Recent reviews by Noranum

This game made me very, very sad.
It reminds me that all resources are limited, that no matter how much you try not everyone can be helped or cared for, that some need to be left behind, and ultimately, the game is a reminder of the inescapability of Death.

Sounds pretty dark for a game that appears to be a colorful farming game, huh?
Let me quickly break it down.
This game has you stranded alone in a desert full of ruins and long dead plantlife.
Your goal: Survive, and care for the single spring you started next to, plant seeds to gradually turn the dead sand into soil. As you make progress, you uncover the story of the devastated world. While gods and magic make it sound like a far away place, the more you learn, the more you notice that the troubles that let to the current state of this world sound very familiar.
I won’t spoil the story for you, but this game offers much to think about, sadly there is no real happy end. The end of the story is just that. An End.

Water is your foundation. You can enhance your spring, find new ones, but these springs, and the bottle you carry with you, are the sole source of water, so nature completely depends on your work. While you can dig irrigation systems, ultimately, the size of desert you are able to revive is limited to how far you can make the water flow. There will be dead plants out of your reach, which feels even more bad since at night, an eerie ghostly glow surrounds plants and some parts of the ground, showing you how it looked like when they were alive.
Seriously, this game exhausted me emotionally.


The Good

It is not difficult to play and doesn’t need experience or special skills. When you enjoy planting stuff and planing waterways, but also like traveling now and then looking for new seeds, Wildmender might interest you. The story, while quite straight forward, does not force you to act. You can take as much time as you want, and progress when ready.
The number of plants you can grow is small, but each species has at least a hand full of different breeds which you can collect, and some hybrids you can breed. There are four biomes (plus desert) which are suited for different plants, most plants have a variant for most biomes.
There is fighting. Mostly during the story, but you will also encounter hostiles during your travels. The combat is as simple as it can be. You have one default weapon, which shoots energy, offers a reflecting block, and, if upgraded, a stun. You can also use your scythe for melee, and the story will grant you fire magic and other utilities which might come in handy. There are some simple defenses, since your home garden will be attacked by hostiles now and then. Overall, the combat part is easy to manage, and thankfully you can adjust the difficulty. While you won’t be able to remove all hostiles from the game, you can make them weak and deactivate the random attacks, which is really nice.


The Meh

You could say that after some hours, the game can be quite dull. There’s little else to do than search for stuff, plant stuff, and dig canals so the water will keep the stuff you plant alive. The building portion of this game is minuscule, there are magical sigils and utilities like a composter, and some walls to keep the baddies, sandstorms, and those pesky tumbleweeds out of your lawn. But you can’t build actual structures, in fact you don’t even have a bed for yourself, only a primitive shade cover.
Some significant things are locked behind story events, or require you going far into the skill tree. One of these late-game skill is rather important for me: it allows you to send plants into hibernation so they won’t constantly spawn seeds that litter your garden – or worse – plant themselves into the ground. Having to gather many skill points just to be able to stop the seed spam is really bothersome. If you want to make a garden that is actually pretty, you will surely plant more than just one plant of each kind, which will produce so many seeds that you have to gather or else they will lay around forever since stuff doesn’t despawn. Seeds might become spoiled or dry, but they will remain on ground. Even if you have the hibernation skill, you have to “talk” to each plant in order to make it stop throwing seeds at you.
During the story you will be able to revive land around the springs, or single plants. But since YOU are the source of all water, these plants will eventually die off again. I seriously wish there was an option to turn the watering off, or at least some rain or whatever. What points is there reviving an entire forest when you are absolutely not able to keep it alive?


The Bad

I have two major complaints.
First, performance. While the game itself runs smoothly, I face almost constantly pop-ins. Objects like plants, rocks, and buildings will randomly appear right next to you. Even when not moving quickly. This is very sad, since it not only discourages building a large garden, it also means much standing around waiting for the plants to pop up. It’s quite possible that this is an issue with my PC, but still it is frustrating since this is the sole issue I face.
Second, the map generation. The game world is randomly generated. Larger structures are scattered around the world, without any greater concept or plan. While that might sound like an aesthetic issue – a temple might sharply cut into a mountain, while the city gate stands free and faces the ocean (so not very protective) or the roads lead to nowhere – it quickly becomes an actual game issue when you think about the springs. Each region has seven or so springs you can unlock to start a garden around. You need them. No water, no garden. If these springs happen to be placed in absolute stupid locations – like in a tiny valley, a crevice, or on top of a small plateau – you can’t use them. Of course, part of the game is to get creative with the water – but water simply doesn’t flow uphill, and you can only do so much terraforming. When there is a static game object like those pesky market carts or a cliff in the way, than that’s it.


Summery

Overall an enjoyable game with solid fun. I don’t regret sinking many hours into it, and while the theme does make me sad, caring for growing gardens and gradually turning the dead desert into my personal playground is quite fun.
Sill I hope the devs will invest time to significantly smooth the terrain generation, since that is something I actually dislike about Wildmender.

Paleo Pines is a colorful and lighthearted game about goofy chirpers and cooing chonkers enjoying their days of being not extinct. That pretty much sums it up. If you came here expecting a Stardew Valley with dinos, then you are going to be disappointed. It is not an heir to the Harvest Moon series, and it doesn’t try to be. Nor does it try to follow the footsteps of games about scaly murdering machines or park managers which try to picture dinosaurs as scientifically accurate as possible.
Simply put, it is a game about having some cozy funtime with toon pets inspired by dinosaurs. If this still interests you, then keep reading, I try to write down what I think about this.

The Good

The environment is quite beautiful in my opinion. Though it looks more like a large garden or park, it still has much charm and lovely details. I personally love the animations of the cuddly dino characters, they grant them much personality and each species feels unique. The sounds they make might be not even close to what the real animals produced, but then again, I highly doubt that raptors used to be pink and purple, so these noises are as good as any, and they fit nicely within the overall style.
The Farming aspect of the game is rather small to be honest. There is a dozen or so of crops, and these can be cared for quickly in the morning, so you can spend the rest of the day exploring. All types of crop have favorite seasons and soil qualities, but they will produce even if you don’t meet any of these wants, which I think is nice. Beside selling them to earn cash, you also need to grow specific plants for quests or as treats for your dinos. Overall, you can put in more effort planing your fields and adding the right fertilizer, and are rewarded with extra yields, but you can also just throw some seeds in the dirt and water them to get a basic harvest.
Caring for your dinos is equally simple. Feed them, keep their pens clean, pet them, and you are fine. Dinos might help you on the farm, some can water, some plow the soil, others might even harvest for you. The main part of having specific dinos is, that you will need them to clear boulders or fallen logs, not only to make more room on your farm, but also in order to reach new areas in the world.
Taming wild dinos needs you to befriend them. First you play the species’ friend call, then you need to find out its favorite treat flavor by trial and error. This is a nice approach in my opinion, and encourages you to try around a little, and grow and gather different things.
There are three distinct areas with different biomes, where you will find different collectibles and dino species. The world has many secrets for you to find, so leave the path and have a look, you might find something pretty, and an area might offer something else when the seasons change, so keep exploring.
The timescale is fair for all these activities. While other games of this type barely leave you enough time to tend to your fields, Paleo Pines allows you to enjoy the world and look at all those silly dinos.
All summed up, the game creates a relaxed and playful environment which offers you an opportunity to just slow down a little and do some simple tasks, accompanied by lovable dorky dinos. I do have the feeling that the developers focused on what they wanted the game to be about, the dinos, and did not stray too far from their idea.

The Meh

That said, there are some parts of the game I think to be lacking.
Humans are basically decorative in this world. You can’t enter any house (not even your own!), and the handful characters you meet might be fleshed out and given a unique feel each, but in the end of the day, they are givers of simple quests and buy and sell stuff. Nothing more. There is a sort of “story” which has you taming the right dino to clear the path to a new area, and little stuff at the side to keep you entertained, but the social part of the game is almost non-existent. I already said that Paleo Pines does not try to follow up titles like Stardew Valley, but even then, having this little amount of interpersonal activity seems odd for a game about happiness and having a good time.
The building aspect of the game could really use some polish. You need to put down specific objects in order to make the dinos feel comfortable in their pen, but the game uses a tile-bound system for placing objects. Which means you will end up with a single object per tile, be it a large bush, or a tiny heather shrub. All neatly placed at the center of the tile. There are a couple of decorations for your human, like bookshelves and benches, but it feels odd to build a livingroom on the farm soil, and since you can’t enter your own home, this will be all you can do. Honestly, it’s not that important, and you can happily live without it, but then again, why implement bookshelves in the first place?
Last, I personally think that there are far too few customization options for the player character. Yes, the game is about dinos, I know, but then again it is advertised to allow the player to freely express themselves. Which I hardly can when none of the ten or so hairstyles speaks to me. Luckily, this can easily be helped by adding more things to choose from.
As I said, I have the feeling that dinos were always the main focus of this game, which is fine. Though in some cases, I do get the feeling that there should be more. Human characters are equipped with a personality and story, yet I can’t really socialize with them beside talking and the occasional quest.

The Bad

This might be highly personal, but I am absolutely creeped out by the basic human model. To me, the characters, especially the player, look like animated baby dolls, which I am really not enjoying since I have Pediophobia (I’m afraid of human-like models, especially if they are moving). Usually I cope with this putting a headgear on that covers the entire face of the player character, and skipping cut scenes, but since there are no such headcovers in this game, I’m having a hard time. I do understand that in a world full of happy pastel dinos and colorful flowers the playermodel needs to be cute and simplified, but I don’t want to be a toddler.


Summary

I like it. I followed the developers for a couple of years, from the first sketches to the finished game. I personally feel that they stayed true to their original intention, and did not experiment with stuff that was too far away from what they wanted. This is fine, even though some people complain about the game lacking something, we need to remember that just because a game has farming in it, it doesn’t need to be the same as Harvest Moon. Same for the art style. Yes it’s cheerful and toony, but even an adult can enjoy this kind of thing now and then. Just because the dinos are not the primal monsters other games present you, the game is not automatically meant to be for children. And if it is okay for other games to picture a dog like a bean with legs, then what is wrong about having a dinosaur looking like pink playdough?
If you are looking for something to put a little bit of cute into your day, Paleo pines might be for you.

Hammerting is a colony building simulation, allowing you to dig a dwarven dwelling into a mountain. It is a charming little game, although is does have some rough edges.

Nice things:

I do like the looks of the game. It is colorful, stylized, yet clearly fitting a Scandinavian vision of dwarves (which is actually where they come from, and not Scotland). The style is a pleasant mix of fantasy and comic, and the level of details is quite nice, but without being too much. Caves are randomly generated, and cluttered with little things like grass and mushrooms. There’s much glowy, shiny stuff to be found in the mountain, and the buildings you create are clearly of dwarven making (which means they are huge. Compensation?)

The music is enjoyable as well, even if it can be a little bit gloomy now and then.

The game itself is nice to play, good to fill some hours but without putting any stress on me. I can leave the screen for some minutes, letting the dwarves work. The game focuses heavily on exploration and mercantilism. You have to dig for resources or grow some plants, mainly because you need to craft tools and armors and other things you can sell to the surface races. This is the only way to get coin, which you need to pay your dwarves and hire new ones. So, instead of building and army and killing all the things dead, you get to explore another aspect of dwarves: being a shrewd trader, playing the neutral part in a regional death-match, selling and buying, hopefully making a profit, while still having an influence on how things turn out.
The total amount of things to gather and build is okay. It does have some production chains, but that is mostly foodstuff, and nothing you absolutely need. Dwarves are hardy, and won’t whine when they have to go some days without food, or when they have to sleep on the ground. I havn’t tried harder difficulties, so it might be that keeping them alive could become troublesome, but only if you want to.
There are a couple of ways to win the game, depending of how you like to play. You can focus on your colony, amassing coins. Or you can try to subjugate the entire surface, basically buying them out. But winning is not really the whole point, in my opinion. I like to build a nice, cozy, but also efficient mountain home for my dwarves, sending them out so get new stuff to sell, new ore to smelt, new gold to put onto the walls. Unfortunately, the game is not deep enough to pass as a city-builder. Dwarves do have a need called “greed” which is basically their need to be paid and put into a comfortable dwelling. Coins tend to vanish when not safely stored away, you know? Beside this, and some random chatter between them, there isn’t much passing as actual society, not even decorative objects or actual furniture beside the bed they sleep on (or not).

If you like to keep it simple, focusing on the gathering and fine-tuning your railroad network, then this is the game for you.



It does have some downsides, though:

My major point is the AI. It is dumb. A dwarf gets up to gather a piece of granite to put into a building. He travels all the way to the storehouse, picking up what he needs, walks back to the construction side to drop the stuff. Then the dwarf notices that the blueprint next to this one also needs granite. And he walks back and forth again, and again only delivering what this single building needs. If you wonder why some rock takes ages to be mined: it’s probably because a miner on the other side of the map decided to dig at it, managed to get a single tile done, then realizes that he is hungry and travels back, which means some other dwarf needs to fill in, traveling all the way again… and. So. Forth. I knew that dwarves could be single-minded, but THIS is bothering me. The larger the map, the bigger your colony grows, the longer the ways will become, and your people will spend most of their time traveling, unable to work on more than one order at the same time. It would be so great if the haulers and builders would check if any other building around their destination need some stuff as well. Or if they would check if they can finish a job before running low on food. Little things like these would help so much reducing travel time. But no.

Second thing: Some resources are gated. Since the mountain has different biomes, it may take some time before you find what you need. Some few things can be bought at the surface, but you need to find wild fibre-plants before you can start growing your own, and these are only generated in one biome. Monster drops are also something I have troubles finding. I have so far not understood the mechanics behind the spawning of monsters, but I guess there is a total max number of active monsters. There are monster nests which spawn them, but they also pop up randomly in caves outside of your viewing range. I tried to not destroy some nests, hoping they would continue to make more monsters, but I had no luck so far. They tend to dry out, and the random spawning is not predictable at all, and in the end I am cut off from basic things like meat, leather, or jelly, which are needed for many things. It would be nice if you had at least some control on where enemies spawn, or even better: tame some of them to gain a steady supply of crucial stuff like hides.

Third point: The behavior of the surface people. Ar first it was amusing that the people up there seem to be caught in an endless war for no apparent reason, while the thrifty dwarves profit from this. But having played some hours, I sadly have to say that the campaign is ridiculous at best. Nothing you can do has really any lasting impact. While the idea that you favor one party and booster their economy is nice, nothing like this happens. Delivering food and weapons will regenerate some stats like might or fortification, which in turn means a surface location can send out new troops or withstand longer. A location that is damaged won’t produce anything for you to buy, and they need granite blocks to rebuild, which are also your own basic material, and always needed. So you might want to keep them “alive”, right?
In the long run it doesn’t matter.
I started a couple of games, playing some five hours, and each time it was completely random which faction would manage to conquer enemy locations. Sadly, for me, the surface just got a coin farm. I can spend weeks not caring to look up, then I sell some gear and hope to find one undamaged hunting cabin to sell me bones, or leather! And then I go back to mine. Maybe I haven’t figured it out yet, but I dare to say that the overworld politics are nuts. You can even spend lots of trade lore to improve how one faction sees an other, but does it mean they won’t fight? Nope.
It is really sad that this part of the game behaves so weirdly, because it more or less is the whole point you are playing. As I said, there isn’t enough content for a city-builder or social simulation, and it isn’t a fighting game either. But the mercantile part is far too random, too unrewarding to be any fun.

And Last but not Least: The Water. There are outlets all around the mountain, which spew out endless amounts of water. I have yet to learn how they realize when to stop. Most times, they don’t until a cave is full. The water isn’t a real obstacle, since dwarves don’t drown? But still, having the stuff everywhere while you try to dig deeper is really frustrating, since thanks to the water holes, you can’t just dig a tunnel for the water to flow into another cave, no, the damn thing just spits out more water. So unless you spend time and resources to put some walls around the outlet, you will stay wet.

It isn't totally bad, and still, it failed to catch me like other titles of this kind.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: It is NOT a clone of Civilizations. Sure, it does draw some inspiration from that one, but still, it is fundamentally different.

So why the thumbs down?
I think it is a gathering of small but still annoying things.
But let’s start with the nice things:


+ I do like the graphics. It’s a nice mix of realism and comic. You can actually see people walking the streets, little wagons delivering goods to the cities, and animals running over plains.

+ The music and ambiance is nice, the storyteller is decent - both his voice and the jokes he makes.

+ Character creation! Finally I don’t have to play some historically inaccurately portrayed war chief king or whatever. While this has zero effect on the actual game, it does feel nice!

+ They tried to include cultures from the whole world, even lesser known ones. A double plus: Units change according to your chosen culture.

+ Tutorials are plentiful and allow you an easy start, even if this is your first time playing a game like this. If not, you can choose little or even no help.

+ Your journey through time is not tied to passed years, but rather achievements. Each epoch has a number of stars you need to earn, and offers different ways to get these, meaning you can build your way towards the next age, or simply farm and increase your numbers, or fight. One way often enough doesn’t grant you enough stars, so you have to get creative. Overall, this is a nice idea and means you won’t just sit around waiting for the next age to waltz in.

+ You can combine units into a regiment, which, while limited, still allows you to make a decent and versatile troop. In combat, you may position these units, so the archers are behind your swordsmen.

+ Each land unit may found an outpost, which may be turned into a city. So as long as you have a single unit left, you may get back on your feet.


Now the not so nice things:


- Culture is simply a piece you can put into your strategy. They are tied to a certain time window, and while this is somewhat true given the fact that Mayans never developed iron forging and are therefor not a true “medieval” culture, they also did not appear 2000 years before the Romans. Since they are tiered, you have to pick a new one for each epoch. Yes, you may “transcend” and keep an old culture, but you will miss newer, better units, and the yields from old special districts are low.
This basically turns a culture into a tool that can be thrown away in exchange for a better one. Which is, is fact, pretty well seen in your avatar: They simply change clothes.
I see that the game wants you to explore “Humankind” but seriously, someone starting with the Olmecs and decides they want to be Celts in the next epoch is ridiculous, and harmful to those cultures that still are around and see themselves used as an advantage.

- Micromanagement of the cities and surrounding outposts can be troublesome, especially since the “territories” are predefined and can’t be changed at all. You can link an outpost to a city, but this brings more trouble than benefits, at least in my view.

- Stability. Adding a district like farmer quarters to your city reduces its stability. Each major addition takes 10 points, with a maximum of 100 this can become unstable rather quickly, especially since outposts alone may only gather resources, but nothing else. I fail to see what this system is trying to achieve or prevent. For me, it’s pure annoyance, since there is little you can do for raising stability. Some city buildings like canalization, or the commons district, World Wonders, but that’s it.

- Limited number of cities you can safely handle at a time. This increases with research, but combined with the stability issues, I feel it’s hard to keep up with the AI.

- Ah yes, the AI. I find it horrible. I watched my auto-exploring hunters running back and forth between the same two tiles for an entire epoch.
Worse are AI empires. They can’t be predicted. I actually played with easier ones, and still the first thing they did when I met them was attacking me, and then, next turn, demanding the handover of a city I just added to my Empire. Diplomacy is a tangle of demands and griefs, and I find myself on the losing side, every time, since little of what I can do actually seems to have an effect of how they treat me. They offer non-aggression, take it back three turns later, just to re-offer it again, and I am just wondering what exactly causes this decision. And I play on the second easiest mode, so I don’t want to know how they are on harder settings. Not to talk about them nilly-willy picking cultures and wonders and generally being a huge nuisance in every regard.
Worst are the independent people. These are akin to city states, but oh boy. They are beyond bothersome. And apparently don’t need any resources. I run high and low to find a second iron deposit so I may upgrade my units, just to met an independent city without even a single resource, but still able to throw a full regiment of ironclad units at me. Just for the lolz since they are aggressive, and then they go and plunder my outposts because lol.

- Religion and background story-telling is too western centered for my taste. Apparently each and every faith on Earth had a holy script. And went through the same cultural clashes like good old Europe, regarding social development and the brawl between clergy, nobility, and later on, science. There are tries to lighten this up, but for me these actually make it worse. One turn I read about interpretation of the holy script my shamanism apparently has, and the next turn it’s something about eunuchs. Which my Mayans apparently also had, beside the good book of course.


As said, it is not a bad game on itself. I am not “disappointed” or “mad” or something, but these little mehs pile up, and ultimately I don’t want to put this high on my list of games I want to go through. It’s enjoyable for a couple of hours, mainly at the beginning, but middle to endgame just makes me want to quit.
This is of course all highly personal, and surely many pure strategy fans will enjoy the randomness and insignificant of things like culture, but I am not a pure strategist.
I am more of a role player, I like to tell stories. And so far, my stories were that of transcended Mayans desperately looking for iron while discussing their holy book and having constant squabbles with the Mongols who used to be Greeks and a random city that apparently can turn dust into iron for their units, but won’t share this secret with me.

This game is so-so. Okay, with potential to become much more, but a little bit plain here and there.


It has a solid base, including everything you would expect from a farming game: Crop care and shipping, animals, building relationships with villagers, little erands to earn some money on the side, and foraging. The main systems work well and so far I have not seen any bug or major upsetting.

One of the main points is the three villages you may live in. Each has a different climate, which means you will be able to grow some crops only in certain villages, while basic stuff like grain is cosmopolitan. The total number of crops to grow is okay, and you get a monthly list of what you should ship. It's not a must, but encourages you to grow different kinds of crops, with some extra cash when you fullfill the quota.

The apparent main part of the game - while not exactly deep enough to be called a story - is the museum. You need to fill it with insects, fish, plants, and fossils gathered from all around the island, and you need to do this within a set time. Else, a major corporation will build a factory on the island which will have a heavy, negative impact on the environment, reducing fertility and growth speed, and mybe more. I read that this whole feature is not yet implemented. While this is a nice long-term goal, it also means you will have to set aside time for foraging. There is a quick-travel system, but you need to find the different destinations first before you can travel to them.
The villages have moderate size. They are bigger than what is common for this type of game, and each person has a bed to sleep in (which is a topic that's probably only bothering me). There's friend groups, random quests to earn friendship, and all people have a little edge which sets them appart from the others, without being too much out of line. Beside them running around, standing and holding some tools, or sitting in front of drinks and foods, there is not much life or interaction. There's no children, no larger family beside some siblings, and I have yet to find out why I should bother with dating and marriage. There is no advice I could give in this case. When I think about Stardew Valley, there's guys I was in love with pretty much instantly. No such a thing here, unfortunately, but maybe that's just me?

Anyway, here comes why I called it a so-so game.
For something that litterally forces you out of your farm into the wild to gather insects and plants, the landscape is not very nice. There are routes and places that are really pleasant, you can walk through flower fields or stroll along the beach. But overall, I'd say the world needs smoothening. There's sharp edges and cuts everywhere, floating rocks and trees, and large stretches without anything but plain textured landscape - actually it reminds me on my first Morrowind mods from *mumbleIAMOLDmumble* years ago. I understand that the main systems have priority, the game needs to work before you can polish it. I do hope this polishing will come, if not, that would be sad, since the vegetation is really lovely designed.
The often critized movement is something you get used to. Yes it is a little bit wonky, but I've seen worse, so I'd say it doesn't bother me as much as badly placed bridges or rivers that look like the little canals kids dig at the beach. The developers seem to be nice and open, so I really do hope they give this game some love and beautification.

But hey, that is cosmetics. The game itself works like it should, so maybe you could give it a try.

RimWorld is a rather odd mix of different things. At the first glance it appears to be just another survival game, and indeed, that is some core mechanic.
You will play a bunch of random people who happen to strand on a rather hostile planet. The rest is up to you. Build, farm, research, expand, try to get new people, survive the winter, manage your ressources, have an eye on temperature and weather, and have your way with different factions - trading or raiding. Unlike other games of this type, there are no raging zombie hordes. Okay, RimWorld has giant gene-modified insects, murderous robot...insects(?), and harsh weather. But the overall challenge are the people themselves. They don't like eating without a table. They really don't like eating those insects. And when the thing that they have on their plate was once know by the name George, they are not happy either. Unless they are nuts, or cannibals. Little things add up. A little too hot outside, too dark inside, Karen won't sleep with you, your mom died, and you had to turn her skin into a chair. But still, you had to eat standing because said chair was too far away. Okay, that's it, you go berserk and kill them all. Too bad you were raised on a Glitterworld and have no idea how these green things of the field turn into food. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to kill the single dude who would be willing to build something either, because it's winter and cold and a piece of spacejunk just tore your roof down and now you're dead as well.
Sounds fun? Believe me, it is.
Which is the main point. RimWorld appears do be a survival game. But it is actually a story generator. And that is the major charme. Survival is optional, the main goal is going nuts and having fun while eating your neighbors. Of course only after you sold their organs. Or maybe you are a more peacefull tribe, enjoying the plantlife. Smoking it. And trying to survive the onslaught of those rabbid raiders by fleeing and starting a new settlement in the swamp. Just to be murdered by man-eating chinchillas.
Okay, start again, maybe this time you could load up some mods - there's plenty! - and start a colony of bunny people, or insect folks who like to eat humans, oh hey why don't add on the psychology part of the game, and while we're at it, some new furniture would be nice, oooh wow is that a mod that adds dinosaurs - why does the game take 10 minutes to load, i only have 233 mod- oh.
Yes, that is a major point why I play this game like a madman. MODS. So many things. So much to try, to build, to care for, RimWorld is a great base to build on! Of course, the game itself is cool and charming and full of lovingly stupid people who eat other people.
But the mods! Excuse me, I need to sort my loadorder or else the whole thing will break down.

It is hard to compare this game to others, mostly because it was already around when the term MMO had been shaped, and its influence on the further development of this type of game can't be denied. You might find things that other online games did better, and things that EQ2 did better than stuff that came later.

Nice things first.
It is a rather charming game, despite the old graphics. Quests are plenty to have, and even if they tend to be get-this-kill-that, the writing and overall structure makes most of them unique. The world is vast and zones are diverse, there’s hidden places and nice details all over. You can spend hours roaming the landscapes, solving quests and exploring caves or ruins, or, if you are brave, enter a dungeon. These come in two versions: Public ones, and more difficult instances which tend to contain boss monsters.
Another thing that I personally like are the different races. Despite being more or less cosmetic in nature, each one has a unique feel and history to explore, and the NPCs you meet will all add to the feeling you get for each of the species, playable or not. With so many races to chose from, one tends to overlook that each race has only a hand full of customization options like hair, horns, or so. From a roleplaying perspective, having so much variety is awesome, even more so since the races EverQuest offers are not only humans with strange ears, but truly something different. You can be a valorous frog, an ugly troll, a dwarf, a vampire, some dragon-human-hybrid, or a ratman. And not only that! Even when you start as an “evil” race like, you have the option to betray your faction and switch sides. That is really something I’d wish all faction-based games would offer (yes I am looking at you, WoW).
Next thing: Houses! There are many different housings available, each city has different options, cheap or pricy, big or cozy. You can clutter your home with stuff of all kind, many quests reward you with furniture, but you can also craft it yourself, if you chose to become a carpenter. You can even allow other people to visit your home, or stuff it full of pets. Your choice!
The classes EQ2 offers are varied, which ensures that most types of players will find something that matches their preference, both in play style and aesthetics. They are sorted into four archetypes: Mages, Priests, Scouts, and Fighters, which all have several subtypes. Most of these come in two versions. For example, you can chose to become a classical wizard, wielding frost and fire, or you can be the darker counterpart of the wizard, a warlock, which fills the same roll, but uses dark magic like curses and poison. All races can become any class, and even if some start out to be better mages or fighters than others, these advantages will smooth down over time. Still, some classes are alignment-locked. A necromancer can only be evil, while its counterpart, the conjurer, can only be good.
The game offers mercenaries, hired NPCs with a hand full of abilities borrowed from a player class. They will level with you, fight for you, can be trained and equiped to become better. When you play alone, these are very handy. Sadly, they are premade, so you have to take what you get, even if you don’t want a human paladin. Choices are rather slim, and while you will find all classes and roles present, you will probably never get what you really want.


These are, so far, the most notable things I like on the game.
Now to the not-so-great things.


One thing you should be aware:
EverQuest II is an old game. Most of the players are old. Since me beginning to play in June 2020, I didn't find a single one who hadn't been playing for years, some are there since the very beginning. Unfortunately, the game is not beginner-friendly. My guess is, that the developers could only chose between keeping the already low number of veteran players, or trying to attract new ones. They decided for the first way. The game is extremely complex, has many numbers, mechanics, tricks, shortcuts, and almost nothing is explained. Without help from a senior player, you are hopelessly lost. Newbies are very rare, and most veterans focus on their main character, and maybe two or three alts, to cover the crafting. Low-level regions are empty. You will not find a group for dungeons. The players still active usually grind through high-end stuff, and honestly, most loot my guild mates are after don’t make any sense to me, since I still have my problems understanding end-game mechanics, and them numbers are already so high that I fail to recognize the different. One weapon does 123,239.29 damage, the other 123,329.29, which one is better? I don’t even know if these numbers are an actual representation of high-end stuff. My brain just sees “big number” and “another big number”. Which is bad, since you need these numbers. The main goal is to raises your stats. That’s basically all this game is about, sadly. Numbers. Stats. It has so much lore, which is nowhere to be seen. The guides and wikis only cover strategies, if at all. Players I met often don’t even care about stories. No, it’s stats. Always. Get the best, have the best, be the best. People sit on their mounts all the time, because they give buffs. Better mounts equal better buffs. And don’t think about buying something. While there is some sort of marketplace called the broker, the prices are insane, and almost all interesting items are not tradeable.
Which brings me to the major point for my thumbs down.
Getting somewhere in this game more or less requires that you have access to rare loot, or something that was a goody ages ago. Mounts, mercenaries, even some mechanics like reforging (I don’t know what this is supposed to do but it seems to be important!). These things were either pre-order rewards for earlier expansions, or part of collectors editions and so on. Weren’t around in 2011 when something nice was available? Too bad, you will never get it. Yes, the basic expansions are all included in the free-to-play version, you only have to buy the latest addon. That is nice, really, but please, let me get older stuff as well! Yes, you can go on without these things. A portion is really just prestige. Some others, like mounts, are not, since what you can get ingame is far from what people who own some collectors edition have. Sure, it was supposed to be a goody. A reward for being a year-long veteran player who preordered all of the deluxe editions.
If you are not, don’t dare setting a foot into high-level content, you will need infused fabled super-rare stuff trice reforged, not to talk about some legendary mount trained to the max and that mercenary that is a reward for 10 years of playing. Yes, some things I mentioned are available at the ingame store for real money. Many things are not. I do understand why most players focus on a single character: Going through the process to get all the things necessary to be a decent player is a pain, if not outright impossible.

For a game that offer so many interesting things to try and play, this approach is an absolute no-go, and the reason that I won’t recommend anyone starting this. You will need much, much time, and money. But even then, you will not be able to get all this game has to offer. You, like me, simply came too late.

ISO's Crystal Isles is probably one of the most enchanting mod maps. It offers you a great varity of biomes, including those we know from the island as well as a desert from SE. But what makes this map so interesting are those regions that you won't find anywhere else: white beaches with lush tropical palm forests. Dense jungles, exotic flowers, an entire forest made of pink blossoms, fiery mangroves, and of course, the namesake: Huge glowing crystals everywhere. The landscape is a wonder to behold, rich in details and nice, hidden places.
What you won't find, however, are extended dungeons or caves. There are some, but not exactly comparable to what you'll find on the Island, or on Ragnarök. But given the fact that there is an entire island full of danger, you probably won't run out of stuff to kill. And making your way through deep oceans, floating island, burning lava, gloomy cinder forests, or a dangerous bog can be as exciting as spelunking through caves.

That much said, there are, unfortunately, some points where the "official" versions greatly differs from the original mod.
I will give you a brief summary of what you can expect:

The original map has been finished, the sections which are empty on the mod map are done. They changed some propperties, however, the redwood is de-snowed, and the murderous dune part of the desert somehow smaller and less murderous (I so far havn't seen any dead worms). Some parts seem to be smaller. I am not sure if this is true, or just feels like it since there's a lot of new clutter.
The wyvern trench in the desert is gone.
Yes you read that right, no more ordinary wyverns. There seem to be some things called "heir" to the crystal wyvern, which seem to fill the same roll as ordinary wyverns, but they don't spawn eggs. Great, huh? That also means modded wyvern won't spawn as well.
What is definetly gone are Rock Drakes.
Again, I don't joke. In fact I don't know if any creatures from Abberation make an appearance, so far I havn't seen any. Same seems to be true for those from Extiction. I don't know what the reason for that might be, they probably wanted to prevent that you could play with the dinos without owning the dlc. If that is true, they could have, at least, removed the nests as well. There is a huge portion under the floating island which used to be or was supposed to be the Rock Drakes breeding grounds. Still has alcoves in which you would find the eggs. The place is still pretty, but now completly empty. Not even replacement spawns.

As sad as this might be, what I think is far more important is the fact that they also removed content that was original and bound to ISOs mod.
The Eldritch Isle had its spooky dinos removed, so no more liquified skeletons for anyone. The special phoenixes are gone, and the ant dungeon which was basically finished in the mod version had been removed entirely, as well as the ant hills you could find here and there. The Crystal Wyverns are still there, all three types even, but they are far from being as common as in the mod. Embers seem to spawn at a single floating island, and I have found only one Bloodstone so far. The unique crystals you could gather in order to feed the wyverns are gone. They'll eat normal crystals now, which makes it a pain to tame them. Luckily, they did not change much about their stats, so they are still great flyers. And they are as pretty as ever.


There is more I could say, but these are the major points. So, if you, like me, expected a 'finished' version of ISO's original map, then you'll be a little bit disappointed.
I don't want to say that this makes the dlc outright "bad". It is still a very beautifull, and challenging map.

Still, it feels like you ordered champagne, and got ginger ale. Looks alike, but doesn't feel alike.

I have been watching this game grow from its humble roots on Kickstarter into something I could warmely recommend to anyone who loves town building games.

Stonehearth drops a hand full of townies - called hearthlings - in the middle of nowhere to start a new settlement. Your job as the invisible leader is to make sure your somewhat goofy subjects prosper by sending them out to harvest wood, stone, and ore, which need to be turned into buildings, furniture, and ultimatley, tools and weapons. While there are classes like carpenters or trappers, who all need specific tools that need to be crafted or bought, the system of working is rather fluent. If the carpenter hasn't anything to do, they may help building houses. If the trapper comes along a wood log, they just take it with them to the next drop off zone. The houses you build can be a premade blueprint, or you can design them by yourself using the easy to understand ingame editor. When you are happy with what you made, it even allows you to save, and share, the blueprint.
Perhaps it is this opennes that makes Stonehearth stand out from other games of its type. This, and its approach on micromanagement. The groundwork has to be laid out by you. You tell them what to build, you say which hearthling gets the magically sparkling saw to become a carpenter, you define which sort of food has to be kept in stock and by which amount. But once things are set, they run smoothly without your help. Sure, you can always interfere, maybe because you finally bought those corn seeds and now your subjects may enjoy corn bread - the system will easily adapt to your changes, and keep running.
The bad side about this may be that Stonehearth will never become a true "city builder". The ammount of managment necessary to run a town of hundreds of people would be to much for both the system to handle and the player to overlook.

Alas, life is not always tranquil, and you may run into hostiles. While there are random encounters, Stonehearth has some sort of storyline which lets you fight increasingly difficult foes. This story, while entertaining, is not too important, so you are perfectly fine turning it off alltogether, if you wish to just build something.
The fighting itself is not complicated. Granted that you actually have some soldiers, they may automatically attack any hostile that draws too close, but you also can order them by yourself. Handy: You can sort your armed hearthlings into different groups, each with its own commando flag, so you could order your archers to stay a little bit further away while your knights (tanks) and your footmen (dps) keep the goblins and orcs and undead busy. Alltogether, fighting is not that important. And again, this is a nice approach, given the fact that most games of this sort are solely aimed at warfar.
Again, this limits the game to skirmishes between just a handfull of people. Huge set wars with large squads are nothing you will encounter in Stonehearth, and the strategic factor is minimal.

The more pleasant side of Stonehearth is, in fact, the building mode. You can litter your town with decorative objects, which may make your hearthlings happy, depending on their personal taste. Yes, some newer updates turned your once faceless subjects into actuall people, allowing them to make friends, to discuss about carrots, and to hate that cute bunny dolly you put into their home. While their likes and dislikes don't have that much of an impact on their performance, it encourages you to keep an eye on the layout of your buildings, avoid cramped spaces or make up for them by placing nice furniture. The overall mood of your people is easy to see: If they bounce around happily, then you did a good job. If they skulk from job to bed, and their talks show only blue speechbubbles, you may think about changing something.
A thing that I personally was hoping for is still missing (and may never become true): Family and Society. Having a Queen or Lord in charge who won't touch a tool themselves is always something I personally like, but that's just me. And despite the new changes that turn hearthlings in people, they still are all the same - to you, and to each other. While they cry when a 'friend' dies, they do not show any attitude to spend more time with said friend. Or founding family.

Last but not least the most awesome thing about this game:
Development.
It all started with twins dreaming about making a game. Today, Radiant Entertainment is an actual company, a bunch of people work on Stonehearth right now, but it never lost this feeling of closenes that I love so much about indie games, and Stonehearth in particular. They stay in touch. They look at your problems, but also enjoy the things players made. They even use mods made by players - both for fun (because a devoloper should love and enjoy their own game!), and to maybe learn a thing or two (because they are willing to admit that they are permanently learning and won't put themselves on a pedestal). You will hardly find a team of developers so close to their fanbase.
Want an example? I once posted in the forums that I would like to have a tile counter - showing you how large the floor you are laying out will be - and guess what. Next patch had it in.
Alltogether, development coulnd't be better. Radiant is open, they keep you informed thanks to their weekly desktop tuesday, updates are somewhat regular, and the stuff you get in them is quality, definitely improving your game play. And on top of that: They really love what they are doing. And you will see this love in every little detail this game has to offer.


Facit: If you want a cute little game that is made by a great team, easy to learn, and adorable to play, then Stonehearth might be your thing!

This feels like Paradox tried to react on the 'slightly' negative respond for their latest... well, let's call it 'experiment', by offering some things to do that are not outrightly aimed at destruction and stellar chess on magically star roads. I still hope they may all choke on these hyperlame buggery.

To sum it up: You may find a cosmical wizard portal thing that will lead you to a far away cluster of stars. Thanks to stupid hopperblames, you'll die of old age before you reach this. And even when you manage to get there: It's just stars. Maybe some fancy uselesse strategic resource. Ooh, Aaah. Wow. And - you won't believe it! - FINALLY binary star systems. Like mondern science is certain that most actual star systems are made of multiple stars - seems like this piece of information took a while get all the way to Stockholm, huh?
On top of this, you'll get more annomalies to skip trough and some shiny space organism to roast. Yeah.


This is a failed try to get some of the dropped out players back. And nothing else.
Really, there are free, player created mods out there that offer you ten times as much content as this thingy here. At leasts it's not another twenty bucks.