First off I would like to thank Stray Fawn studio for the code to review this awesome game lets get started.

The Wandering Village is a city-building simulation game on the back of a giant, wandering creature. Build your settlement and form a symbiotic relationship with the colossus. Will you survive together in this hostile, yet beautiful post-apocalyptic world, contaminated by poisonous plants? This is the synopsis the steam page has for this game but it is so much more.

My first play through I did on easy mainly because I wanted to grasp as much of the game as I could and thankfully the tutorial also helps you learn the basics of the game to get you started but then the game stops holding your hand and releases you like a momma bird pushing you out the nest except this nest is a world ready to ruin you every step of the way. The survival aspect is very well done and if you’re not paying attention and staying ahead of the curve it can and will cost you.

As soon as the game starts you see your people traversing the land in hopes of finding a new home until they come across a majestic marvel of a creature called an Onbu, this wonderful creature is the last of his kind, a dinosaur that travels the land in search of… well honestly I dont know what our friend is searching for but he is one awesome take to add to the city building games. So your people climb aboard him and make him their new home as his flat back is the perfect place to start a village. Now I must say my people survived 105 days before disaster took them all.

The next thing you will notice is the map consist of different biomes from grassy plains to harsh deserts to toxic lands. Those are the only ones I saw in my game I’m sure there’s many more biomes that I didn’t find or are yet to be added but I can’t wait since the biomes make up a huge portion of the challenge to the game. The the deserts harsh sunlight dries up your water and makes it harder for any crops to grow, toxic lands add a poison effect that will hurt Onbu if he lays down on them grassy lands are prefered as they offer the most balance to the village so you can grow crops and gain water to help plant more things.

The village also has a vast variety of jobs to keep it functioning and you would think you could do with out one but the devs have made sure one job helps out another job and so forth. A great example is the decomtaminators. They are special workers whose only job is to cure the ground of any and all toxic plants and keep them from spreading but the workers will fall into a poison state from working which is where the herbalist and doctors come into play as you use the herbs to cure poison so making sure you have herbs is definitely a must. Then you have worker huts which you use to assign the workers to be general workers or to specifically be gatherers, builders, havesters, or carriers so paying attention to each job will help maximize the environment around them.

The map is another place where you will spend some time on as you unlock scavengers to send off to find knowledge or materials to help your people as well as paying attention to the path to see what is ahead to help you prepare as best as you can. The map is also where you will find wandering nomads to add more people to your village but they will also come with their own problems such as hunger or poisoning so be mindful of the people you save they may need more saving than just a new home.

The game has a lot of amazing things going on for it and it’s truly a breath of fresh air to the city building genre but I did find a few things that I felt could use improvment or be added into the game which I’ll discuss below.

The first is adding a trust indicator for the Onbu. You see you’re able to direct the Onbu or give him orders but in order for that to happen you must gain his trust but the game offers no visual indication of trust so that you can tell how well things are going. For me my Onbu didn’t start listening till day 101 which was a bummer as all the biomes around me were harsh so I didn’t have many options direction wise. Thankfully I got him to run through some of the poison clouds to not get too affected.

Another one I would like to see added is maybe an end goal, some sacred place where the Onbu can rest forever and we can live in peace. I didn’t find any clues or paths during my travels just aimless wandering which I’m sure the devs have an endgame goal in site but for now there’s nothing that points that way.

One that I would love to see is maybe different Onbus during the start of every new game, a random Onbu is shown and that’s your new home. I’m sure this could be a possibility but for now Ima say it’s just a wish I have to see added later on.

I would like a mini map in my opinion. It would help so you’re not in the huge map so much. I would also like to see a bigger map option that shows all the paths you have traveled to get a better idea of where you have been.

I would like to know what type of land expansion they plan on adding or if they are gonna ask players what they would like to see added cause I personally would like to see a water biome in the game, seeing the Onbu walking through water would be cool.

The game also uses a research tree that helps you unlock the buildings as well as new orders for the Onbu to hopefully listen to. I i hope they add a lot more buildings considering there’s so much to do and unlock. I can’t wait to see what they add next.

As for endgame I feel this set up offers a massive amount of possibilities so I’m hopeful that the end game will be talked about in the weeks to come.

All in all the wandering village is an amazing city building sim that adds new flavors to the recipe of a basic genre and I for one can’t wait to see what becomes of this game and I highly recommend everyone give it a shot, you just might fall in love like I did. Thank you again to Stray Fawn studios for the review code. Thank you all for stopping by, take care and game on.