by Flare on Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:58 pm Title : Timber and Stone
PC - Indie title - early access - not via steam - $19.99 (about £12) via paypal to the developer
Developer site : http://www.timberandstonegame.com/
Wiki : http://timberstonewiki.net/wiki/Main_Page
What is it ?
Its yet another survival game where the player leads a few men and women in a effort to start up a new town in the wilderness, it is in 3D using an Voxel engine in Unity.
You start off with about 6 people with random skills / professions and need to try establish a town of sorts in a pretty hostile environment which just gets nastier as your settlement grows in value.
You dont simply place down structures but build them block by block Dwarf Fortress style (design the building and the appropriate minion will come and build it), the furniture and equipment is placed but the actual buildings the player makes.
It has a hefty combat element to it as it lets you make militia with archers and armour melee teams, and includes castle defence weapons such as ballista which you used to defend your settlement from ever increasing hordes of skeletons, spiders , necromancers and more.
It has much of the Dwarf Fortress vibe to it but is not as deep BUT the UI and interfaces is much more friendly and easier on the eyes, the graphics are actually quite nice to look at as well and the animations are decent... its quiet satisfying to watch your little guys go about their business (or loaf about on chairs and benches , lazy sods
).Worth a look ?
I say its at least worth checking the lets plays and some videos, personally I found the CURRENT game worth £12 and despite the slow update rate (1 developer) the current game has enough in it to keep a player occupied for a few hours at least, potentially you can spend ages making that perfect castle.
It does have some issues, like stuttering when the time changes and ...the loooong nights (I tend to have my people sleep at night, so the wait is long , even with the double speed activated).
It is quiet hard to get started as your people are not very tough and dont start off with lots of combat gear, a set of archer kit and some infantry gear is typical and lost HP is hard to get back as it slowly regens over time, plus you have a lot of other issues to deal with... food, tools, resources, time, limited number of people, etc etc... I haven't even managed to get a full wall up and lost one woman to a skeleton (she got killed while chopping wood... learnt there was a pause game on seeing an enemy option).
Its will keep you busy, lots of stuff to manage and the UI has a surprising number of features to help here... the ability to select which resource you want to track, setting patrol paths, AI used roads out your castle (and to attach your castle with the map boundaries so merchants and migrants can get to you.
Its a solid mix of Settlers , Dwarf Fortress , Stronghold type games... enjoyable, and its still in development.
My opinion:
Game in its current state is enjoyable and has enough to keep me busy for hours and the potential for yet more to come with new releases. I got my moneys worth now, and there may be more to come (lets face it , lots of times early access games end up dead before they hit release).
It has a slow start to each map but ramps up pretty quickly, it is quiet challenging yet is fair (mob attacks are based on how valuable your settlement is.. basically the better off you are the harder the attacks are).
Worth a go, and is not too expensive... may die before its complete but it isnt tied to a server and is very playable in its current form with only a few minor issues.
still a solid 8/10