incredibly addictive and visually stunning game that combines the joy of exploration with the deep satisfaction of building massive, efficient factories.

This is a tough review because I really like the game. Unfortunately, the game's current state is abysmal. If this game was still in early access, I would be able to recommend it based on where it is now. However, I am concerned about this games future given the Dev's decision to launch this "1.0" build.

The game-play is fun but all the systems and supply chains are very shallow. The 'rustic food' production, for example, quickly results in spamming the same fishing hut or gatherer hut 10 times, with no real way to improve existing buildings or supply chain. You villagers never stop needing the lower level 'Rustic Food,' so you are stuck adding more and more huts.

The 'monument' buildings are fun at first. It is essentially Lego pieces that you build your big buildings (Church, Castle, Manor, etc) with. The lack of variety of the building blocks quickly becomes apparent though. Especially when you have a larger city and need to have the same monuments multiple times. The 'edit' building mode that you use to make these buildings is the source of many headaches. The mode constantly causes crashes in the middle of building your giant castle that you spend 20+ minutes decorating.

The game's performance is rough. Especially as you start getting to 300+ villagers. With a RTX 4080 and a 7800X3D at 1440p, I am getting sub 50FPS with big frame spikes. The game also randomly pins my CPU and GPU at 100%.

Overall, I would say this game is fun when it works correctly and frustrating most of the time. The Dev's may say it left early access, but the game does not. I do not think this game is currently worth the $35. I have to give this game a 'not recommended' but I hope that the team is able to turn it around. My plan is to revisit this game in April when hopefully some issues are resolved.