A little over 60 hours in, loving this game to the point of addiction. Pros: Many things to build, whatever, wherever, and however you want. Roads, bridges, ramps, scaffolds, chutes, conveyors, rails, or send a raft or boat across the lake. Fences, walls, benches, flowers, or plant some trees or bushes. Plant fruits or vegies anywhere to harvest for food or just to look nice. Put buildings, roads, or structures anywhere you want, and if you change your mind, just click and move it! Use blocks or scaffolding to place buildings or roads over rough terrain, and if you move things later, the terrain is still in it's original form, not flattened out from the building. You can make things work more efficiently, and you have lots of tools and options to make improvements. It's sometimes a challenge to get everything working just right, whether it's a farm's crop production or getting stone down from a mountain. Make wider roadways to eliminate congestion, or if something is in the way, use ramps and scaffolding to build up and over! Try something new, and if it doesn't work, just click and move things around until it does. Be as creative or concise as you please. Take your time tweaking one project without worrying about what's happening in other parts of the map. Place new buildings, add all the details and finishing touches, get automated production going, all while your townspeople happily go about their assigned chores. No enemy attacks or unexpected disasters to ruin everything you've done. The music is calming, the bouncy townspeople are fun, and the pretty details create a very pleasant atmosphere. Magnificently well done. Cons: A few of the key controls were uncomfortable at first, but you can change them in the options to get them just how you like. It's important to train yourself not to right-click to deselect a worker, because doing so will cancel their assigned tasks and they will walk over and just stand there in the spot where you right-clicked.
This game is a welcome change of scenery, full of gorgeous nature detail, pleasant music, and beavers! The beavers are not a cluster of unidentfiable anonymous clones like other games. Each beaver has a name, and you can follow them throughout their life, watching them work and mingle and go to their home to sleep. After clocking 165 hours playing the demo, which was challenging in its own ways, i've found the early access release to be even more challenging with much more to do. I love this!
So many things going on at once, little details you have to pay attention to. It makes you focus and problem-solve to keep everything running smoothly, not just 'click and drop'. I've learned new strategies and techniques every day from playing, making mistakes and fixing them, or meeting the challenges of the campaigns. I absolutely love all the little details! Watching the workers do their jobs, the caravans with their donkeys hauling goods, and you can see all the little products they're carrying. The vendor carrying the chair on her head is my favorite. While others have mentioned the lack of disasters, i have to disagree. Lose focus and run out of wheat for a few minutes, and your entire city can pack up and leave in a domino effect. You can easily lose your city, even after hours of work and effort, but it will be of your own doing, not some random event out of your control. For me, this is the best part of the game. as i cannot stand games where random AI actions destroy everything i've built. I hope this doesn't get changed in the future.
