what you do for every...single...resource. Dogs are useless, at least they don't cost anything and show-up on their own. But c'mon. I still have no idea how Watchtowers work, or why they are even worth building. Sheep seem to be the rarest of rare exotic animals in the game. Good luck finding or buying them while your people freeze in the winter as a result. You need to plant a TON of "cereal" fields (these are grains) in order to acquire enough straw to get you through a winter without running out - but your people will get over-worked quickly and be in a constant state of low morale. Populations seem to stagnate around 50 or so, it takes forever to get to 70 or 80, and then it's a constant battle to fight all of the balance and resource issues, only some of which are mentioned above. The game is a huge time sink, with little reward. I've never been so underwhelmed to reach the Copper or Iron Age, at that point the game becomes such a bore and a slow, painful micro-management exercise, that I had a hard time even caring. Graphics are nice, music is nice, the UI is fine, but there are way too many issues with the game to recommend it right now, or ever, as I don't know how the developers can possibly address all of the problems with this game. That said, I may try to start over, try diff strategies, but for now I need a break.

For a long, long time I've waited for a game that lets me play with a band of prehistoric people in an authentic way. Imagine my surprise when I saw this at the front page of gog. This game came out of nowhere for me, but the moment I saw the 'cover art' (and the sensible price) I knew I had to check it out. I am glad I did. Went from a small family in the wilderness to a bustling copper age town and I can't wait to take it to the next age. My one complaint is that there less a lot to do for the player once you get in the bronze/copper stage. By then things work more or less automatically and all the player has to do is add a few buildings here, and there and hunt/catch animals if you're so inclined while you wait for the necessary points to get the next tech. These latter stages could do with a few extra buildings, even if it is just cosmetic stuff. Variation in houses/shrines might also be an idea, I would love if we got the opportunity to beautify our settlement. This complaint doesn't break my enjoyment and what you get for this price is more than fair.

This is a really good and engaging city builder / simulation that goes into territory rarely explored in the genre. You really get a sense of progression here too. Long story short it's really good and my only feedback are some QOL nitpicks that bother me a lot, like having a hard time finding my work zones and having to re-go through all the menus over and over if i want to make a minor edit to like, how i build my walls or something.