Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 15, 2022

  TL:DR: I do enjoy the game, but would recommend it on sale for cheaper than current price, as there isn't enough content to justify $25. REALLY wish Steam had a Neutral rating for reviews, as this is a perfect example of good and bad all in one. I'd recommend it at a cheaper price due to the lack of content right now. It took me 10 hours to do after learning everything to play efficiently, but I reached the "endgame" https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2863435717 The Good: Decent art style - Reminds me of Studio Ghibli. It's a very relaxing look to an otherwise dark game (you are trying to survive the deadly poison plants). Good Atmosphere - The game presents itself in a manner fit of the art style. It's very nice and works well. Progression - You can unlock tech at your own pace, but face being left behind if something goes wrong. Some tech requires knowledge obtainable from Shrines with scavenger parties. The Bad: Shallow Game-play - It's a very linear game, directing or letting the Onbu walk down two set paths: North and South. You also have a few multi-choice selections for what I'd call 'special events'. No real goal posts at the moment - Once you unlock everything in the tech tree, you just keep on trucking. There's not really an end to the game per-se, more of when you want it to end. No real in depth simulation - Everything is extremely cut and dry, with no real dynamic systems in place to alter game-play to a point where it would snap me out of just monitoring my village and Onbu. There is also no good way for me to see what tasks are being done and what is completed. I wish I had a chart for that stuff without needing to click on every individual. It makes seeing what needs to be done or checking progress much more tedious. Poison plants can break stone roads, which is all fine and dandy as it stops you from walling off parts of the map from poison plants, but it also forces me to use my resources to fix it every time it happens, and it gets old fast. You will find it hard to gauge when the Onbu will listen to every command you give it until it starts doing the happy dance and wagging it's tail when you travel. Otherwise it's a guessing game until that point and a gauge to see it would be great. I'm sure with time it'll turn into a great game, but at this point it's not a game for $25. If it was priced around $10 it'd be a steal. Edit: Opened up comments as I've now played pretty far into the game and now feel confident in answering questions.I've also started fleshing out the review. (I'll be deleting comments that are deemed Ad Hominum/Strawman/Bandwagon/Texas Sharpshooter/Tu Quoque/Etc. The review will stay negative until I feel that I can confidently have it as a positive. Just because it's negative, doesn't mean I don't enjoy the game.)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 16, 2022

  BLUF: Beautiful Game that needs balancing, but stands enough on its own two feet to be an introduction to city builders. This game has a lot of heart. I know how dumb that sounds in the modern gaming market, but you get that feeling at every step of this game, from the art style to the music and sound effects, it all plays together well and you can tell a lot of focus went into it. Currently, however, I cant in good faith recommend it for one reason. Balancing. This games balancing is all over the place, the biggest culprit of which is food production. In games similar to this, food production is always that little bug buzzing in your ear and is to be expected. However, those other games have the luxury of map space, while this does not. Compounding the issue, is that no matter how big you make your farm on your limited area or how much you staff it, the farmers will refuse to cultivate more than 10 plots of the farm. This leads to famine, every time. Yes, you could build more farms, but the problem will still persist. My working theory is that you need 1 farm per 10 people (possibly 8), and need 5 of them to run the farm. So for every 10 people, you only get 5 actual workers, which then sends a ripple effect to the other production and housing systems. Which sucks, because the bio system they have for best crop types per biome, is a refreshing idea that cant be fully utilized. Hopefully its just a bug and not something hard coded to be like that for the illusion of always behind. Edit: Had to turn off comments. Because wow. Who knew giving a dissenting opinion based on your experience would rustle this many jimmies? People legitimately felt attacked by this review.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 16, 2022

  Overall this is a great game in a similar vein to Frostpunk and Timberborn. Currently there's a decent amount of content and I "finished" the starting difficulty after about 5-6 hours with a final population of just over 100 villagers. I don't have any major gripes with the game and am excited to see what new features are added as the game progresses through early access. The core game-play loop of keeping your colony content, healthy and fed while also maintaining your relationship with your rock-doggo "Onbu" is solid. It feels satisfying when Onbu begins to trust your commands and you can better plan out your colony based on what biomes or events you will run into. The UI is clean and straightforward, but I do wish there was an "advanced" option that gave more insight into historical data for production and consumption of resources. Currently you can view your overall food use/production in the past 24 hours, as well as how many of each resource are currently "reserved", but that's about it. The fact that there's no dedicated UI element for water production/consumption is a large oversight in my opinion. Similarly, I think it would be beneficial for there to be more information regarding how long it takes or the specific mechanics of curing poisoned villagers. The game states that villagers will automatically seek aid from doctors, but I found that even with two fully staffed medical stations on opposite ends of my colony, a handful of villagers would just keep working until they died, walking right past idle doctors. The art style fits the game brilliantly, with the 3D and 2D assets blending together in a cohesive way. The art style is flexible enough to make the game feel both bright and charming at times, while at the same time allowing for the environment to feel threatening and deadly when needed. The music isn't anything to write home about, but it fits the theme of the game, and helps raise the feeling of anxiety as you pass through dangerous territory. The soundtrack might not be as anxiety inducing as something like Frostpunks, but it matches the game quite well and doesn't feel too repetitive. Overall, it's a game that feels well rounded and "complete". It has a clear direction, and I have certainly enjoyed the available content. I'm excited to see what changes and additions the devs will bring, and will return for a new play-through each update.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 16, 2022

  A less cruel Frostpunk. Suggestions: - Villagers should sleep at the place that is closest to their workspace, or we should be able to specify the sleeping place for individual villager - There should be a priority for storage places. I keep ending up having 40/40 heal herbs in Onbu healing camp and 0 in villager healing camp - There should be a setting for animation speed, after 10 hours it kind of gets on my nerves to wait .5 seconds when switching zoom - Maybe there should be an even faster time setting, 6x? Overall, I'd give the game 7/10 right now and up to 10/10 if it keeps getting updates.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 16, 2022

  If video games are themselves a tech tree, "Banished" unlocks a lot of different other games. Itself "what if Sim City but production chains," you can up the game aspects and come up with Timberborn, lower them and get Age of Man, add in more narrative and get Frostpunk, up the individuality and you get Rimword, up the production chain detail and get One More Island, up the detail and realism and get Farthest Frontier and so on. Yeah, this isn't literal, don't @ me about chronology. The Wander Village is what if Banished, but a strategic layer. Strategic layers are fun ideas that usually don't work too well, because inevitably it means jamming one game onto another game, and one of the pair will suffer. Even when it works, it doesn't work. The Wandering Village is the exception because the strategic layer is intuitive. It's a big animal, it gets hungry, tired, and sick. It takes care of itself, but does better with some attention, and needs more the later in the game and the harder the environment. It takes the place of what might be the military aspect of a different game, and like the best implementations of those feels wrapped tightly in, creating a wide spectrum of choices and ways to develop. I suspect that the tech tree and food will be tinkered with, and the UI has some frustrations. There is no ability to determine the sex of the rock dinosaur, which, come on devs, you're leaving a solid Discworld gag lying right there. I'm undecided on whether the event pacing is right, but that will make a difference for the replayability. It feels priced correctly in terms of what you get now, so it's recommendable in early access, and more about whether anything gets screwed up in the finalization of the game rather than what more gets added. So, while it depends on what you're looking for out of a city builder, this is a recommend if you like them.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 17, 2022

  Bought it out of curiosity, because i do love building/colony sims. And... played for about 5 or more hr straight! couldn't stop! definitely impressive game! can't wait for more updates! since i did kinda run out of stuff to do. got about 120 nomads, have steady food supply, now just need more content! once there is a lot more to build/explore and do, will start a new game and finish again! Awesome game!
• gamedeal user

  Sep 17, 2022

  You can pet Onbu <3
• gamedeal user

  Sep 17, 2022

  In its current state, its not worth the price with the release discount. There is no end, you can play forever but after 5 hours there is no new content and you will have seen everything. Great game, I really like it, lacking in content. I recommend waiting until its fully released as its not worth the price at early access launch.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 17, 2022

  i would die for onbu
• gamedeal user

  Sep 18, 2022

  Oh my gosh, this scratched every itch I've had for a while for "that game you click around hoping to find, but can't quite describe, and isn't quite there." I love the level of control over resource output and staffing, the mechanics are well-thought-out, there's the meta-level of caring for the creature, the art-work is gorgeous. I've played six hours and am IN LOVE with this game and concept. I loved seeing the personal greeting from the team too! Thinking of: encounters with other creatures / cultures? Trade / combat? Some more differentiation among art for dwellings is my ONLY ask as of right now, knowing this is early access yet. =)