Manor Lords Reviews

[h3] After all the hype, [i] THIS [/i] is Manor Lords??? Huh?? 1/5 [/h3] [i] On my scale, a 1/5 game is an abysmal and [probably] irredeemable dumpster fire. Playing the game is either a form of self-harm or gives money to a video game equivalent of Palpatine’s saggy nutsack. [/i] I’m going to be harsher than I normally would because the hype surrounding this game promises a life-changing experience and instead delivers “warm pillow”—it’s close to criminal. Expectations do a lot to taint a player’s perspective of a game, usually for the worse. This is why so many gamers are disappointed with AAA studios: flashy trailers prey on our optimism for something good and instead you get copy-paste slop. My expectations for this game were moderate. I respect the early access label as a hit-or-miss gamble, but the sheer volume of insanity around this game doesn’t help but pique interest. And as someone who loves city builders—I grew up playing Sim City Deluxe, made a university project in Cities Skylines for an urban planning course, you get the gist—I was very sold on the premise of having a high-graphic, historically accurate medieval city builder. I can roleplay the Massachusetts Bay Colony pilgrims as they freeze to death in the winter?? Ok sure that sounds fun. And people really sell this thing as the best thing since sliced bread, so it’s got to be at least decent right? One of the published reviews I saw was “this is the best medieval city builder ever.” Well if this is the best, then what a sorry state the genre is in. The game really does a good job making a good first impression. It is glossy, with nice music and beautiful graphics. And the coolest thing the game does is available right from the jump: modular plots and components. I’ve been waiting for more city builders to implement this sort of mechanic for those wonky corners between other buildings that in the real world become funky-shaped parks and plazas rather than just being empty dead space. Like is it really that hard to do? Apparently not, since this unfinished demo managed to do it. But after you spend 3 hours on your little fledgling town, you realize that this is one big fat ugly sow with a whole lot of lipstick on. Or perhaps more aptly, a beautiful historic building completely rotted away and with a nasty carpenter ant infestation. I’m not exaggerating when I say that upwards of 60% of all UI buttons are greyed out because “the feature is not yet implemented in early access.” Most early access games with these types of small passionate developers at least have the courtesy of softening their rough edges and giving you as complete an experience they can from the jump. But to literally have over half of all features—all of which are like the most natural ones that seem to be [i] particularly important [/i] for this game to fulfill the fantasy it is selling—unavailable made me resentful. There are so many other frustrations. There are only like 12 total buildings in this game. The rest of them you can only access by upgrading your burgage plot’s backyard. So you mean to tell me the [i] only [/i] place to have any sort of specialized building is in my backyard? And the only place to have an apple orchard is in my backyard? Why is this not communicated upfront in the tutorial? Does the size of the burgage plot affect yield? Who knows! I gave up before waiting the 4 years for my 1 apple tree to grow. There are a bunch of fertility toggles so you can see how effective plots of land would be for certain crops. But there is no toggle for the fertility of wheat, which fortunately doesn’t really matter since it’s just a minor staple crop that isn’t expected to be the backbone of your food supply or anything. Oops. But it’s ok, because food is otherwise super abundant! The forests are definitely teeming with animals and bushes aren’t randomly generated! (I’m being sarcastic for those of you who cannot discern tone of voice). I’m genuinely lucky I spawned with a massive berry deposit next to me because it took me a whole year before I was remotely able to spare enough families to be farmers and an entire second year to even reap the benefits of my planting. The tutorial explains only the most obvious of things and leaves important systems completely obscured. Why does your population only start to grow after you build the church? Why is that not sign-posted very clearly as an early game objective? Why is it not explained that you need a [i] manor [/i] to even start generating influence and the money necessary to recruit mercenaries? Why, after building the manor, do 2 of my families become servants and do literally nothing? Why does the help section exist if it has literally no information? Why is the CPU claiming regions if they’re not going to do anything with them? Why do you get literally no development points, and most of the unlocks seem universally desirable/relevant rather than vertically stacking specializations like they’re marketed? And the military system is somehow more half baked. Why did the enemy archers run headfirst into my retinue [i] and win??? [/i] Why did my archers stand there shouting instead of shooting the units I told them to shoot?? (I turned on friendly fire just in case my units were too close, nope). Why did it say I needed to go to a battlefield but it didn’t highlight where that was, so the CPU got there first and had instant advantage? (It wasn’t even in the region I was contesting??) Why does the CPU get to claim whatever the fuck they want from the very start of the game, and then sit on the land and do nothing? You’re telling me he gets to just send in mercenaries wherever the heck he wants and I have to spawn in my mercenaries from random regions? You’re telling me bandits can just steal my tools via Bluetooth without coming into my village? Why don’t I even get to see the AI city? They get to claim my land but I don’t get to challenge them directly at their village/settlement at all? So after I got completely rolled in what looked like a completely even match between two armies with no explanation I sent in a peace treaty request. I got a message in return that simply said “peace_treaty_accept_text” and… the war didn’t end. That was enough for me. They couldn’t even bother to [i] write actual text [/i] instead of placeholder text for their $40 demo? And don’t get me started on the development timeline. I only got the game as a part of a humble bundle (I think) and then intentionally waited for over a year to have it be some sort of polished. And it seems like no progress has been made in that time? What the fuck? The most frustrating and upsetting part of this whole thing is that the game legitimately has the foundation for a masterpiece. But it is like five years away from that (ten if they continue at the current rate) and I have a strong feeling this will end up as abandonware. If they prove me wrong and end up with a No Man’s Sky redemption arc, then I’ll go eat carpenter ants.

I love this early access demo. So does everyone. But this is not a finished game, by far. So much potential, so much work to do. They sold about 3mio copies in early access, sold at say 20$ on avg. If you were sitting on 30million $(or say half that), would you be so very motivated to finish it? The progress visible to me has been very slow. I guess this is what happens when early access sells too well. Kickstarter-style. Buy it when its on 1.0, its gonna be an amazing game if it ever gets there.

Classic Hit-N-Run... Release a "promising"EA with good marketing, cash out and abandon the game

It's been 17 months since the game released, and the last update was 7 months ago. Not a lot of communication, there's some stuff coming but we don't know when. Gonna leave this as a negative until I feel better about this game having a future.

Step 1. Develop insane hype for cool game concept with high demand. Step 2. Release playable tech demo. Step 3. Release a handful of updates in two years. Step 4. Make an estimated $140MM in sales.

Another high potential game that ended up in dev hell. I don't want to jump to conclusions but: Game sold well > money is in the bank > no more updates > sucks. I'm getting more and more salty concerning Early Access games. Too many games end up in limbo this way. Go finish the game dev.

Game is an enjoyable city builder, but there has not been an update in 7 months, apparently the dev is working on a 'major update' but I'd hold off on buying it until the update cycle becomes more regular and transparent as at the moment this is a very early access game and at this pace will remain so for a while (if it doesn't wind up being abandoned...), risk of EA sure but that is why I cannot recommend it at this point

Alright, so I have a love/hate relationship with this game. Its a fun game and if you wanna spend alot of time developing a nice city and doing all that then this is great for you. But somethings to be aware of: - The economy is ****EXTREMELY**** broken. You could be selling swords, spears, helmets, boots, cloaks, veggies, beer, dyes, charcoal, wool, linen, wooden parts and both types of shields. But if you need Barley & grain it'll sink your regional wealth. Which in turn bankrupts you. So basically if you cant build a town that is 100% self sustaining then you may as well quit and start over. - The enemy will spawn directly into your town. Wether it be bandits or the opposing Lord. Sometimes they'll spawn other places but majority of the time they are going to spawn from off map, directly into your region. So prepare to have your town completely wiped several times a game. - When the off map Lord decides to attack, don't just assume you won because you won the first battle. Give it about 60 seconds and he will spawn a completely new and fresh army to attack you with. So you could of spent ridiculous amounts of money mainlining a standing army of your own, supplementing it with mercenaries, and it'll likely not be enough. So get ready to lose. Also understand that you will never have a retinue as large as his. He will have around 30+ and max you can get is like 24. Plus have several bands of mercenaries with him. Which again, will all re spawn fresh and ready to go. - If you have mercenaries spawned on the map be prepared for your carts/oxen to get caught in them. So keep an eye on them or it'll cause a clog. - Resource distribution is wild in this game. A house directly next to a fully stocked market might get the resources from it. Maybe. But one a few blocks down the road will definitely get them. - Keep an eye on production. If you don't set limits on what your specialists make then they're going to drain every last resource you have and its not physically possible to keep up. - Lately unassigned workers have been disappearing. Why? who knows. You'll have 10 unassigned families and they will all disappear. - The villagers are MASSIVE drunks. Your most valuable resource in the entire game is ale. Everything comes to a screeching halt without it. You cant upgrade buildings. You cant get perk points. You'll lose. But again you cant really import it because it'll bankrupt you. So good luck. - DON'T BOTHER WITH APIARIES. They are worthless and a massive waste of time. Streamers say they're great but they're lying. You get maybe 3 honey a month from them. Which is instantly gone and you don't see a benefit from it because its burnt through so fast. So do yourself a favor and pick a different perk. It doesn't matter how many you place down or how many families you assign. You re only getting a max of 3. Period. End of story. - Also don't bother getting the hunter traps or double meat perks. They don't work either. You cant physically produce enough meat to sustain a villages wants. So forget it altogether and focus on veggies, berries and apples. Maybe if you're lucky you might get good farm land and can grow some wheat and barley. But don't count on it. Farmers will consistently not plow half a field or wont plant most of it. I've found it best to make small .3 size plots for farming. But the problems still persist regardless of how many farmers, oxen and time you devote to it. For all of its flaws it is a fun game. Sometimes you'll do alright and somehow survive long enough to complete a map. But odds are you wont. Get comfortable with the idea of spending hours, even days, working on one really awesome town. Then it's going to be levels by bandits and the rival lord will take it over and then you'll have to start all over. For a single developer its a very beautiful game and has some seriously solid bones. But obvious being in early access its gonna have issues. Apparently there's a complete rework being made so maybe soon all of these issues wont even be a thing anymore. Fingers crossed cause I do enjoy it.

I love this game. but man, there is so far in between the updates. Other than that its 10/10

When I first bought Manor Lords, I had an amazing time — the initial hours were genuinely fun and immersive. However, after just a few hours, the lack of content became apparent, and the game quickly started to feel empty. I decided to take a break, hoping that with time, new updates would bring fresh content and improvements. After nearly a year away, I came back… and sadly, almost nothing has changed. The game still suffers from the same content shortage and becomes repetitive far too quickly. Even worse, I encountered bugs that prevented me from continuing my saved game, which was incredibly frustrating. Manor Lords has massive potential — the foundation is there for something truly great. But at this moment, I cannot recommend buying it. I sincerely hope the developers start releasing meaningful updates that add actual content and fix critical issues, but right now, it doesn’t seem like such updates are anywhere on the horizon. It’s a shame, because so much potential is being wasted.