The game is pretty great, but could bore you, fortunately, devs are still developing it. If their new update called AI Kingdoms will finally arive and be as well done as a previous updates, this will be great evolution from tower defense-city builder to real RTS. I just hope in some time terrain will be no more flat, and mountains, hill, valleys, rivers and waterfalls will make this game absolutely perfect.
This game has a decent foundation following the original Settlers formula where many of the things of the game cannot be controlled directly. It's cool to see some innovations and new ideas in the economy system simulation and most them make sense and work fairly well. There are some rough edges like the mines whose resources can be mined forever which I don't think is very interesting nor strategic.
The job management system does not work very well since you cannot adjust the work force with percentages, instead you will have to sort the works by order which means that the jobs at the bottom of the list will not get any workers if you don't have enough workers in your kingdom. So if you end up in a situation where you have more production buildings than workers you will have to constantly micromanage the job list if you want to ensure that your economy produces at least some of all possible resources, which is usually crucial in a game like this where the production of goods is based on long chains of processing resources from one form to another.
When it comes to military and fighting, it all falls short. As of writing this review there are no computer opponents to play against, instead you just get some random raids from vikings and dragons. Recruited units can be controlled like in mainstream RTS games, which I don't personally like at all. The archery tower and ballista systems require active workers to function, which means that you will have to once again micromanage the job management list when your kingdom is under attack.
The Settlers 1 had very simple combat system but it was more than enough to keep the game very intense because the overall system worked very well with its simple rules backed up by the fact that winning was all about 1. the economy management 2. distrupting the enemy economy and 3. planning ahead with grand strategies and moves.
A lovely town builder that gets better with age. Each update implements something new, worth exploring - the devs make sure of that.
Fun game, not brain-dead, engage with creativity and just build as you wish. Even though its simple, relative to many other town-builders, it keeps you engaged for a long while.
Now that there's some AI and a hard-mode, its going to be even more engaging!
Thank the devs for this delight :)
It's a fun little builder and the graphics are just my style. I'm just mad that Steam gets updates and Gog gets updated if the devs feel like it and they haven't of late.
I come from a background of dwarf fortress, Age of Empires, & lots more so the budget graphics don't worry me. I only count gameplay in such titles.
That said this relaxed medievil management game fails on a number of fronts in it's current release.
You cannot prioritize food, so workers will mine stone till they either leave from unhappiness or die; causing a more passive version of Dwarf Fortresses tantrum spiral.
It sorely needs sliders for such things as world gen size (which as it is; is fixed), more control over worldgen, No. of work slots for buildings available.
There also doesn't seem to be upgrades for lumber yards, and while you can turn buildings off; you can't for with the 5 worker hog treasury that will kill your flegling fort just as an example.
Fires break out randomly; while I accept they posed real threat in medievil times; patches of untilled dirt did not catch fire every 2 days.
I don't see any reason why this title needs to be single player and it's crying out for competitive action to alleviate it's dull plodding pace (even at max speed).
House upgrades are ludicrous netting +1 worker at a significant complexity cost, while you lose flexible placement.
Cannot fertilize land from what I can tell, nor grow new forest tiles.
Wow this is actually getting to be a pretty big list of negatives now that I stop to think about it.
Clouds need more settings, they look great but they need less frequency and larger area of aversion, faster dissipation at cursor.
Buildings need Isomer settings to allow mirroring.
Game has some weird blueing when you zoom out (probably simulating atmosphere, but it's annoying).
No tutorial, which is weird when game clearly has some pitfalls to progression.
You need roads everywhere and it seems like an unnecessary design choice; that doesn't reflect the fact that peasants don't use carts or horses for goods making them mute as a house sized laneway.
Considering they allow only 3 spaces away they just detract from the game.
