So far as the year 2024 is concerned, surprise mega-hits from small independent studios have been quite the breath of fresh air. Palworld and Hell Divers 2 certainly weren’t on my bingo card, yet have still captivated millions of players and have largely dominated the first half of this year. Now, to be fair, Manor Lords certainly isn’t a surprise (although it will be a hit), as the sole developer, aka Slavic Magic, has been hard at work over the last seven years, bringing his passion project to life. Thematically speaking, Manor Lords will pull up a chair to this year’s ‘I didn’t know I needed that but in hindsight it makes complete sense’ table. It’s the cool table to sit at, trust me.
Making a 14th-century medieval game that is equal parts city building, economic simulation, and RTS battles requires a lot of interconnected balance. The tools for city building need to feel intuitive to use and allow for both functional and aesthetic design. The simulation needs to be complex enough to be enjoyable while also reflecting how well the city has been built logistically. The battles have to feel good while defending your town, attacking enemies, not to mention all the ramifications that come with war.
Balancing Aesthetics and Efficiency in Manor Lords City Building
There’s a lot to get wrong here, and thankfully each part of the game that makes up Manor Lords has proper depth that allows for a thoroughly enjoyable experience. While some areas still need a fair amount of fleshing out and some annoying bugs need to be squashed, what’s on display for this week’s launch had me smiling from ear to ear.
When it comes to city building, I’m a centrist. On one hand my town can’t be ugly, the rival peasants would laugh. On the other hand, I can’t have my wood cutters walking 10 miles to the forest every day, I’d never be a rich Lord. Luckily there’s a nice balance between the two where you can really make some gorgeous cities or simply some crudely laid out plans that make the economy boom.
When building roads for logistics you can make tight turns around buildings and use the curvature slider to add a more natural free flowing feel to the road. The review build’s snap to road check box was bugged for me during my playthrough so there was a bunch of deleting and replacing of roads which slowed things down a bit, but when it works it really does feel good. Placing buildings is also seamless where you could place one or a number of homes all at once with various configurations of backyards and housing additions.
Deep Simulation and Realistic Challenges in Manor Lords
The simulation itself is where there’s a lot of bread and butter to back up what is already a beautiful city builder. I’ve spoken at length about how good Manor Lords looked back in 2022 and won’t retread the same territory-it’s nice on the eyes. While your city might look great does it function? Each family in Manor Lords will be assigned to various work.
Depending on where this family lives it could be the difference maker between an efficient walk or a long stroll. Things don’t stop there, what about the resources they need to work and which other family is responsible for delivering those? The head of that family is off to war so supplies aren’t being delivered until they return from battle. Oh no, the husband of that family died in battle, and now the wife has to remarry before the new husband can chop trees for the sawmill. The crops needs rotated. The well wasn’t built where there is water. Not enough wells were built the city is on fire. You built a blacksmith instead of a bakery. Everyone is starving. Bandits are here and they stole your firewood. Now your people are freezing. Game Over.
Simulated economic and social depth is commonly shallow in city builders and to see both in action and firing on all cylinders makes for fun and dynamic moments. While that specific turn of events might have been a worst-case scenario, the intertwining systems aren’t needlessly complex and are easy to grasp after a couple hours of trial and error.
Expanding Territories and Managing Resources in Manor Lords
Once you’ve set up your first city, you’ll realize that your starting region might only have an abundance of certain resources. By expanding your rule and claiming other regions you’ll build cities that will be able to trade back and forth to make up for each other’s economic shortcomings. I had a lot of fun building quaint little farming villages that would then trade bread over to a bigger city, which would supply the village with weapons to defend itself. Eventually, your kingdom will have a web of connected commerce, and with that comes a lot more security, being militia groups and retinues.
Real-time battles are the final element that makes up Manor Lords and have a unique approach to combat. If you’re considering picking a fight with someone, you have two options. The first is to create a conscripted army of male villagers to come to arms and fight off bandits or other factions. As soon as this happens your economy’s production within a city will be cut in half, leaving the women at home and putting the men on the front lines. It’s always a gamble when creating militias; honestly, I love it. It places an immediate risk or reward for entering combat in this way.
The second and much safer options is building a Manor within your city and creating a retinue. From this comes a sort of private army that while expensive, can be much more reliable when you can rest assured that your economy isn’t in limbo. Retinue armies also hang out around the Manor at nearly any given moment, allowing for quick assembly which would otherwise take all the male workers much longer to convene.
And Now… The Combat
The combat itself in its current state definitely feels like a work in progress when it comes to the moment-to-moment action. This is early access and the entire game is still well in development, however I would say of the three major parts that make up Manor Lords combat has the furthest to go as far as this armchair developer is concerned. There are many elements that feels immediately ‘Manor Lords’ in the sense that environmental inclines and declines affect battle, troops get fatigued, morale can drop, fallen soldiers will have to be buried and so on. There’s a lot of great stuff already implemented such as great battle animations or even troops dragging their feet when they’re tired. It just seems that at this time combat is the weakest part of the game.
Final Thoughts
Manor Lords is a fantastic early access experience that deserves the slow-burn hype accumulated over the years. It has so many great things going for it that I can’t help but recommend it even if it does have what I would guess is several years of development before a 1.0 release. Bugs aside, the music is phenomenal, city building is a blast, the game is gorgeous, and combat shows promise.
Once competing AI factions are fully implemented and legitimately competing and building within the regions on the current world map Manor Lords will really start to feel like you’re a Lord striving for a spot on the map.
