Review from an Experienced Player

[God's Silliest Goose]

Let me start by saying I've played close to forty or so hours of Towns--I'm no expert, but I've got enough experience to know quite a bit about the game. I didn't play twenty minutes, get bored, and then take a dump on it. So I decided to give my opinion about it to people who are considering buying it, and I hope that this helps.

My first piece of advice: GET THE DEMO. The website (http://www.townsgame.com/) does have a demo for the game which will give you an idea about gameplay, people, etc. So if you're considering Towns, go get the demo first. I made the mistake of buying the game as soon as it was released, so don't follow in my footsteps.

Having suffered the INCREDIBLY sharp learning curve that Towns gives you, I've come to the realization that the game isn't half bad, if you're interested in simulations and manage to combat this learning curve. Everything needs work--the dungeons are monotonous eventually, there could be more armor and weapon types, etc--but the building and management parts of the game have value to them. There are a whole lot of options for building everything from homes to taverns--or palaces, if you want. What attracted me was the multiple styles you could build in. Stone houses, wooden shacks, green roofs, giant castle towers...you get the point. If you're interested in building, then that's where Towns is strong.

Where the weaknesses come in are the RPG parts of the game. The dungeons are boring, monotonous stone rooms filled with generic evil inhabitants--it's interesting the first time you dig in, but by the fourth or fifth level it gets boring really fast. There's no way to tell your townspeople to "go" to a certain location, so you can't direct soldiers or heroes to certain parts of the dungeon. Rather, they'll just wander around down there, kill what gets in their way and be killed by more powerful enemies. Combat and exploration are definitely lacking.

I haven't come across many bugs or glitches--I know that such unfortunate occurrences are common for many players. My main problem is the lack of interface with townspeople and the lack of any solid tutorials for new users. Having done quite a bit of playing, I'm grasped almost all of the concepts and managed to keep my townspeople from starving or getting themselves murdered by dungeon baddies. But for new players, not dying can be quite a challenge. It gets frustrating after several tries, attempting to figure out what went wrong the last time and how to fix it during your new attempt.

So, is it worth the $15? It depends on how much you like simulations, and if you're willing to try several times to get a decent town started. If you liked Dwarf Fortress, you'll be able to deal with Towns--but I don't think it was worth the fifteen bucks I paid for it. I will continue to play it in the future, but I'm being overly optimistic when I say that I hope my money went to continued development of the game.

I hope this review helps anyone who's considering Towns. Like I said, try the demo first--it will really help you.

[76561198069409126]

Really nice review. OP you may be interested in things devs talked on their forum what they would like to implement in one way or another

Townie shops..
Quest system
Better tutorial
Mechanism
fear system
Use for water.. maybe lava
combat and action animations
job system
like/dislike system
skill system
Buildable terrain
Barrel update..
Potion system
Offhand slot
more effect/action/item/living/map tags.. if only for mod support
More decoration items
Happiness system update
Rotatable items and map
Zooming in and out
Screenshot key.. and screenshot entire map key..
Decoration floor zones
Dungeon update
Random-prebuilt structures.. (basically it is per-decided what it looks like but.. is randomly placed on the map..)

[God's Silliest Goose]

^ All of the above need to be implemented. I remember what Minecraft was back in Indev--not too much to it--but the devs kept working on it, adding more and more. Towns is in Alpha, and there's a lot to work on. But all of these would really make the game more interesting.

[rhobes]

By the way, you can sort of control where townies go by way of the waypoint system for patrolling militia. Fill up a group with some well armed townies, set it as a patrol group, and create one waypoint where you want them. Then remove that waypoint and add another one. This is the only way I have found to directly order townies to move.

[God's Silliest Goose]

Yes, I've done this before. It's useful to some degree--I can keep soldiers from wandering off into the dungeon. But an actual system for controlling townies' movement would be welcome.

[mr bigdad]

I sure hope the above stuff will be put in the game. I just hope its sooner or later. And again, deeds not words. But OP, a nice review!

[MikeH]

From someone that has played games since 1977.... The game is bad, very bad. It's not even a very good simulation.

It does not have a hard learning curve, just the morons that made it forgot to let us know what what all the zones do, use beds, use scaffolding to make roofs, use scaffolding so your town people don't get stuck in dungeons and starve.

It has absolutely no AI, No way to control soldiers to clear the dungeon out, instead they run down get hungry and tried and run back up. There is no dungeon to Clear out, just a bunch of pixel monsters layered on top of each other.

There is Absolutely no real Simulation, NONE.

In just a short time after you figure out some of it without any real instruction, you set up a wheat farm, build a bunch of beds.

You want more people? Just make a bunch of harps and drop them everywhere, make more beds (Personal space) and produce more food.

That's It!!! Nothing else to see or want to see.

No need to bother with any other decoration, different food, anything.

To make your game longer, start digging holes and have your towns people drop down into a horrible made underground system. Now start building scaffolding everywhere so they don't forget to eat and sleep.

you now have a ant farm simulation where the town folks run down, the run back up over and over and over.

Wow, what a game.

Experienced gamer my ass. We want our fellow gamers to save their money, and get the truth.

OH, you can turn on monster siege and experienced one of the most horrible thought out tower defense games out there. It's really a waste of time.

Mike.

[God's Silliest Goose]

Omnix: You have far more experience than me. This is just my personal opinion on the game, and I know that there are far better sims out there.

I enjoy it to some extent, and I'm not saying it's a great game, but once you get past the fact that the devs did NOTHING to help new users, I find it enjoyable.

But to each his own. Thank you for your review.

[MikeH]

I am not putting you down, but there is not even a game here. Had the game only been 2.00 just to help development then I would not say a word. However it's 14.00, and must be compared to other titles of the same price if it wants to play with the big dogs.

You build houses, drop harps, make bread. That's it. You can go clear out the monsters but why? I cleared the monsters, but there was no purpose in it except loosing town people that got replaced over and over. There is nothing here that says to me I need to clear the dungeon.

I tested with roof's and walls, then no roof's and walls. Guess what? no difference.

So my review on the game is for those on a budget and comparing other games at the same price range.

If your going to charge 14.00 when you can pick up a well polished Dungeon Defenders or Counter strike for the same price, then you must judge it like it is.

I appreciate you giving some room to breath for this game, everyone needs a start, a break. The video game world is vicious where big fish eat the little ones. EA swallows up and destroys some of the most awesome development teams we had in the past. Rest in peace Westwood Studio's. However, if your so prideful as to price your game at 14.00 and say I can compete with Counter Strike for the gamers money, your game better be damn good.

Sorry if I sounded harsh.

Mike.

[God's Silliest Goose]

That's quite alright, your point of view is very valid. I stated above that I made a mistake tossing $15 on this game, when I would pay at most five.

But, since I can't get my money back, I have to live with my mistake and make the most of Towns. I'm hoping (being overly optimistic) that they fix the problems and implement more to make it more interesting.

Until then, I've tried to make the most of it.

[MikeH]

I paid money also. My hope is that they take my money, pull this crap off steam and send it back to their friendly community where the real world won't see this horrible game. The community seems to have forgotten what a 14.00 title is suppose to look like. Welcome to the real world guys.

I don't like seeing anyone fail, but it was an extremely stupid move to put this game on steam in the condition it's in.

Since they have the balls to do that, and the balls to charge 14.00 for it, then it's time to keep it real.

I gave this game an extensive test, with motes, siege, and digging to the bottom of the dungeon.

It boils down to make beds, make food, decorate with harps.

To extend play, dig mote, make path for monsters, lay traps and endure a horrible tower defense type game.

You can also dig down, watch your town folk not do crap but run down, get tired and hungry then run back up real quick. Hero's kill monsters, towns folk bring up the loot, make better armor to kill the bigger monster.

That may sound fun, but it's so horribly done that you just sit and stare at your screen for long periods of time waiting and waiting.

even trading big with the Caravan you have to wait and wait for the towns people to bring back piece by piece one item at a time. I timed it, and at times it was over 20 minutes of just waiting for the trade to be complete.

Save your money folks.

Mike.

[ErakTheBrave]

sorry, but i do not call someone with only 40 hours into a game an experienced player

[Paradise.]

Let's just say that Majesty 2 is not only older, but better.

[76561198069409126]

Originally posted by Pretzel.:

Let's just say that Majesty 2 is not only older, but better.

For now yes. I am playing that game again right now, finishing the last expansion. Also some of best games out there are the old games, especially when it comes to games like strategies and rpg games. Hack, even majesty 1 is better than majesty 2.

[MikeH]

"sorry, but i do not call someone with only 40 hours into a game an experienced player"

I am not sure I have over 20 hours into towns. I tested with walls roofs, no walls roofs. I tested with easy siege to see the play mechanics, I found out what was at the bottom of the dungeon.
I tested with roads, no roads.

Roofs, walls, roads, none of it made any difference to fend off monster siege or dig (Fall) your way to the bottom of the dungeon. Bothering with that stuff is not needed, which is a big indication it's a badly made game. Sims 3 is the same way, why do I really need to grow onions? Why get a job when you can just become rich playing in the subway? I expect EA to be able to sell crap and get away with it, not a first time developer.

Most of that time was spent just waiting. I amassed 30 troops to clear out the dungeon faster, but there is no real way to control them. I found all the heroes went down and killed all the monsters anyway, they die, got replaced, what was the point?
Troops run down by 5-6 then run back up to sleep and eat again.

If you just like to drop blocks on top of others and decorate then there are much better done Barbie games where you can dress up, and decorate. Far better town building games.

Majesty 1 and 2 are even much better games for the money.

I like the older games also, playing the original xcom again. It still carries that atmosphere and depth of strategy many games today can't touch. Bad graphics and all, but at least there is an valid excuse to have bad graphics.

Mike.

[mr bigdad]

Originally posted by omnix32:

From someone that has played games since 1977.... The game is bad, very bad. It's not even a very good simulation.

It does not have a hard learning curve, just the morons that made it forgot to let us know what what all the zones do, use beds, use scaffolding to make roofs, use scaffolding so your town people don't get stuck in dungeons and starve.

It has absolutely no AI, No way to control soldiers to clear the dungeon out, instead they run down get hungry and tried and run back up. There is no dungeon to Clear out, just a bunch of pixel monsters layered on top of each other.

There is Absolutely no real Simulation, NONE.

In just a short time after you figure out some of it without any real instruction, you set up a wheat farm, build a bunch of beds.

You want more people? Just make a bunch of harps and drop them everywhere, make more beds (Personal space) and produce more food.

That's It!!! Nothing else to see or want to see.

No need to bother with any other decoration, different food, anything.

To make your game longer, start digging holes and have your towns people drop down into a horrible made underground system. Now start building scaffolding everywhere so they don't forget to eat and sleep.

you now have a ant farm simulation where the town folks run down, the run back up over and over and over.

Wow, what a game.

Experienced gamer my ass. We want our fellow gamers to save their money, and get the truth.

OH, you can turn on monster siege and experienced one of the most horrible thought out tower defense games out there. It's really a waste of time.

Mike.

I totally agree with you and the fact is, the devs dont even care! They just made this crap to make some fast cash. Any real dev with any kind of level of skill could have made anything better than this. Ive seen 1st year gamer programmers make better ones. I read the devs patch page in their own forum and they havent done much in a year time. Some new pixel monsters, some new things here and there. I mean, 1 flag color. I mean, they could have had 100 flag colors. It wouldnt have taken them any time at all. 1 Flag color for 10 euros lol!