**UPDATED REVIEW** Most of what I wrote originally stands, but since my initial review so many new features have been added and it has gotten even better. Goats, chickens, pastries, and various other improvements:

I generally don't purchase Early Access Titles, but I had seen enough of this game on YouTube to know that I would enjoy it and I was correct!

The City Builder genre is one of my favourites, and Farthest Frontier stands as a great example of the genre being done right. It took only until my second game to really figure out the mechanics, and while the game is challenging, it's not punishingly so. Learning how to balance the economy is important, but so many other games of this style feel over-complicated. This game feels like it has just the right amount of everything, the information you need is easy to find and simple to understand. You can often see the results of your efforts to fix problems with your town relatively quickly, so it rewards my time.

By my second game I got a city to a population of 1000, which is a really big city overall as the final tier is unlocked at I think 500 population? It was really satisfying because once the supply chain is figured out you can pretty much keep expanding onwards.

I love the crop rotation system on the farms, I figured those out very well by my second game and basically once you do they require not much maintenance at all but also rewards you if you do take the time to micromanage them.

There are a few mechanics that I'm still learning, for example Cattle seem to be a bit tricky for me and I'm not quite sure how many Hunter's Camps can be supported by a source of deer but I am confident these things may be fleshed out more in the full release, or I'll figure it out the hard way.

The game looks great, the landscapes are vivid and realistic, the buildings look varied and quite different, and once your town gets to final tier it tends to look pretty fantastic. Like I ask with all city builders: please provide more variants of existing buildings if you can, it never hurts to have more choice. Having said that, Farthest Frontier does a great job of making most of the buildings look distinct and unique.

Soundtrack is nice and mellow, sound effects are great, although I could use a few more music tracks and maybe some with a tad more energy.

I am very much looking forward to playing the full release!

I hope that when the game is finished / in future we can see things like:

Pork and Chicken infrastructure
Horses, goats, donkeys
More types of wild game, like fowl, grouse, camelids etc
Dogs and maybe cats, for happiness and pest control
Some greater varieties of crops
Culture reskins (expansion content?)
Bakeries could use flour and other foods (meat, veggies, fruit) to make pies, cakes etc that work as both luxury goods and food
The housing options feel lean, there are probably a few ways to expand this
Ability to interact with raiders in other ways, like paying them off, hiring them for protection etc.
Missions, quests, or objectives


Some minor feedback on existing mechanics:

The wagon shop feels unfinished, I know I need one but it doesn't seem to do anything after that?
Brick layers need to be balanced a bit better, right when you get bricks in Tier 3 everything needs them in large quantities and it's expensive in labour and resources to build them as you end up needing several of them right away in order to build quickly.
Road pathing could use a little bit of work, some QoL improvements
More clarification on how many Hunter's huts can be supported by a source of Deer
Foods like preserves should maybe be eaten last, or be less prioritized and food that closer to spoiling should be prioritized first
The flatten tool seems not to work properly or needs greater clarification or some tweaking to make it easier to use

**UPDATED REVIEW** Most of what I wrote originally stands, but since my initial review so many new features have been added and it has gotten even better. Goats, chickens, pastries, and various other improvements: I generally don't purchase Early Access Titles, but I had seen enough of this game on YouTube to know that I would enjoy it and I was correct! The City Builder genre is one of my favourites, and Farthest Frontier stands as a great example of the genre being done right. It took only until my second game to really figure out the mechanics, and while the game is challenging, it's not punishingly so. Learning how to balance the economy is important, but so many other games of this style feel over-complicated. This game feels like it has just the right amount of everything, the information you need is easy to find and simple to understand. You can often see the results of your efforts to fix problems with your town relatively quickly, so it rewards my time. By my second game I got a city to a population of 1000, which is a really big city overall as the final tier is unlocked at I think 500 population? It was really satisfying because once the supply chain is figured out you can pretty much keep expanding onwards. I love the crop rotation system on the farms, I figured those out very well by my second game and basically once you do they require not much maintenance at all but also rewards you if you do take the time to micromanage them. There are a few mechanics that I'm still learning, for example Cattle seem to be a bit tricky for me and I'm not quite sure how many Hunter's Camps can be supported by a source of deer but I am confident these things may be fleshed out more in the full release, or I'll figure it out the hard way. The game looks great, the landscapes are vivid and realistic, the buildings look varied and quite different, and once your town gets to final tier it tends to look pretty fantastic. Like I ask with all city builders: please provide more variants of existing buildings if you can, it never hurts to have more choice. Having said that, Farthest Frontier does a great job of making most of the buildings look distinct and unique. Soundtrack is nice and mellow, sound effects are great, although I could use a few more music tracks and maybe some with a tad more energy. I am very much looking forward to playing the full release! I hope that when the game is finished / in future we can see things like: Pork and Chicken infrastructure Horses, goats, donkeys More types of wild game, like fowl, grouse, camelids etc Dogs and maybe cats, for happiness and pest control Some greater varieties of crops Culture reskins (expansion content?) Bakeries could use flour and other foods (meat, veggies, fruit) to make pies, cakes etc that work as both luxury goods and food The housing options feel lean, there are probably a few ways to expand this Ability to interact with raiders in other ways, like paying them off, hiring them for protection etc. Missions, quests, or objectives Some minor feedback on existing mechanics: The wagon shop feels unfinished, I know I need one but it doesn't seem to do anything after that? Brick layers need to be balanced a bit better, right when you get bricks in Tier 3 everything needs them in large quantities and it's expensive in labour and resources to build them as you end up needing several of them right away in order to build quickly. Road pathing could use a little bit of work, some QoL improvements More clarification on how many Hunter's huts can be supported by a source of Deer Foods like preserves should maybe be eaten last, or be less prioritized and food that closer to spoiling should be prioritized first The flatten tool seems not to work properly or needs greater clarification or some tweaking to make it easier to use