Screenshot: Going Medieval
I haven’t really been a fan of city builders or management games when they have combat added in. But I haven’t really played a city builder like
Going Medieval before. I don’t think I’ve had quite the same amount of culture shock regarding genres mashing up since I played
Warcraft: Orcs Versus Humans after only knowing
Sim City 2000. It’s not like
Going Medieval is the first game to mash together city builder with combat elements--with its closest comparison in recent memory being
Rimworld--it’s just my favorite version of it so far.
Going Medieval is a city builder where you take control of a group of settlers reclaiming Europe after it was ravaged by the Black Death. There’s plenty of land to go around, but life won’t be easy for your settlers, especially with those who would try to take what you have by force. But before you can start waging all-out war with your neighbors and storming their castles, you’ll have to start with a modest little farmstead and the goal of keeping your people alive. As with any city builder, your goal is to feed and shelter your people while keeping them happy and healthy.
But there’s a lot of emergent story telling that happens in
Going Medieval. Your villagers start with their own story, but as you add more to your population, the story of your town grows. You might, for instance, get a criminal fleeing from an angry posse. If you accept them as a refugee into your village, they will be safe, but you might invoke the ire of a neighboring village. And when the inevitable conflict comes to your city walls, either through war or bandit incursion, you’ll want to make sure your fortifications are build strong and tall.
Building in
Going Medieval is robust, and an integral part of defense and keeping your settlers happy. Currently, in its Early Access state you’re only limited to being able to build one village—you can’t expand out spontaneously, but you can build your base pretty large. Notably, you can build it upwards, unrestricted by some 2D colony sims, such as
Rimworld. If you have archers and want them to attack from a higher vantage point like a wall or a tower, that is possible in
Going Medieval. You can even dig into the ground or hills to create earthwork additions to your fortifications.
Screenshot: Going Medieval
Going Medieval is in Early Access, and even though it feels solid for an Early Access title, there is an entire roadmap of planned features that developer Fox Voxel has planned. Some highlights include the ability to burn buildings, trading and merchants, the ability to raid other settlements, animal husbandry, and more. According to the Steam store page, the developers are planning on keeping
Going Medieval in Early Access for about a year.
There’s a definite possibility that
Going Medieval could be a cult hit à la
Rimworld. In fact, these two games have a lot in common, but instead of a 2D space,
Going Medieval has a 3D world with lots of potential. I’m definitely going to keep an eye on
Going Medieval’s ongoing development.
Going Medieval is
available now in Steam Early Access.
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