Manor Lords in the early access test: The ultimate building simulation?

There are now three million people who have added Manor Lords to their Steam wishlist. Loud SteamDB This makes it the most eagerly awaited upcoming game on the platform. It remains to be seen how many of these wish list entries will result in an immediate purchase decision when the building simulation actually appears next Friday, April 26th. She deserved it.

To make this consideration easier for you, I put the title through its paces for a good 40 hours in its standard “Restoration of Peace” mode and came to the conclusion: The potential is actually as huge as three million wishlist owners hope. In many ways, what Manor Lords from micro-developer Slavic Magic is doing is groundbreaking.

First of all, perhaps a note: The game has probably not been developed completely independently for a long time. However, the game's creator, “Greg”, still refers to “I” in all updates instead of “we” as development teams usually do. This of course sheds light on the type of work that any supporting staff perform. And yes, the things that make Manor Lords so special are his responsibility alone and were already there when he was still traveling solo.

Early access means early access

At the same time, it should be made clear that Manor Lords is noticeably not finished yet. It runs fairly stable, is highly performant and also looks good. The basic ingredients that put it ahead of other comparable games are already included in the game. I had a lot of fun for a good 40 hours: I repeatedly put the opposing lord, who had claimed two of the eight areas of the large map, in his place in battles. I have successfully laid claim to the remaining areas and have settled half of them. It's addictive and incredibly beautiful to look at, just because everything grows so organically here. Even without extensive visual aids (which I would still like to have), everything is so easy to understand that you know that a special building game is in the making that deserves every bit of support.

Once the basic needs are secured and a city has been brought to the maximum level – my first settlement reached the “Large City” level with around 250 residents, you can just let yourself go, because Manor Lords hasn't been too difficult so far. But now, on the one hand, there's this “wall” of missing late game content that makes me want to start over rather than continue playing in this world. And on the other hand, there is the slight fear that individual games are currently very similar. The good thing is: You can already see that Slavic Magic is aware of this fact.

Ultimately, these are content and balance questions for which a game like this goes into early access. Therefore, do not take this rather extensive criticism too negatively. It's just a current inventory:

Eternal growth?

The idea for the late game is that you build multiple settlements, each specializing a little, and then barter between them. For specializations, however, you need development points, which are few and far between – a maximum of six is ​​required until you reach the current maximum level “Big City” and no further technologies can be unlocked. However, each of the four skill trees contains ten to eleven developments. So even a city that specializes in defense production cannot research everything on this branch of the technology tree.

Either way: Growth is necessary in order to earn more development points and the path to get there is still quite similar in parts: It leads through the number of farms in levels one to three and in order to be able to level them up, certain requirements must be met currently almost always happens in the same way. This means that even though you concentrate on specific raw materials, in the end you still often need everything. For example, for levels two and three you can't really get past the church or the tavern on the market. The latter then requires barley (farm), malthouse and brewery if you don't want to buy expensive beer from a trading post. Not to mention that people in level 3 farms are not satisfied until they can buy four different foods at the market.

Players who are smarter than me may correct myself when they get their hands on the game. For the moment, however, it seems to me that things are proceeding in a decently uniform manner, even if there are certainly signs of diversification: You can already see that when setting up a settler camp in a new region, you will have the choice between four different types of camps. Currently only the standard “City” variant is available, but the farming village, forest village and mining village specializations give hope that other settlement progressions will also become possible once the game has progressed further.

Best omens

Other points of hope for what is to come are the different soil qualities that mean that in some areas certain crops simply do not thrive. And the varying abundance of natural resource deposits also promises more colorful, varied settlements in the future. I'm already looking forward to the game learning this flexibility.

Further notes from the early access version, as of the end of April: At the moment it seems a little too easy for me to assert my dominance. Instead of extensive weapons and armaments production, I simply bought mercenaries to fight my wars for me. There's a lot of logic behind wealthy areas paying people to defend them, but it's also too effective at sapping a good chunk of the economy.

Apart from that, it has to be said that the battles are, so to speak, prepared for more complexity with comfortable tactical options and consideration of terrain and troop efficiency, but so far they still emphasize superiority over finesse. But on the one hand, Manor Lords isn't aimed at generals anyway, it's not that kind of game, and on the other hand, there's still enough time in Early Access to fine-tune the fights. In addition – and this is probably my main problem with Manor Lords as it is right now – I actually miss seeing an opposing faction grow and expand on the map.

The occasional patrols that pass through these lands somehow do not create the feeling of an enemy presence. In this way, it is also impossible to weigh the power of the lord, who exists off the map and only as a portrait. So this part still looks very much like a placeholder, which also applies to the occasional bandit camps, which basically charge towards my advancing militias with a team of 18 in a dead straight line. Well then: It's early access.

Manor Lords Early Access – Conclusion

Manor Lords is fun straight away in its early access version and easily motivates even tired gamer daddies to long sessions. What the construction mechanics and the warlike side still lack in terms of flexibility or depth will probably be corrected by further development. In any case, you think the game is already on the right track, because few titles are so robust right from the start and driven by such a clear vision.

Apart from that, Manor Lords impresses with its eye for detail and the joy of towns sprouting naturally from the landscape. It's all wonderfully logical, and the way all the residential buildings are slightly different and the fields nestle organically into the landscape clears up the old problem of uniformity that has plagued city builders since the genre's inception. You no longer notice how artificial it seems when a house looks like the last one. There is no trace of it here. From a distance, these towns look almost real – and behave like it.

No wonder Manor Lords is an attention millionaire.