Hi, my name is ColdBeer and I’ve just recently spent a few hours building my
settlement in the middle of a medieval forest. Long story short - the early access demo version
looks and feels absolutely amazing. So far it is for sure what we were waiting for.
I remember when I saw the Manor Lords gameplay trailer for the first time and learned the fact
that it was developed by one man, I was really skeptical. You know, how can an indie game created
by one dude look better than Age of Empires 4? It seemed absolutely impossible and reeked of
scam. Months and even years went by and my suspicion that there is something
wrong with Manor Lords grew more and more. Until one day I heard the news that Hooded Horse
is the assigned publisher for the game. And Hooded Horse is one of the coolest
new publishers out there. You know a publisher not enslaved
with greed, fresh and innocent. So I finally believed that Manor Lords is a real deal.
And it is. Last hour my wife was glancing at my monitor through my shoulder and she
was like “oh wow, it’s such a beautiful game! So detailed!”. And yeah, details are really here.
Although one thing that almost drove me crazy was the pace of the game. It is slow.
And by slow I mean it’s almost real-life slow. Your homeless people are building
one small structure for almost the same amount of time it would take them to
build something like this in the real world. Well, it feels like that, actually it takes about
5 minutes, but when you have nothing else to do it feels like forever. And yeah, it’s funny that
those workers of yours are not some villagers, no, they are homeless people living in the forest
and you are assigned to rule them. Well, every great ruler had to start somewhere, right?
Anyway, the pace of the game can be increased, but only by 4 or 16 times and that is too much
to actually enjoy the game without any stress. I do hope that developers will do
something about it. A 20% increase in basic speed would be perfect in my opinion.
So the visuals of Manor Lords are great, especially when you zoom in and see all
that beautiful grass. All that beautiful graphic-cards-melting grass. Yeah my new PC
froze two times while I was playing, but I was recording a video in 4K at the same time, so it
may have something to do with that as well. Anyway, the game is not finished, so if you
encounter a few optimization problems, I don’t think it's a
big deal after all. Right? It’s fine.
The goal of the game is to build a fully functioning medieval city. You start by building
a hunting lodge, wood cutting structures, peasant huts, all that necessary trifle and you end up
with a huge prosperous city of ColdBeeristan. Or whatever way lamer name you could think of.
The resources are littered across the map, encouraging you to expand and establish multiple
specialized settlements. So basically at first you build a few smaller villages and then connect
them through your own network of roads. I especially liked that you can build lots
and fields in almost any shape you want and then your builders and algorithm will do the rest.
Also a cool feature is that you can regrow your forest. You have a special
forester building where you can assign your workers and they start reforestation.
You know in many other games when you cut down the trees they never grow back, or if they do they do
that on their own without your help. Thing is that in reality it doesn’t work like that.
If you cut down part of the forest and take high value trees away, it will regrow with low value
bushes and shoddy worthless trees. So that’s why in the real world we have
reforestation - well at least in my country, if you cut down part
of the forest - you have to plant new high value trees in that place. And the same is
happening in Manor Lords. That is impressive. You can also pick berries or hunt. I especially
followed my first hunter I ever assigned for the job to see how it is all happening in real
time and I wasn’t disappointed. The forest is gorgeous and the animals are really cool as well.
Only thing that wasn’t perfect was the deer AI. I know that animals are dumb, I’m a proud cat owner,
but hey they are not this dumb. So the AI of animals is not completed
yet. They should at least run a bit further. Or, you know, way further.
Also, if you cut down the trees or build some buildings nearby deers will migrate away from
this territory and you will have a bad time. The music of Manor Lords is nice but kinda sad,
as my wife said - your game has church music. We don’t go to church, so it may not be entirely
true, we are not experts of that, but the minor notes and beautiful but kinda boring singing is
not what I wish to hear all the time. I would like to hear something like Toss A
Coin To Your Witcher so this beautiful valley would have plenty of cheerful
songs as well, not only church music. Demo version has no save game function and feels
like a sandbox, but in the full version we will encounter a few more dynamic modes as well.
For example there is a scenario about an infamous knight residing in a castle up north. And you have
to build up your strength and when ready, lay a claim to his lands and defeat him in battle.
In another so-called Realm Conquest mode of the game, due to tangled history there are
multiple claimants to disputed lands. You will have to use economy, diplomacy and warfare to
your advantage to become the sole ruler. I cannot wait to try these. And now thank
you for watching, have a nice day and I’ll see you next time, bye!