Make Your Kingdom: City builder

Review

“Far away, beyond the two seas, lay a vast kingdom. Its people were hardworking and loved their home more than anything. That land was ruled by a good and wise King, the father of a handsome Prince and beautiful Princess. But just when the people least expected it, disaster struck. A purple haze crept across the land, which had never before known such sorrow, and brought affliction to all who lived there. The haze was everywhere. There was no escape.

Soon enough, the kingdom’s people began turning into feral monsters that fell upon their neighbours' friends, and even family members. The King himself was not spared the curse, though the Prince and Princess managed to avoid it. The once-great kingdom began to crumble. As its strength faded, the destitute people’s last resources went into building airships that would carry them away to uncharted shores.”

When starting a new game there are three options: Prologue, Expedition and Casual. If this is your first time playing the game then you’ll only be able to choose the Prologue; the other two game modes are locked down until you complete the Prologue. The prologue’s objective is to save as many residents as you can while setting up and equipping a stronghold. The Expedition is to build a kingdom from scratch making sure that your subjects have everything that they need to survive, keeping them safe from attacks and natural disasters. Casual lets you play the game without being attacked or coming across other challenges; you can build your kingdom the way you want, under no stress.

As I couldn’t choose anything other than the prologue, I hit the button to start the game. Once the game loads you’ll be looking down on a plot of land, where you will be asked if you want to be shown tutorial tip windows. This will help you understand how the game works, although the game isn’t too complicated.

The first thing you’re required to do is build a Main Building; selecting the icon with the crown will allow you to place the main building where it’s indicated on the map. An airship will then land along with some building materials (wood and stone) and twelve folks who will help get your kingdom underway. The area where the main building is to be built is shown as a grey area, and the building materials required to build it are to be placed on that area. Once the required materials have been placed, your folks will start to build the main building. Even though you are royalty, you don’t mind getting your hands dirty so you can also help fetch and bring resources and help to build structures.

Once you have your main building built you will then have other options which can be found along the bottom centre of the screen. Here you’ll find an icon for building roads; you’ll need roads so that your folk can move around, and all buildings will need to be connected to roads. Along the centre of the screen is Food, Production, Kingdom, Décor, Defence and Remove Building.

Each of these have various subcategories, although some of them won’t be available until a later time. Under Food you’ll find Berries, Field, Farm, Barn, Mill, Sheep Farm, Butcher House and Cider Factory. Using these will help bring in various foods.  The Field will allow you to plant wheat which can then be used to make bread at the Mill and feed the sheep at your sheep farm. A Farm will allow you to plant twelve fields of wheat which will bring in enough wheat for a decent harvest. The sheep farm lets you produce both wool and meat which can then be used to produce other items such as cloth or sausage.

In Production there’s Lumber, Unselect Marker, Sawmill, Mine, Storehouse, Coal Burner House, Healer House, Textile Factory, Airship Hangar, Foundry and Forge. The categories in Kingdom are House, Well, Architect House, Market, Fire Station, Graveyard, Undertaker House, Hospital and Tax Collector House, there is another one but I haven’t unlocked that one yet for some reason. Lumber lets you select trees you want to cut down into logs, the Saw Mill will then turn those into boards which can be used in creating new buildings. The mine will allow you mine for stone which is also used in constructing buildings and can be used at the forge to produce Iron.

The kingdom’s residents will require fuel in winter to keep them warm; boards can be turned into Coal at the Coal Burner House. The coal can then be used to heat the houses, and it is also used in creating iron and some foods. The Forge will allow you to create weapons for your guards, the Healer House allows you to produce Elixirs which are required by the Hospital to treat any sick residents.

For Décor, there are four options ranging from one to four-by-four grid which will allow you to place some type of décor around your kingdom. Under Defence there’s Walls, Gate, Archer Tower and Barracks, walls can be placed around your kingdom to help protect you from Orc attacks. The Gate allows your folk in and out of the walled area, the Archer Tower allows archers on top of the wall to help fight off the Orcs. The Barracks lets you train your people to use either a bow and arrow or sword.

Your kingdom must grow and to do this you’ll have to have people brought in by airship. It will cost you some gold and you will have to click on the icon above your main building.  Once you’ve done that, after a short time new folk will arrive. You will have to make sure you have enough houses for them to live in and you’ll have to make sure there’s enough to feed them. But the more folk you have the bigger you can grow your kingdom; you can assign your folks to do jobs, working at the mill, sawmill, mine etcetera. Those who don’t have jobs can deliver resources to wherever they are required.

While you do most of everything from above the map you can go into a third person perception. This will allow you to help carry resources and help to build the buildings. It also allows you to help defend your kingdom against the Orcs, as you have a sword and bow and arrow. The bow and arrow also come in handy for hunting rabbits, which will let you gain some meat.

As you progress, earthquakes will cause destruction throughout your kingdom. Buildings will be destroyed, and you will have to rebuild them otherwise they could have an impact on how your kingdom grows. Later there’s a catastrophe and you will need to build airships which will allow your people to escape the danger zone and fly you off to new pastures.

In the settings there’s options for Language (English, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese and Turkish), Sounds (All Sounds, Music and Sounds Volume Sliders), Graphics Quality (Low, Medium, High and Ultra), Full Screen (Resolution and Monitor Refresh Rate) and Controls (Key binds).

I did have a couple little problems with the game.  My first was following the instructions to highlight some berries. It was indicated that I select the berries from the food section, which would then show a bunch of red dots. So, thinking it was these that I needed to select, I highlighted them; however, this did nothing. I kept trying over and over again to highlight these red dots but no joy. I then decided to look elsewhere, and I spotted some small bushes with red berries and after highlighting them my people started to collect them. I’m not sure why it was showing me the red dots over the trees while I was after berries; I found it really strange and annoying.

I also had a bit of trouble with the game stuttering; however, this has since disappeared and has run ok. When in third person mode and around the buildings you can lose sight of yourself, which can be a pain, especially if you're being attacked by a bunch of Orcs.

It took me about six hours to play the prologue and get to the point where I had the airships come to evacuate my folk to safety; I haven’t tried playing Expedition or Casual yet.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com

Make Your Kingdom: City Builder Steam Store Page