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Patron builds upon the foundations laid out by the staples of the survival city builder genre and enhances the experience with a large research tree and by introducing intricate social dynamics into the game and the genre in general. Happiness, the st...
Patron builds upon the foundations laid out by the staples of the survival city builder genre and enhances the experience with a large research tree and by introducing intricate social dynamics into the game and the genre in general. Happiness, the standard simple feature of all such games, in the case of Patron is a complete gameplay system in its own right.
Patron starts off similarly to other games in the genre, but then veers off exploring social intricacies and what it means to truly run a society and not just a city filled with automatons.
Each individual citizen in the town has his needs, desires and issues troubling him or making him happy. Some citizens are more concerned with immigration, while others are more aggravated by tax-related issues. If the citizen’s view on the subject is in line with what the town government (YOU, the player) is doing, he’ll be happy. Works the other way around as well.
CONSTRUCT AND UPGRADE
To make the best of the opportunities in this new land, you will need to construct residential houses, farms, production plants, manufacturing buildings and dozens of other buildings needed to harvest the riches of the land.
BALANCE SENSITIVE SOCIAL ISSUES
Every decision you make as Patron will be met with different reactions from different social groups. You'll need real political talent to balance sensitive matters as religion, immigration, loyalty, poverty... Whatever you choose to do can lead to unforeseen consequences years later.
ADAPT TO WEATHER AND SEASONS
Managing your tasks and citizens in a timely and efficient manner allows you to prepare and adapt to external variables like harsh weather or different seasons.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOP FOR THE FUTURE
The world is changing and you must make sure you're advancing at the proper pace. Only by constant advancing and research will your society be able to stand the test of time.
TRAGEDY ALWAYS LURKS
No matter what you do, unexpected tragedies can always strike your people. They will look to you for protection and help.
ENJOY THE GOOD SIDE OF LIFE
People also need external signs of their success. Build and arrange numerous beautification elements of your city, and make sure everyone is rewarded for their hard work.
KEY FEATURES
A survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system
Gather and produce resources
Establish sustainable production chains
Build your fledgling village into a prosperous city as you construct and upgrade buildings
Manage your people and steer your citizens towards needed professions
Balance social issues: Class strife, Immigration, Religion, Health, Safety, Loyalty...
Plan growth through an extensive Research Tree and unlock technology, policies and upgrades
Plan production and overseas trade to support your economy through difficult times
I got the game running, but it is full screen only. The mouse won't move up the entire screen when windowed. The graphics are nice, the sound is nice, and the game appears to have a ton of pathways, options, etc. on how to build your village.
The downside is that you never seem to have enough people and all they do is complain. You can also lose them, I assume they die, without any rhyme or reason and with no warning. I have been playing RTSs and sim games for years and this, as of right now, just seems more like a frustration simulator. If these issues are ironed out, this will be a great game.
I can't know for sure whether the game lives up to the advertising hype. The reason is that this demo version only allows you to play for two hours and then makes you restart from the beginning to keep playing. Given the glacial pace of this game, two hours is just about enough time to build a few houses and a resource depot. None of the features relating to the game's conceit (social policy) are remotely reachable in that time. I would have loved to get a glimpse into the class conflict that the manual and blurbs hint about. However, rules are rules, and I am obliged to rate based entirely on what I actually experienced in the game.
What I experienced was a game that seemed like a first effort. Lots of little things I'd expect from a solid game seem missing. The strict adherence to the realism of scale and proportion results in all your citizens disappearing if you zoom out a bit. Even when you are zoomed all the way in so you can see what the heck they are up to, they are not selectable and have no mouseover display, so you can't even see their name or profession. The pace is also overly concerned with realism; citizens walk through forests carrying loads of goods not much faster than it would take in real life. Furthermore, the game lets you build rectilinear roads (more like slightly-worn dirt paths) instantly for free and suggests this helps their efficiency, but they seem to completely ignore roads and stick to walking along direct diagonals between destinations.
These kinds of blemishes, coupled with the really quite poor game performance, make me agree when they kick me out of the game and thank me for playing their "alpha." Yep, that seems about right.
Beware of shill reviews. Online reviews are getting tricky and nasty.
The game runs fine for me on win 8.1.
The graphics look nice, kind of 3D isometric,
Just tested that it runs, maybe just try it yourself.
Looks great, has a good concept but it's way too easy to run out of resources. People keep dying because they run out of food but the food in the inventory of housing units don't count. Buildings will say there is an issue with getting the resources to and from the building but won't tell you the solution. You jave to wait for workers to be born and grow. Upkeep price is on everything that gives additonal resources. Trade via the docks takes a whole game year to complete. Even real life colony building isn't this absurd. Why can't my hunters hunt? there is a literal bear roaming my city. Why can't my people pick herbs?? Why can't we order people to makke new people on command? Why do I have to HOPE they make lots of kids while my resources are high?? Why do I need a separate unit to make firewood and lumber? I wanted to like this game but it's a huge let down.
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