tl;dr: great city builder. if you like the genre at all, and especially if you are the type that likes to play just to make your theoretical villagers happy, then really you need to pick this up. 11/10 all day

Everyone deals with anxiety in their own way, I figure. Contemplative city builders have always been a go-to for me because I find the ability to set up relatively worry-free lives for my silicon-based wards helps with my IRL inability to affect change in a meaningful way.

Foundation is a one-of-a-kind city builder that really got me hooked with the pathing and zoning for building approach, as they're quite novel. of course, thirty plus hours later I was also into designing organic looking villages with different sectors/streets for different artisan crafts and resources, mimicking the construction of 11th-14th century villages in whatever ways I found feasible. to that end, I find that Foundation - like the best simulation games really - guides you towards an organic structure closely resembling that of pre-renaissance europe, at least within the capacity of a relatively simple - I might say, "elegant" - city builder.

this game is great, handily worth the price, and I'm excited to see what directions the devs take it in the future. updates have been regular and substantial in quality, they're not worried about resetting things or coming up with new approaches which is honestly pretty refreshing for an early access game. between this and Valheim I've pretty much scrubbed any bad taste other early access games may have left in my mouth.