Collecting logs and eating meat medieval style.
QUEST LOG #6: MEDIEVAL DYNASTY
First things first, these thoughts are based on the game as it was at the time of writing. Medieval Dynasty is still receiving updates, so whatever gripes I might have may well change. Anyway, now that’s out of the way, let us begin our adventure!
I became aware of this game quite some time ago and its features (or promised features at the time) caught my eye and captured my imagination. I have always been a fan of city builders and management games, and the era was of interest to me too. Good stuff then! Well, being my typical cheap self, I just added it to my Steam library and waited. That wait ended this summer in the 2023 Steam sale and I picked up the game for a mere £17.54. Not the cheapest, but not bad for something that has intrigued me for so long. After installing and booting up, I was met with the usual. New game, load, options… I decided to leave the options to their defaults and just get started. New game begins. The intro cinematic is more akin to a PowerPoint presentation, however what struck me most was the artwork and the voice over. The art really captures the tone of the game, and the voice work is surprisingly decent. This brief introduction ends after detailing the unfortunate string of events that ruined the protagonist’s life and you enter the game in his shoes a moment later to find yourself in a serene and leafy environment. The sun is streaming through the treetops and a gravel path leads through the woods. I follow this and as I snoop about, I realise that the floor is littered with sticks, rocks, and weeds. I immediately get to work picking these up and I wonder to myself what it would be like to be able to perform such activities in the real world, knowing that picking up one rock would render my real back useless. No back pain in game however, and I fill my pockets with all the crap I can find, knowing I’ll likely need it later. After a few minutes of being bent double, it turns out that I managed to traverse the woods just by gazing at the floor and as I look up, I am greeted by a beautiful vista.
As I looked into the valley below, the small village there, and the colour palette of summer, I was immediately reminded of TES:Oblivion. Even the music shares some similarities to that of Jeremy Soule’s Elder Scrolls soundtrack, creating a comparable ambiance. The trees, the grass, the sky… the vacant expressions on the villagers of Gostovia. That’s the first place we come to, Gostovia, and like I say, a pretty vacant population. Not quite on the same level as an Elder Scrolls game, but not far off, and a recycling of voice actors definitely occurs here too. Like the world around them however, the villagers are modelled well, and as I took in the sights of the village, I was impressed by the realism of it all. The buildings, the tools, the odd and sods. It’s all rendered very well. After having a bit of a browse, I go and find a man called Uniegost, as the quest tracker dictates. He then suggests that I find the barmaid for some beer and go about the wilderness collecting sticks and stones. AH! One step ahead of you Uniegost, I thought to myself, I can immediately craft my axe and went about the rest of the quest, which was to chop down some trees, collect some straw, and build my house! After navigating the user interface to craft an axe, my character (who is called Racimir, apparently) started twiddling his thumbs together for a few seconds. Et viola! An axe! Chop some trees, collect the straw and before heading out to find a good spot to plonk a house down, I remember to visit the tavern. The woman there gives me a couple of beers and I decide to keep them for myself and to tackle Uniegost’s other quest later. Before I left for the wilderness, I tried to romance the barmaid, but apparently, she was married (possibly to Uniegost). Oh well.
Leaving the village, I decided to make a few more tools and to collect a few other bits and pieces, crafting myself, amongst other things, a lovely spear. This apparently is always held out aggressively and so I charged through the woods as if my masters whip was upon me and after a few minutes I found what I thought was a decent spot to start. There was a crossroad, a signpost, and a little bridge crossing the water. Idyllic. Or at least it was until I began chopping down every tree in sight. I recently saw a news article about how in Japan, when a tree is in the way, they carefully dig around the roots, wrapping them in fabric and with the upmost respect relocate the entire tree. Not so here, the game is counter to that philosophy. All trees that are in my way are a target, and as Saruman would say…
He would have been awfully proud of me. Anyway, by the time I had finished all that, the day was almost spent, and night was fast approaching. Now what? Well, I made a wicker basket to hide some of my sticks and weeds in, and I got to work on making a campfire, setting it up just off the road. Once it was lit, I got some kip and awoke a moment later to a new day, and a starkly lit scene.
After clearing a little more ground, I navigated the user interface once more and selected the small house before placing down the apparition of a foundation. Perhaps it was a Jedi in a previous life? Either way, I then realised that I must have missed something obvious, because I didn’t know how to actually build the damn thing. As my character stood there gormlessly, I looked over the skill trees that the game incorporates, the technologies that can eventually be unlocked, and the knowledge tab. There in the latter, I learned that the hammer was required! I should have known really, all those hours in Age of Empires over the years… the villagers in that just whack things with hammers and they create wonders! Anyway, after clearing that up and making a hammer, I realised that I didn’t have enough stone. Cue a pickaxe. There were plenty of stone deposits on the opposite side of the river, and loads of loose rocks laying about too, so I managed to collect what was required in relatively short order. All the picking got my character pretty hungry, and bloody hell, this bloke needs a water ASAP! I waded into the nearby body of water and slurped up the good stuff while also stuffing my face with some bread (which I think came from the barmaid along with the beer). After my life signs returned to normal, I turn my attention back to the building process. Bonk the foundations, get foundations, bonk the floor, get a floor, bonk the framework, get a framework, bonk the walls, get some walls, bonk the roof, have a roof. This simple process, as you can tell, requires a lot of bonking of the hammer. It also requires and an inordinate amount of tooing and throwing in order to collect enough resources and overlooking the rather repetitive nature of the game so far, my biggest gripe is with the carry limit. I’m alright with the realism factor, but could we not forego it here? Even just a little? You can’t carry much, and even with spending some points in the Mule skill, or getting a backpack, you’ll eventually be frustratedly overloaded… Perhaps not the biggest concern, as despite the work involved, as I hammered away, the birds tweeting in the distance and the gentle period appropriate music playing created a lovely atmosphere, and I began to relax into the groove of being a hardworking peasant (without all the horrors that would entail). As the wooden log frame of the structure silhouetted against the sun, I felt like one of those wilderness house builders on YouTube, and I already had a bad back from a day at work, so the simulation was incredibly realistic.
After a little while, my first structure was complete, and I was a homeowner! Far easier than in real life… After looking up at it for a bit, I approached the door and was met with confusion again. What button opens the door? If your face is a button, that’s the button. I love that you just walk into it, and you push it open automatically. Why don’t more games include this feature? Pressing anything to open a door is a total waste of time – I’ve got trees to kill for goodness’ sake! The inside of the house was a little drab, so I immediately turned about and left again – I’ll just be using it to sleep for now I think. As I stepped out, I spotted a rabbit bounce past, and I thought it an excellent excuse to both craft and use a knife! Fast bastards those things, my character almost had a blackout trying to catch up to it. In a world without Ventolin, getting puffed out is a real concern. No virtual asthma attacks thankfully, and as I swung my knife wildly at the little creature, I heard a high-pitched squeak and it fell limply to the ground a moment later. Dead. My barbaric character immediately began to skin the thing and along with some rather squelchy sounds, I was rewarded with a bit of meat. Back home to cook my Coney, no taters though… (I will not apologise for the continuing Lord of the Rings references).
After chowing down, I entered the house again and had the lovely choice of a single or double bed to sleep in. No wife or child yet, so I can windmill to my hearts content in the double. A lovely night’s sleep – unfortunately I awoke to find that it was a terribly miserable and foggy day, and what does one do on a foggy way? Build a well, of course! This got my character peckish again and after constructing the well, I got to foraging in the nearby berry bushes. I collected a rather impressive 142 of the little juicy fellows only to realise they were unripe and 26% poisonous. I suppose I’ll hunt some more rabbits instead. After stocking up, I got to work building a hunting lodge and a resource hut to acquire more meat and to store my ever-growing supply of twigs. This brought my character dangerously close to starving, so I ate 2kg of meat. Satisfaction guaranteed. Guarantee invalid – I got poisoned quite badly. I know I should have cooked it, but… effort. Back on the knowledge tab and I find out that I need a weed called St John’s Wort. After collecting a load of this and curing my aliments, I got to work chopping down trees again, and this is where I had my first real accident. Apparently, no one yelled timber in this world, as I was unaware of a tree falling directly onto me. The trunk sort of bounced awkwardly off my head and I fell limply to the ground, only to stand up again a moment later. Dodged death there, I’m sure. Back to wood collecting as though nothing happened, and after a tad more building it got dark once more and I needed to sleep. Our first season complete!
Upon waking, I decided to do a little more building and after a while I got tired of that and made for the nearby village again in an attempt to complete the quests of helping my neighbours and to flirt with someone. Easy enough? I went to the campfire to find someone who might be wife material, but accidentally recruited her and her mate to my village by mistake. I suppose following a strange man into the wilderness to become the first citizens of his not-quite-a-village-yet-village is the done thing in Gostovia. Unfortunately, after inviting these women I realised that I had reached my building limit and was unable to construct more houses… bugger. Full steam ahead with the quests then in the hopes of unlocking more slots! There was no one in need of help in Gostovia so a woman in the village told me to travel to Baranica for needy neighbours. After a long walk north-west I arrived to find all the villagers silently sat in a circle. It was as though they had all been gossiping about me and stopped just as I got within earshot. The upstart who only invites women to his village and makes them miserable with a lack of free housing, they say…
Looking about I find someone who needs something doing – I’m on the clock as these now homeless women in my village are getting ever more miserable by the minute. Shit village they’ll be thinking! Oh no… I better hurry up and collet logs for this dope in Branica and hunt some game for another lazybones. Phew, hard work doing all these chores for people, but I do benefit eventually. A point to spend on the Mule perk – I can now carry marginally more logs! I continued my hunting for a little longer, and by golly the rabbits really do squeak upon death. First time it was funny, now it’s kind of sad. Doesn’t stop me though, I need the meat! Further into the gloomy woods I trekked, and as I found myself in the middle of nowhere, the music seemed to shift, becoming a little more intense. If there were perhaps some horror elements to the game, it could have been shit-your-pants-o’clock. Nothing of the sort as far as I can tell though, it was just really quite dark. I decided then to set up camp, chug a few ales, and lay down on the forest floor until morning. Up nice and early to hear some more rabbits squeak their last. All this was to maintain my new villagers, but as I hunted, I was notified that my women had decided to abandon me. No stress anymore I suppose, although I do wonder if my romance percentages with them will remain…? As I pondered my one-villager-village situation, a fucking boar came hurtling out from behind some trees and started tusking me. This, along with a couple of wolves and a fox a bit later and I almost died! I didn’t though, so a celebration BBQ was in order and my character ate a healthy 6kg of meat, then over 6kg of berries, which, according to the status bar, was equivalent to about 1 cup of water. So, a nice healthy diet then. After that ordeal, I ran to the nearest village, sold all the crap I had accumulated on my travels and then ran home to build some more things (having unlocked some much-needed slots).
Unfortunately, I had another tree on head situation and this time I died. This is a gentle reminder to save your game often. I had to rebuild a bunch of stuff and of course, cut down a load more trees to get back to where I was. After recovering from this little set back and getting a couple of lovely vacant houses ready, I returned to the nearby village once more in the search for new settlers. Uniegost tried to tell me about a murder that had taken place, but I ignored that – I’ve got villagers to poach! Finding the right people took a little while, but eventually I had a good crowd of folks, and after equipping their buildings with tools, they got to work. No warning messages came up, so I must have done something right for once! The villagers that I gathered wandered about doing their thing, and as I watched them, I felt as though I was at an animatronic theme park, their interactions with my character (outside of directly talking to them) being near non-existent, and their interactions between themselves just as poor. Their animations when working aren’t too bad, however. They’ll sweep the floor, hammer an anvil, or sit on an log and eat a pear, but that is about the extent of it. More could definitely be done to bring life to the game. In other areas it is already pretty fleshed out however. The wildlife for example - there is plenty of it, and they populate the wilderness in a relatively realistic manner, but the people… that’s where the game is lacking in life.
Back to sleep I go, and I wake up to find that it has been snowing! Winter is upon us, and it’s here that I find out that keeping a torch on at all times is a requirement. There are various clothing options for keeping warm, but I hadn’t gotten around to making or buying any by that point, so fire was the only option. The survival mechanics of the game initially had me sighing. I am generally not a fan of these in games where you can get carried away with the creative aspects (building or crafting). If I’m enjoying one part of a game, I rarely want another to kill me off mid flow. The mechanics gel relatively well here though, they aren’t too intrusive, but as with the over-encumbrance, I’m not sure whether it adds anything to the game. Having said that, there are things in game to mitigate it, such as backpacks, the aforementioned perks, or mounts and saddlebags. Encumbrance along with many of the games features can be altered or entirely switched off in the options menu too, so if you find them a nuisance like I do, the game does have you covered.
As the winter wore on, I got to work building more structures, recruiting more villagers, and completing more quests, building up my dynasty reputation, and trying it on with one of the wenches I had rehomed. Eventually my constant barrage of annoying conversation and witless compliments got me a wife, and from there things led smoothly towards having my first child. The wife told me to meet her after 7pm at the house, and after doing so, the screen faded to black. What a romantic and love filled experience that was! You can buy gifts to speed the whole romancing process along, but they are really expensive. If you’re in no rush, just keep to the talking, it’s free (just like subscribing to the blog)! Another bonus of the wife-getting process is that you can free up a house slot for someone else, as she moves into your home when you get hitched. Practicality is a synonym for romance, I’m sure. After all that nonsense, I finally got to a point where my settlement was thriving, and no one wanted for anything, and the humble collection of structures I had constructed started to resemble a real village. The calm then was broken with a request from my wife to travel across the entire map to fetch her some fish soup… Bloody fish soup! The world map isn’t overly vast, but without having gotten a mount, or the money to travel by cart, it certainly feels big, and travelling by foot with a rapidly diminishing stamina bar certainly drains some of the fun out of the game. The quests in the game are quite basic, but decently written, and it isn’t the kind of game where you’d expect a strong story, but what has been included is welcome, and it does a lot to make the world feel richer, and to counter the rather empty environment.
In getting a bunch of quests done, teching up, unlocking a load more buildings and recipes, the seasons shifted, and my first child was eventually born! You get to pick from a huge list of names, and as I had a son, I thought Tomir was the most appropriate (he can rename the blog TYPEDBYTOMIR when he comes of age). The wife then transitions into mother mode, so I needed to recruit another water carrier. Off to poach again, but not before stocking up on some things to sell. After having gotten some production up and running, and having the stocks swell, I found that I had plenty to get rid of, and thus, plenty of money coming in. This as it turns out was rather timely and I was due to pay my taxes… perhaps the game is more realistic than I thought. I paid this off in the spring and continued to play the game, building new bits and bobs when I could, and generally managing my village. Unfortunately, this is where my interest started to wane. The building is great fun, and so is decorating the village with the various oddments you can construct, but the fiddly management of the villagers themselves started to grate on me. I wanted to focus on the aesthetic side of things, or the hunting, but I found myself babysitting my villagers more often than not. This might have been an issue with the way I had set things up rather than a fault in the game, but it was happening regardless, and it was becoming less and less fun as a result.
At this point, I decided to try starting a new game with a set of custom options. The game allows for a vast number of settings to be changed, and I was excited to tone down the survival aspects, focusing more on the creative side of things. In doing this, I found that I got a lot more mileage from the game, but eventually I became unstuck. I’m not sure if this game is for me or not. There are parts I love, and parts I just don’t really enjoy all that much. Seeing the seasons shift and my apple trees grow, seeing the slow expansion and shifting layout of my village change over time, watching as my villagers increase their skills as they perform their roles, and watching my heir toddle about, hunting in the wilderness, decorating my home… these are all delightful aspects of the game, and along with these come the beautiful details, the atmospheric music, and the gorgeous lighting. But these can only hold my interest for so long. I’m over 40 hours in, and perhaps that is enough? The game is still being updated, so there is definitely more to come, and during the time I have played, there are parts didn’t get to experience. I did eventually find a few bandits towards the end and even got myself a donkey to ride (which operates like a meat tank), but NPC shops, a tavern, and much of the crafting options still alluded me. I feel as though the game I’m looking for is perhaps a little more focused on the building, or on a wider view in the management aspects. I’ve enjoyed my time with Medieval Dynasty, but I’m not sure I’m going be living in my village much longer, not until there are maybe a few more updates and a little more content. In the mean time, I’ll let Tomir take over.
So, there we go, perhaps virtual Tony Robinson will dig up the site of my village one day and find the vast hoard of twigs that Tomir buried me with. Have you founded your own village in Medieval Dynasty? What did you make of the game? Like I said, there is a lot to enjoy with this game, but it only goes so far. What would you add, if you could?
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