Manor Lords is a Medieval City Builder that Deserves Every Ounce of Praise

I wanted to play so much more Manor Lords.

Starting out with not much more than an ox, a few materials and a handful of folks keen to start a life for themselves is already the perfect setup for a new adventure. The possibility space is as wide as it can be, with your skills of adaption to your environment and your guiding hand for nudging life in the direction of success ready to be cultivated and deployed.

Manor Lords is exactly what you think it is (complimentary). The dream is to build a fiefdom from nothing but the sweat of your (peasants) brow and the hard but honest work of your (peasants) labour. Start basic, collect resources, turn those resources into more valuable resources, all while building a sprawling land to call your own while trying to keep as many people alive and happy as you can along the way. Even in its early access build, the features are all there, they all work exceptionally well, and with only a few minor bugs that are mostly only cosmetic, you have yourself a game. 

It's in the detail where Manor Lords shines most. Everything feels authentic, in that way you want to completely get lost in the low fantasy vibes of medieval village living (with most of the nasty bits shaved off). The trees swaying in the wind; the rain falling across the land on a cool spring day; the quippy lines your huffy workmen drop while constructing the latest extension of your fledgling kingdom.

The killer feature is something that isn't uncommon in management games these days, but is utterly enthralling in Manor Lords - the street level feature. Being able to walk around your little slice of 14th century heaven gives the space a history in a way other city building / management games lack. Seeing your citizens go about their day - heading to the market, leading their oxen back to their post, chopping up the firewood for the coming winter - connects you to the ground level, giving you reason to not just plan ahead functionally, but fashionably. Even while it's flagged as a feature still essentially in beta, it is extremely cool.

With only really a handful of hours under my belt, I can tell Manor Lords has cemented itself as one of those forever games I have in my arsenal to return to throughout the months and years, alongside kings of the strategy space such as Against The Storm and Stellaris. Even in its early access release, it's earned the millions of wishlists and grand attention it has received over the past few years in the public light.

Solo dev Greg has spent 7 years already building out this vision, and I daresay there are more ahead fine tuning this into a game that sits in the canon of the best in its field. Publisher Hooded Horse has already been a rising star for the past few years when it comes to finding and promoting quality games in their specific niche, and with Manor Lords they, in my eyes, surpass the titans in Paradox and Sega to take the crown of the number one strategy publisher in the game right now. 

I wanted to play so much more Manor Lords, and I already know I will, for many years to come.

Code for Manor Lords on Steam was provided for the purposes of this piece.