Life is Feudal: Forest Village

Life is Feudal: Forest Village for PC is an independent strategy game created by Mindillusion. The game was based on Life is Feudal - a title created by Bitbox and released a year earlier. Similar to other city builder games, the player is in charge of a new settlement here. However, this title is distinguished by its setting, because the player takes responsibility for a medieval village that has to cope with issues typical for that historical period.

Mechanics

At first, the player chooses a suitable place to establish a settlement. The player can reshape terrain to their liking, affecting its topography in so doing as well. Initially, the player controls only a small group of refugees. who appeared on an unknown island. Not only do they have to obtain food here, but also create new, more effective tools, or construct more and more versatile buildings. As a result, simple chalets gradually get replaced with sophisticated buildings; quers on the other hand are replaced by huge mills over time. Furthermore, the player can work on mending the roads in order to make all production-related processes faster.

However, the player is not here only to reflect on the effects of work done by their peasants. Notably, the game places an emphasis on survival-related aspects – the player is required to cope with the consequences of catastrophies which caused massive population decreases in the Middle Ages. If the player does not manage to give good winter clothing to their villagers, or is unable to balance their diet appropriately, different illnesses will cause more deaths among the villagers. Therefore, cultivating different kinds of plants and storage are the key to success here. Bread, fruit and meat were all included. Nonetheless the player's village can still fall victim to ecological disasters, such as tornados (when passing nearby, it destroys most of buildings easily); a striking thunder can lead to a fast-spreading fire on the other hand. Apart from that, an entire ecosystem is affected by the player's actions - woodcutters scare-off certain animals when working for example; the villagers' cattle can become a target of predators, such as wolves. Problems the village encounters affect the inhabitants' spirit, which results in a decrease in their productivity.

Interestingly, Life is Feudal: Forest Village for PC is not played from a fixed camera view. For the most part, the player observes the game world from an isometric view, but whenever they want to accompany one of their subordinates in their daily routine, they can switch to a first-person perspective.

Technical aspects

Life is Feudal: Forest Village for PC offers a three-dimensional envrionment. The visuals are colorful and filled with details - vegetation surrounding the player's settlement and buildings as such both make a great impression. The player is capable of observing particular elements of buildings when those are being constructed. The experience is complemented by an atmospheric soundtrack created specifically for the game.

Last updated on September 13, 2016