Hearthlands

Mind you, the game itself isn't horribly broken or buggy, but it's not a very exciting or interesting game either. It lacks a certain je ne sais quoi from its spiritual predecessors (Zeus, Pharaoh, etc.), and it also lacks any form of lore or even campaign to enjoy while playing. It's basically like a perpetual sandbox mode from Zeus, without the interesting mythology, lore, characters, humour, or even gameplay challenges. Now, Hearthlands isn't all bad. It's been streamlined like crazy, and it removed a lot of incredibly frustrating things from games like Zeus or Pharaoh, such as walkers (i.e. bazaar peddlers, firemen, etc.) all having entirely random walking patterns. Hearthlands takes that nonsense, throws it in a bin, and sets that bin on fire before kickin' it down a steep hill. And I applaud it for doing so! But as I said (or at least implied), there's a lot more to a GOOD GAME than just functional mechanics. It lacks a certain sense of "soul" you'd find in earlier games in the same sub-genre. Maybe it's the horribly ugly design for the characters you have to put up with, such as your ruler, and the chancellor or whatever it was called, both of which you can customize the appearance(s) of before playing. Or maybe it's the annoyingly convoluted gameplay, that instead of building towards a specific challenge instead just tosses a whole bunch of unconnected nonsense on the floor and goes "There's yer game, give us twenty bucks please". Suffice to say, Hearthlands isn't broken or poorly programmed, and if you can get past the horribly poorly written text in every single part of the game as well as the stale gameplay, complete lack of "personality" to it, and the rather schizophrenic nature of it, you might enjoy it. But personally, I didn't like it very much... especially not at the price they're asking for it.

Hearthlands is a fun game. I have this bad habit of not considering games that aren't well rated by the community. Graphics don't mean so much - Dominions 4 is still my standby game when waiting for the next big thing, but who's got the time to guess for themselves? So I saw this little indie city builder, but noticed that the rating wasn't very good (no idea why something has to be 4 star to be good - some real dogs here got 5s, but eh, that's the system). Got bored, and tried it anyway. Glad I did. Elaborate build chains are enjoyable - Star Ruler 2? Yes please. Hearthlands isn't quite that nuts, or that level of a game. Things are fairly straightforward, but the darned chain simply refuses to come together for me in the very limited timeframe available before things on hard mode demolish me. I strain to get a full barracks before neverending monster spam and a full invasion of 40 foes, replete with higher level wizards. I haven't even got a war pig here! Broken! Unfair! Heinously abusive! And that's why it's been fun, and worth the small investment while waiting for the next big thing. I detest easy games. I'm happy I bought and played this game. =)

I binged this game for a few days, and I'm calling it quits without finishing the campaign. Hearthlands is in many respects very similar to Banished. However it falls short in many areas: it's not as pretty, it doesn't feel as balanced or engaging, and the production values otherwise feel lower. The one advantage over Banished that it does hypothetically have is the inclusion of military units and combat, however the implementation is so half baked and unfun that this doesn't actually play in Hearthlands's favor.

I got this some years back, when my sad little computer couldn't handle it. Flash forward to the present day and, suddenly, it can! I decided to boot it on up and give it a try, and here's what I found. Hearthlands could easily be compared to Caesar/Cleopatra, Age of Empires, or Settlers; but despite the many similarities between it and the genre of citybuilders, it isn't out to redefine what the term means; instead it is confident it will lure you in with the promise of a fun, warm, and satisfying time... Though don't take that to mean that the game is simple! There are quite a few interesting rules and combinations with how you might choose to zone your city, the various campaign missions, the culture rulesets that determine your citizens' specialties, and all the rest. I guess if I had to choose one downside to arbitrarily pick, it'd be that military stuff is less and less interesting to me. I do enjoy the 'ready grunt alerts' of your guys as they get trained up, but sometimes it feels a bit tacked on. However, that's about it; now that my computer can handle it, I'd strongly recommend Hearthlands if you're the sort of player that has been looking for a pretty, peaceful, and pastel kind of city-builder. It'll still give you some challenges, and scratch that itch for a game you've been looking for to muse strategies over with a nice cup of coffee or some hot tea.