Manor Lords Early Access Review — Admirable Design, Disappointing Combat

As what appears to be a real-time strategy game, Manor Lords has done exceptionally well to don the outlook of such an action-filled genre. It has the capability and all the features to deliver a highly competitive action strategy gameplay. However, as I dived deep into its mettle-testing gameplay, I realized that the scenario is quite the opposite.

The innovative feature of Manor Lords exhibits a strategic game design that focuses on asserting dominance through economic means rather than military capabilities.

Gameplay

As the game is in early access, it only has a casual match-creator option that sets you against the bots. However, I expect the game to have a story campaign when released in its polished state. 

Initially, you can set the terms of winning before you enter the match, which can be either through settlement advancement or through military tactics. However, I would highly prefer to go for economical means as the fighting mechanism of the game appears very rough.

The major fact to highlight is how you manage spending and gather resources.

Controlling military units during a battle is pretty vague. Where one group will be engaged in a fight, the other group will be spectating until you command it. Moving a military group is difficult as it requires you to designate it close to the enemy and face it in the direction of the enemy manually. 

The fact that Manor Lords is, essentially, a city-building simulator makes little sense that its dynamics should focus on combat-based tactics. Yet, the battle mechanics exist, which I believe are only for entertainment. 

To survive, you must have the essential supplements for your people, including Food and Fuel. Food consumption relates to people’s needs in your city, while your fuel consumption begins once you set up buildings that require it to function. 

Surely, the game offers tutorials, but the helpful tips only occur when you have taken action, meaning you’ve made an irreversible decision, and only time will tell if it was good or bad. 

The major fact to highlight is how you manage spending and gather resources. I had to delete my progress at least five times and start all over to get a good grip on my resource-gathering. Management is another phase that takes forever to understand, at least for me.

Surely, the game offers tutorials, but the helpful tips only occur when you have taken action, meaning you’ve made an irreversible decision, and only time will tell if it was good or bad. It’s a good thing no one can at least judge you because you are all by yourself playing against bots.

Each Move Holds Positive And Negative Outcomes Alike

Manor Lords has a profound mechanism of city-building. Resolving one matter opens a path for countless new problems to arise. Tackling each requires quick thinking about how to compromise one production of your settlement to balance out the other. 

The development of your city depends on the number of Families you have. A family represents a group but is treated as a single unit. Assigning them to a specific task will generate a particular resource. 

Building these residential sites does not require much. However, maintaining and fulfilling its needs later on is a challenge to uphold.

Now, the most annoying thing to me is that the game is extremely slow-paced. If you have started construction, materials such as wood, stones, etc, must be transferred first. An Ox-cart will carry it one at a time, and if the supplies are far away from the construction sites, then there are no shortcuts; you brought this on yourself. Therefore, even the placement of the buildings matters. 

However, the game counters this issue by allowing you to fast-forward the gameplay speed up to 4x or 12x. However, I recommend checking your resources before doing that. You want to ensure that your city survives an interval of fast-forwarding without any consequences. 

Realism Is Exaggerated That It Kills The Point Of Playing A Game

The fact that Manor Lords is kept very close to realism is pretty admiring. But also, the fact that realism is done to the extent that it bothers every action you do feels tedious all the same. I do consider games praiseworthy if they adapt mechanics based on reality. However, Manor Lords seems to have overdone it by creating an environment where every player’s decision will be held up against him sooner or later.

If the fantasy is wholly kicked out of the idea of game design, realism alone cannot proceed with delivering that similar taste of fun.

Tending to homelessness, weather affecting supplies, the impact of all four seasons on agriculture, and city planning based on land’s fertility are too much to look around for simultaneously. At the same time, overlooking any of these tasks will lead to an eventual fall of your economy.

Managing your resources is essential, as the lack of necessary resources at any point in the game will negatively affect your progress. Apart from spending the resources, you must also preserve them so they are not exposed to danger.

Video games are a platform to maximize fantasy practice where realism can be implemented to some extent to make things deliberately engaging.

The point of playing a game concerns the minimal amount of reality offers. Video games are a platform to maximize fantasy practice where realism can be implemented to some extent to make things deliberately engaging.

Overall, I believe the gameplay is challenging to master in a single playthrough. It can be quite engaging to explore what options the advancement will reveal and what new features it will unlock.

Visuals And Performance

Manor Lords has arguably the best visuals and camera control to offer when it comes to the genre. The structures follow the architectural work from the Medieval era, and the natural environment appears to be ravishing with the bloom effect, pleasing lighting overhaul, and highly detailed vegetation.

The structures follow the architectural work from the Medieval era, and the natural environment appears to be ravishing with the bloom effect, pleasing lighting overhaul, and highly detailed vegetation.

Having to build an immensely populated Medieval-style city brings me back to the days of roaming in Novigrad City in The Witcher 3. The same structures’ art Manor Lords is using is quite enticing to behold. Moreover, animation plays a vital role in figuring out which working site is functioning and which is sitting idle. So, clicking on a structure and looking at its stats is less necessary. 

Unfortunately, the game’s performance tends to have some optimization issues, at least during the initial phases. Whenever I launch the game and load my previous load or start a new game, there’s a decent bit of stutter. I also faced several freezing issues in the middle of the gameplay. Apart from that, though, most of the gameplay consistently delivers a smooth experience. 

Verdict

Manor Lords’ early access features the most intriguing mechanics of a city-building game. It is highly complicated but engaging to progress.

I see the gane as a dominant title in its genre as it exhibits many unique features from the games related to city-building. Such features can impact how construction simulators can align nicely with strategic and action touch.

This has been my Manor Lords early access review. While you’re here, consider checking out some of our other articles. 

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