Going Medieval: A Colony Sim Game
Potential, if the developers are willing to risk some innovation
I grabbed Going Medieval on sale for just a few dollars, and right now, that feels like the maximum acceptable price. However, since the game is still in an early development stage, there is a huge amount of potential offered here.
TLDR: It’s basically a RimWorld clone with really nice graphics, but if it takes a step away from micromanagement, and integrates better mod support, it could be a dream game.
The pros and the cons
This is a sweet little game, but it generally has little to differentiate it on the gameplay level from RimWorld. Gorgeous graphics make it more immersive, and the 3-dimensional building system is extremely innovative, but these feel like the only differences at the moment.
The AI needs to be completely micromanaged at this point, though there’s a simple job tracker and scheduler that allows your pawns to auto-run themselves a little bit. Still, the Going Medieval suffers from the standard stupidity of colony management games: if you don’t mark trees to be cut down, fields to harvest, and animals to hunt, your pawns will stand around slowly dying of cold and starvation.
The game is early enough in its design phase to take a truly innovative approach to the modern colony sim, adding in functionality for truly-autonomous AI functionality. If a pawn is hungry, they should figure out how to get food. If they are cold, they should be able to figure out how to make a fire, or shelter. Adding in this level of autonomy would free the player up to think about higher-order problems, and would make micromanaging a fun task, something to dip into when greater control is either desired or needed.
The old Majesty games featured a semblance of this type of simulation, and they were gorgeous for it. Going Medieval could blend that autonomous simulation with the ability for granular control that we’ve come to expect from modern colony management games, and refine the two styles into something beautifully unique. Unless it does that, however, Going Medieval is just another RimWorld clone, taking small steps in innovation and leaving the true evolution out of its design.
If you’re looking to waste a few minutes building a medieval colony with some nice graphics, this is worth the sale price.
Once it’s fully realized, it’ll be worth the full price. But, if you already own RimWorld, then you’re going to have a far better overall experience just sticking to that game for the time-being.
Should the designers of Going Medieval take my advice, however, and choose to push the boundaries of the modern colony sim, this could be a game that changes the playing field for years to come.