Recent reviews by Tom Nook In Prison

Updating this review to say the 5v5 mode is much better. If they fix the performance, and keep up interesting content updates this game really has a chance.

Cannot stress how crucial the performance fixes are though.

Great news, the game everyone insists is good really is good.

This game is about to blow up Palworld style. This feels like playing The Sims 7 in 2034.

The ultimate Halloween game.

Been awhile since I felt this mixed on a game. Great idea. So much potential. If you see more positive reviews and it looks like you might like it. Give it a shot.

For me, there were just enough design choices I didn't mesh with to kill the experience for me:

Not a fan of the forced left to right movement.

Limitations on what can input to what, and how the connector has that bezier curve, makes it so I'm forced to build in this very linear style that feels arbitrary and gets rid of my ability to add any sort of creativity or self expression to what I'm building.

Might just be bad luck, but I had back to back runs on generated terrain where big rock blocks just made my run stupid difficult just far enough into the run to make it annoying.

All of this kinda just comes back to the feeling in Unreal or any software I'm used to using nodes, it's actually pretty forgiving on what connects to what and the positioning of those elements. Here I feel like I'm just fighting the auto bezier over terrain. I would love for that difficulty to be traded for an experience where I can build my own unique resource empire.

I sincerely think a pen tool for the connector would fix all of my qualms.

This game is going to blow up. Happy I can say I played it before it was cool.

I would take most reviews here with a grain of salt until the game has been out for at least a week. I see a lot of criticisms that are either based in typical launch day technical issues or mechanics there's no possible way we have a full grasp on yet. 4X communities are typically incredibly harsh to new releases because there are alternatives that have been out for years with multiple expansions.

So far I'm impressed by...

- Different take on early game. Starting as nomads, connecting smaller outposts to a larger city to build territory.

- Era progression being tied to your progress in pretty much any avenue you choose. Allowing for a playthrough with multiple focuses. (You win by having the most fame. Fame is a reward for completing milestones or challenges in various categories.)

- Art/UI Data is conveyed in a legible manner. Something I was worried about because a lot of detractors of the game seem to rip on it's UI. I agree it has the same simple & empty feeling of previous endless games, but it is very efficient and easy on the eyes.

- Combat system being (at the very least) slightly more in-depth than Civ

Outside of that I'm seeing that the AI might be stale like early reviewers have alluded to, the avatars look absolutely awful, and a lot of choices (at least in the early game) seem to lack impact. Will come back after a few weeks for an updated review.

I downloaded this on a whim and spent an hour straight playing. Good game.

Concise Review #1: Minecraft meets Runescape with a slight aesthetic influence from Breath of the Wild.

Concise Review #2: I usually don't like online survival games, they're typically buggy, mechanically unsatisfying, and full of grievers. Valheim thoughtfully plays against those pitfalls and results in a grand open world with enough freedom to feel like you're actually growing & shaping your own little world.

The ultimate city builder. It almost makes the failure of SimCity (2013) worth it.