Drowning in Promise | Manor Lords Review

Video link: https://youtu.be/qpleYOZDKc0

In my review, I try to arrange my thoughts about Manor Lords as a worthy successor to the Base Building genre as a whole. It's difficult to do, because as of the date of this review, the game is still in Early Access, and we all know how quickly the tide can turn with these games. Balancing changes, city management changes, AI changes, everything changes. But what of the elements that are already there that serve as a foundation of the game. Worth a buy? Wait and hold? It's a tough nut to crack for various reasons.

The good. Well, visuals, duh. Gorgeous, like looking at a Renaissance painting, it shows us how pretty can base building look like. I grew up on a farm, so I know that it's being faithful to morning sunrises, hustle and bustle of villages, blood on the grass after a huge fight, and deer hunting for survival and not for sport. Architecture sure is faithful to history, the Developer consulted with historians that served as a conduit to this wonderful world of Manor Lords. I can't thank him enough for that, architectural fidelity is outstanding.

But here's the deal. I think, that Manor Lords don't have much to offer as of now. AI lord is far too aggressive, pathfinding is a huge issue, AI towns are nonexistent, trading is imbalanced and there's very little to do. I would love to build my own castle, expand my manor, assign town guards to patrol it from petty thefts and rustlers, but it's simply not there (yet).

Again, all my arguments can be disarmed by a quick and simple "Well, it's in early access", but as of now, we're given a very barren city building game with no AI cities. It's not for everyone, that's for sure. And I called my video review "Drowning in Promise", because the promise is far too great. It's top 5 wishlisted game of all Steam, so the pressure sure is a great one!

I believe the game will be great, but that day is not today.

Thoughts?