Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt

I own the Tablet version, but thought I'd get the desktop too. This game has come a long way from simple town building to economic and survival aspects that greatly enhanced it for me.

There are many city-builders out there, but Townsmen is definitely in the bottom 20%. Its clunky, unfun and awkward, and its missing much of the displays to make the game playable. This would have been a competitive option in the early 1990s, as it would have been before Pharoah and Emperor of the Middle Kingdom. It lacks the depth of Anno, the fun factor of Pharoah and ends up being a weird clunky mess. Its poorly designed, its a hassle to manage workers, and figuring out where your supply chain has broken down is not easy since you don't get the overview screens to easily process whats happening. I found I had to click a whole bunch of times to even see what was going on. It doesn't innovate on any level, and just does what other games have done, but badly. The campaign feels abstract and meaningless, no matter what changes you make to your city, you will start with a "fresh" city that the designers created for that level. There are just better options for this type of game that are actually fun.

This game doesn't break any new ground; it's mechanically and thematically in line with many other city builders. On the other hand, it works the basic formula of the genre very well for the most part, and it's worth picking up on sale for a bit of traditional fun.

I can't say anything bad really. The graphics are really cosy, the season changes .... everything is just perfect. Highly customisable gameplay. You can play scenarios or you can have it on endless mode. You can disable disasters and bandits attacks so it becomes a really casual and relaxing experience.

Just an amazing well done game, a pleasant game on where you can spend your time after a long work day