220 people found this review helpful
4 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 66.0 hrs on record
Posted: Jun 3, 2017 @ 5:58pm

Hard to recommend this game at the moment. It is so similar to Banished, and adds so little, with problems that are long fixed in Banished.

Firstly this does have better graphics, and the first person mode is useful to use.

Problems and Issues:

1) There is a woeful lack of decorations, placables, clutter objects, whatever you want to call them. No decorative trees, gardens, dock items like crates or nets, fountains. There is some walls, arches, signs and light posts, that's it.

2) There are no couples. People will move to the closest house to their job. This can mean houses full of only women or men or even only young children. Women seem to magically get pregnant, based on the house they live in.

3) The people are work units. They never get bored, which is good because there is literally only the tavern, which isn't that useful. No games or recreations or festivals or even idle chatter.

OK these three problems mean the game has a massive lack of personality. You get food, have houses, make tools and clothes. Grats you are done.

4) Farming is based on temerature. This forces the gameplay around a winter mechanic that drops temperature to stop farming. Longer winters = less farming time. Crops don't have a planting season, they have a planting temperature. You can usually do 2 harvests in a field. Game seems balanced for this. Breaks immersion a bit and also means the game is impossible to have a hot climate option, since it would be year round farming = too easy. Hot climate have it's own challenges. Australian here, want winter planting and early summer harvesting :(

5) Map generator makes janky maps. Needs a loooot of work. All maps are island that centre is high ground. No lakes, no rivers, no plains.


Unlike banished which had every food item be it's own item (gather collected mushrooms, onions, blueberries, etc, same for each field crop, etc, etc). This game simplifies those to fruit and vegetables.


To be honest everything the devs seem to have done is to have the game be mechanically functioning while making it easy to code. Having each crop have it's own growing time and storage icon is a lot of work, having people live as couples in the same house, that's more work. I want more work. This game could be great, but it needs the hard work to make it great. Right now it's Banished with better graphics and less personality or gameplay.
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13 Comments
尋覓交配對象~害羞哦 Jan 22, 2018 @ 4:21am 
Excellent review, i will post this to forum
Aelin I-Hin-Ithil Oct 9, 2017 @ 3:50pm 
Thank you for this review. Will stick with Banished.
The Murdering Angel Jul 2, 2017 @ 1:19pm 
Great review, but I still lol at the Southern Hemisphere n00b with your backwards seasons. GG git North skrub. >.>
ElKeeed Jul 1, 2017 @ 12:43pm 
you do realise that plants DO work by temperature and not by season?
SirLogiC Jun 8, 2017 @ 6:05am 
@DAVINCI Banished Has it's own problems, but with the amazing Colonial Charter mod it really is a big game now.

If you are a first timer I would suggest Banished. Get the CC mod (and maybe a more wood mod) and play that. Both games are really slow paced, no combat at all. This game does have little things to watch for, like animals stealing your honey or killing chickens.

My hope is this game has a lot of work done to it, or a similarly awesome like CC is made for it. Until then though Banished is better.
Muzz Jun 8, 2017 @ 4:23am 
Hey SirLogiC, Great review mate.

I see a lot of bad reviews coming out due to the game being like Banished but i have not actually played Banished so would you recommend this to the likes of me for a first timer or would you suggest i go the way of Banished over this?
SirLogiC Jun 7, 2017 @ 7:01pm 
@Hopestone I did read in a patch notes I think that the devs want to add viking raids or some other combat mechanic. Does not interest me at all though.

Hoping for the patch(es) that add more personality to the game.
Hopestone Jun 7, 2017 @ 12:36pm 
Wow, just thanks, was about to buy, when i read your review. Not having families is the exact lack of realism wich would have made me quit the game. As Marco mentioned it might just be another drop/collect/abandon title, wich is likely when you see how they don't have any more plans mentioned on their homepage after release.
Hugh de Salle Jun 6, 2017 @ 6:43am 
Yep good review ive put it on my wishlist hoping they might address the issues mentioned.
Sassy Lady Jun 5, 2017 @ 8:23pm 
Thanks for the helpful review. You saved my mascara from running down my face with frustration from lack of personality and charm. Back to racking up hours on Banished.