I fashion myself as something of a survival sim enthusiast. I might even go so far as to call myself a burgeoning aficionado of survival sim games. So I’m willing to sample just about anything in the genre, from fully fleshed-out titles to Early Access dreck that will most likely not blossom past the early stages of development. So it’s always a pleasant surprise when I stumble upon something new in the survival genre, and it’s an added bonus when that something also turns out to be a really solid game.
Enter Medieval Dynasty.
Developed by Render Cube and published by Toplitz Productions (who also published Farmer’s Dynasty and Lumberjack’s Dynasty), Medieval Dynasty tasks you with not only surviving in a medieval open-world environment (with all of the stat meters and crafting you’d expect), but it also gives you the opportunity to actually build and develop your own community.
The game’s world is comprised of several pre-established towns and villages, one of which recognizes your lineage and offers you the right to set up shop on as much land as you see fit. From there, you simply learn the ropes, cut the trees, and craft to your heart’s content. You can either go the communal route and make your own township (which seems like the endgame goal), or you can simply make a shack and explore your days away, building your own personal empire as you go.
The real kicker here — and this is something that I personally find is lacking from most other survival sims — is that Medieval Dynasty actually has a leveling system quite similar to games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The more you do certain tasks, the more you become proficient in that skill, or the more you unlock further crafting items and options. For example, if you kill enough animals, you can build a hunting lodge. Farming is also an option if you prefer to live out your days without the stain of animal blood on your hands (and conscious).
You can also meet, woo, and wed yourself a wife (you are a male character by default with no apparent delineation). You can also have a child or two should you so choose.
There are quests and quest givers, but these systems are still relatively rudimentary, as the game is still in Early Access (yet still very polished). There are definitely skills that are not yet implemented, and the crafting options are still being tweaked, with new items or options added as development persists.
The survival demands are not nearly as stringent as many of the other survival-based games out there, which makes the bar of entry not nearly as high as even a game like The Long Dark. For example, you only need to drink water from a stream to replenish your meter without worrying about boiling it or getting sick as a result. But this more relaxed design gives the player more freedom to enjoy all of the positive aspects of this game. The seasons change after only three days, which is by far the oddest design choice in the game, but after a year like 2020, that might not feel like such a bad thing.
If you enjoy crafting/survival sims and haven’t checked Medieval Dynasty out yet, I’d say it’s definitely worth a gander. I would only caution that the other Dynasty games released by Toplitz never quite made it out of Early Access, and support for them seems to have. So, take any promises of future development with a grain of salt.
Medieval Dynasty is currently in Early Access on Steam. You can check out the Early Access launch trailer below.
