KINGDOMS

My experience with this game was mostly positive. The developer Cyfiethydd once upon a time gave me hope for the Early Access model on Steam, with frequent updates and community integrated development. Cyfiethydd had one bad slip where he went missing for a long period of time, secretly developing another project in order to fund Kingdoms, much to the chargrin of the Kingdoms testers and players. He eventually came back though, and updates started coming out with extreme frequently, more than one per week. That ended abruptly one day, and Cyfiethydd again disappeared. The entire community was confused and concerned, but the previous hiatus was some evidence that the developer would come back, and that the game was not abandoned. Out of the blue, Cyfiethydd reappears, informs everyone that he is reworking the entire game, and that a product could be expected by the end of April. April came and went, with no more contact from the developer. Flash forward to late June, when a "Is this game worth getting" sort of thread appears on the Steam discussion page. I replied to the discussion with the following:

"It is not worth getting. The experience is incomplete and you will run into bugs as well as just certain game concepts that are only in the game as a test. When the next update hits I would 100% recommend this as a purchase, but with the developer as silent as he is I cannot in good faith tell you this game is worth $0.50 let alone $5.99."

For this commend I was banned from the Kingdoms dicsussion permanently. All other "negative" comments on the game were removed from the forums, and I can only assume that those accounts have been banned from the discussion as well. As someone who tested the game and was eager to see new development, I felt incredibly stabbed by this move from the developer. I normally would not write a review for an EA game, but I feel that banning people for criticizing a valid flaw in a developer is injust, and controlling what comments do and don't appear on the community discussion page is abhorrent. Cyfiethyyd has essentially constructed a page where only those who praise the game (which still has not been updated in nearly a year, yet is still on the Steam Summer Sale as I type this review) are allowed to participate in discussion, and anyone with anything "negative" to say gets sent to the void.

In conclusion, for the reason stated above, I cannot recommend and in fact strongly condemn this title. I highly recommend looking elsewhere for a purchase. The game itself is a decent amount of fun, but the developer's communication is so lackluster and frequent, long periods of inactivity will leave you assuming that the game you have come to care about is in fact just abandoned, and expression of that feeling will get you removed from the community you came to enjoy. I do not see Kingdoms leaving EA any time soon, and history has taught me that Cyfiethyyd will leave again, and continue to punish people for being honest despite their veterancy with his community.

For gameplay criticisms please examine other reviews, which I am sure will discuss the pros and cons of the product. My negative review hinges entirely on developer interaction with the community testing base, and my perception of Cyfiethyyd's interaction with other community members, which I believe to be similar to mine. Take care, and spend your money wisely!

*EDIT 1/11/2019* As of now the developer has undone his forum bans and published an update. I still DO NOT RECOMMEND this game and advise any and all who are interested in it to simply wait and see. If you see updates begin to come out and progress be made on the game, then make your investment. Right now I still have zero faith in this product, though I am not the kind of man to remain dug in to an opinion forever.

It's a bit of a risk buying this game, even if that risk is only $10. On one hand it does have a lot of potential, the developers seem to have the basics down, and they have updated the game with new content already. Said content is a bare minimum for what you'd call a 'game' and there really isn't more than about an hour's worth of stuff to do. Not to mention, there's always a chance these guys will do what I've seen other developers do and just take the money they make and abandon the project. Still, if you've got $10 to blow and want to take a small gamble to support these guys, go for it. If not, I'd recommend waiting a few updates to see if they follow through. They're claiming to be able to update the game monthly - look at their roadmap to see what they have planned. If they can manage it, it may become one of the best games on the market. If not, it'll just be yet another overly-ambitious project left to die.

When it comes to that, my gut's telling me this project has around a 60% chance of succeeding.

In it's early-access stage, Kingdoms is a bit rough around the edges. However, they're taking the sandbox survival genre in a whole new direction with their strong NPC-focus. I made a quick video to help you make an educated purchasing decision, taking you through the first few minutes of gameplay. I hope it helps!

https://youtu.be/aizQ0VQ_a4c