Frozenheim
First, the TL;DR: While the game still feels rough around the edges, it is a fun game if you like games/matches that can last as little as 30 minutes and as long as 3 hours (exploring to get Ragnarök).
GREAT:
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Aesthetically pleasing with good music
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Building options
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Enough maps (4) to play skirmishes, games and 2 campaigns
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Minor customization (color selection) of your colony
NEUTRAL:
- You colony can expand 3 times, each with prerequisites and materials required, but the expansion is small. Depending on your starting location, it can matter a lot or none at all.
– Real player with 247.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best City Builder Base Building Games.
Game, building and personal information:
(Detailed)
- Frozenheim a “serene Norse city builder” that absolutely feels serene when focused on creating a settlement. I begin with just a Jarl’s longhouse and a handful of citizens standing around, and I build a lumber camp, fishing and hunting huts, a gathering station (for stone), and then a training camp so I can begin to create some soldiers. I put down some houses to grow my population, and there are windmills for wheat fields and farmhouses but they won’t generate resources in the harsh winters that cover the world in snow and ice so be aware of that.
– Real player with 65.0 hrs in game
City of Atlantis
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1273100/Builders_of_Greece/
City of Atlantis is an isometric city-building survival game set in the world of the mythical Land of Atlantis. According to legend, the city far surpassed other nations in terms of scientific, military, and economic advancement. One day, however, it vanished from the face of the Earth. Now, after centuries, it re-emerges from the ocean depths.
City management is key. Plan each expansion in such a way that it ensures maximum efficiency of production chains and transportation. Workaround non-workable areas and utilize gathered knowledge to constantly progress and improve. A well-designed city will significantly improve its economic efficiency, greatly increasing your income. Be cautious though! Bad decisions and neglecting certain aspects of city life can result in the tragic death of an entire society.
Atlantis must not fall. Defend your city from tsunamis by building huge water breakers and reinforcing the outer layers. Build defensive structures to fend off armies of ancient warriors from Greece and Egypt. Control the spread of deadly diseases.
The life of the keepers of Atlantis is priceless. Make sure that their work is not interrupted and they are protected from harm. Keep providing them with the necessary tools and create safe working conditions. Citizens are very difficult to replace as their education and experience don’t come cheap. Each will represent a faculty such as military, education, or health. They might excel in many areas such as agriculture, hygiene, architecture, technology, militarism, medicine, politics, commerce, philosophy, or art.
The city of Atlantis has a mission. It must discover and preserve the knowledge of the world. Train and equip heroes who will travel across the land and gather knowledge about the culture, history, law, art, and science. Make sure that you send the right people for the job and ensure that they have the best possible equipment at their disposal.
Read More: Best City Builder Colony Sim Games.
Port Royale 4
I’ve played Port Royale 2 and 3. They were good games,not great ones but they were fun to play for a while. Enter Port Royale 4. My first observation is why have trading ships at all? I played as a merchant and built farms and production centers to bring down the cost of items I sell. Unfortunately you have to sell massive quantities of them in order to keep you head above water. Unfortunately, you can’t sell enough with your fleet no matter how big it is because trading ports will only accept a specific amount of a product before your forced to sell below what it cost you to produce the items. A temporary way around this is to sell the product to the market in the town where you produced it. You can make quite a bit that way but it only serves to help you break even because your trading fleet is fundamentally useless.
– Real player with 95.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best City Builder Trading Games.
TL:DR Port Royale 4 is a fun trading game with a few caveats especially for returning players. But it is a trading game through and through, so those who find such games boring will probably not enjoy it.
Actual review (based on latest beta, it will be updated if it turns out some of these points are not true anymore)
What is Port Royale 4?
Port Royale 4 is a trading game set in the late 16th/early 17th century Caribbean.
What is it like?
If you haven’t played any Port Royale game before…
– Real player with 56.8 hrs in game
Feral Blue
I was extremely excited for this game when it was announced. It is progressing and somewhat becoming more playable, but to be honest it’s extremely unfinished and frustrating at this point. Worth picking up if you don’t mind waiting for the full experience and playing casually.
Pros:
-The graphics are decent, and there are lots of great aesthetics
-In-depth crew management system with feudal elements
-Very visceral combat elements- you will die, you will lose men, you will encounter ships far more powerful than you that will squish you like a bug
– Real player with 42.2 hrs in game
EDIT
Unfortunately, I feel compelled to change my thumbs up to a thumbs down. At the moment, this game is straight up abandoned. There has been one patch since I originally reviewed this game almost 2 years ago, and that one patch was simply increasing ship hold space (i.e. changing some numbers). The Discord is basically dead. Someone will ask the devs if they have any news or updates and a week later get a simple “not right now, sorry” in response. It has been that way for several several months. Supposedly the publisher pulled their funding so devs are basically sitting on their hands waiting for a load of cash to fall out of the sky.
– Real player with 20.9 hrs in game