From the developers of Miner Wars 2081 and Space Engineers, comes Medieval Engineers — Keen’s attempt of recreating the dark ages of castles and catapults. Now with planets!
But is this game really worth your gold? Come to yee ole Inn and rest while the bard sings a song!
NOTE: This is an Early Access game, and is likely to be updated with new features and changes in the future. However, I am reviewing this game as it stands currently.
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Title: Medieval Engineers
ESRB Rating: T
Developer: Keen Software House
Publisher: Keen Software House
Price Tag: $20 on Steam
Release Date: February 19th, 2015
Game Engine: VRAGE
Available for these other systems: N/A
Number of Players: Single/Multiplayer
Genre: Creative Sandbox
Game Features: Build small houses, a town, and even a fully-sized castle in this medieval era style game. The player also needs to defend their castle from Barbarians (and other players if playing Multiplayer).
Story: In this sandbox game, the player makes their own story.
Main Character: N/A, the player is the main character.
Side Characters: There are no side characters at this time.
Enemies: As of now, Barbarians are the only enemy in the game. They randomly spawn, attack (and can destroy) the player’s structures. Thankfully they can be turned off.
Combat/Health System: Combat is as basic as you can get in the dark ages; attack with melee weapons (such as swords), or build and use a catapult to take down an enemy’s castle.
Maps/Levels/Chapters: Currently there is one planet, with five named quadrants(the 5th being the other side of the planet). In these quadrants are sectors which (taking a wild guess) are around 16×16 meters. The player can Fast Travel to any of these sectors as long it’s not obstructed by rocky terrain or enemy bases.
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What I liked;
-Has a familiar GUI as Space Engineers.
-The game runs pretty smooth, so far.
-Gravity’s a bitch, and will turn against the player if they don’t build their structures correctly. This can be turned off, though.
-Trees have realistic physics when hit by a force like a cannonball.
-The gameworld looks absolutely stunning and realistic.
-You actually have to build a catapult part by part, and watch it assemble before your eyes.
What I didn’t like;
-Where’s the dragons?! Castles, yet no dragons. Wow. (BTW, this is a joke dislike)
-The Fast Travel system feels clunky to use.
-Very limited types of trees (only Pine).
-Very limited types of furniture (such as chairs that cannot be sat in).
-The game’s only tutorial is a Youtube video, which is very outdated (as in the game’s release date).
-No water..anywhere on the planet. Not even placeholders (which Space Engineers has).
-The game is mainly designed to be played in Multiplayer, as there’s no NPC townspeople.
Final Opinions/Thoughts;
I really hated listing all of these dislikes(except the “no dragons” one but that was a joke), but the game really feels…empty to me. Clearly it’s meant to play in Multiplayer, as there’s no real point to build these castles when it’s pretty much lifeless with just you there.
The game’s space counterpart was more fun to me, mainly due to the fact I enjoyed myself in single player. This? Again, it feels empty and not inspiring to even build a small hut let alone a castle.
Of course, this game is Early Access and more updates are likely in the future. Hopefully most if not all of these lacks to the actual gameplay (for SINGLEplayer and not just Multiplayer) are addressed and taken care of with the love and respect this game deserves.
But as of this time, I cannot recommend this game. Again, this could change in the future. But I’m reviewing it here and now, and this is what I thought of it.
Though we must also remember what Space Engineers started with. Without planets, it was nothing but a ship destruction derby of smashing ships into other ships. Boy, how that has changed.