But I just want to say that already it is much better than Craft the World since women dwarves are not a separate DLC that you have to buy. That right there is worth 5 stars.
Before anyone tries to be smart with me, yes I know the game is in early access. This isn't my first time around the block, so to speak. Game itself runs really well, the character creator is just as good, if not better than DOS2. The CGIs, from what I can see of them, look amazing. And there in lies the rub. Larian must have made them on a NASA computer with the largest TV in existence because they make my computer run like hot garbage. I don't know about all them but the one just as you finish the Nautolid eats up my computer's resources and then basically stalls. I've had to redo that last battle five times. I know I don't have the best computer, but it runs a lot of other high end games fairly well... I'm sure when the game gets out of advanced alpha stage I will add on another three stars, but unless you got a beastly gaming PC, then save your money.
I don't own the game (yet), so I have no reason to "white knight" the game or the studio. But lets look at these two DLCs through a sane lens. One is a character portrait pack for 5 USD. The other is gives you a pair of boots and a gun. Neither of these are in any way necessary for you to progress. It's definitely shady for them to charge money for extra portraits, but do you *need* them to play the game? No. I'd be more likely to have nothing good to say about the devs if they charged 10-20 USD for the packs, or if they pulled a Dragon Age 1 by sticking in DLC ads for quests but they haven't. They are giving us bonuses items to help support the game. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have used portraits for a DLC because that's kinda scammy.
Way back before this game was new, I was one of the many people whole tested this game back when beta-testing wasn't a preview system lol. It was a lot of fun helping out TM. The first PC games I got hooked on were city builders and Homeworld, all the classic Sierra gems like Caesar 3, Pharaoh and Zeus. I still have all the CDs hiding somewhere. COTN is the pinnacle of Sierra/Tilted Mills city builders games though. It takes all the wonkiness of walkers and weird mechanics and ditches them. It's also the first time one of their city builder games were slightly mod-able. I made flower field textures for it. Still one of my favourite city builder games!
"Hope never fades, it's the beacon of eternity" I know that's not the exact quote of Charon, but it sums up this game perfectly. It's beautiful, soothing and peaceful. You can tell the devs poured their hearts into this.
Has issues of course but I played it for about two hours and it's a lot of fun. You can config the map generation so there's tons of trees, lakes, ruins and mountains. I like low mountains, medium ruins and lakes and lots of trees. Night gets really dark which is pretty neat, so it's not just super blue coloured. But apparently the settlers don't know how to use torches... You can make electricity later so I imagine houses and the like will get lighting. It's a cool little Fallout-style city builder, there's no mutants or ghouls though, just animals - not sure if there's any predators though.
Every one of these Sierra/Titled Mill games are forgotten gems. I played these obsessively when I was a kid. I even got to beta test Zeus and Children of the Nile back when beta testing actually meant something. I still have all of them except the Ceasar games on CD somewhere.
My first modern gaming experience was not mmos, it was city builders. I was an avid fan of Sierra/Tilted Mills historical city builder series. And even without combat, conquest and all that like most games, Banised scratches the city builder itch quite nicely. The modding scene is pretty extensive too... if you get it on GoG you might have to use a workshop downloader (not sure).
The fact that you have to pay extra just to have female dwarves, is pretty shoddy.
