Let’s start by saying that while the game is still early access, it has been playable for years. It first released in 2021, and has been continuously updated since (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timberborn#Development). To be fair, with what is possible in the game now, I would consider it a complete game.
I’m not the best at game critics, so I’ll just try to tell what’s good, what can be improved, and whether I recommend it. Keep in mind I only started playing it this week-end, so I’m quite new, but hopefully this is still relevant.
For the context, I’m a very heavy Caesar III fan, and have been looking for a long time for a modern game that would give the same relaxing feeling of “solve one issue at a time” that C3 is (also, for C3 fans, check out Augustus, it’s amazing)
The good
- Cool concept and theme: beavers and water are refreshing compared to the usual city builders. The general art style fits the theme as well
- Building can be stacked vertically, allowing for more creativity for city building
- No too many “risks” mechanics: food does not decay, buildings don’t collapse. That’s usually a thing that I was not that much of a fan of in C3, seemed like it was there just to add an unnecessary layer of management
- the Districts mechanics allows you to expand your bases in a nice way, you have quite a lot of control of what is sent between districts
- the easy mode allows for a quite chill experience. Not sure how challenging the other modes are.
- the devs listen to the community feedback, they recently made a “you were right, we were wrong” announcement: steamcommunity.com/app/…/830458962613745838
The potential improvements
- I got a few hiccups running it on Linux using Proton. Nothing too critical, got one crash at some point, I just reloaded the autosave. It was a one time occurrence.
Should you play it?
Definitely a solid game for people who like this type of city/base-builders
grue@lemmy.world 1 week ago
How is this a !patientgamers thing? It’s still in “early access!”
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
It’s been “released” for 4 years. Yes, it’s “early access,” but surely there’s a point where we ignore that label, no?
grue@lemmy.world 1 week ago
My point was 50% that the game is still too new for this sub and 50% that “early access” is ridiculous, LOL.