Going Medieval Review

Have you ever wanted to run your own little medieval village, maybe build farms and defences, all while keeping an eye on your own little community? Well, if that is the case, then developer Foxy Voxel’s latest game, Going Medieval, could be the title for you. The question now is whether this is a community you want to build, or if it’s time to stay in the woods. 

First and foremost, Going Medieval doesn’t really have a plot that you need to follow. Instead, much like RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress, the story is one that you build. Will your tiny village grow into a massive town or fortress, or will it fade into the realm of myth and rumour? If you’re not a fan of making your own narrative, then there’s not a lot here to focus on, but if you like creating backstories for each villager, then you will be in luck.

Speaking of RimWorld, Going Medieval takes a lot of cues from that game in how it works, although it’s considerably less punishing. You start with a small number of resources and several villagers, all of whom have different skills and preferences. The aim is to build a liveable settlement, with food, shelter, and entertainment. You’ll be doing this by setting your villagers' tasks, be it collecting wood or building. The UI is simple enough to navigate; all you need to do is select the relevant toggle and then click and drag to select the items you want to gather or build. Once that’s done, your villagers will act out each task depending on the priorities you set for them.

Of course, just building things isn’t all that interesting, so Going Medieval also introduces raids that you will need to defend against with your villagers. The actual combat doesn’t really involve you all that much; all you’ll need to do is set your villagers in position and then wait. It can be a bit annoying when they constantly aim at the wrong person, but the AI tends to be pretty good in that regard, and on normal difficulty, none of the fights were too exhausting. 

However, the real challenge with these kinds of titles is making it so that the progression feels natural but isn’t so easy that there’s no real sense of challenge. For the most part, researching new types of buildings is simple enough, and you’ll naturally gain more villagers as you progress. The only real issue is that this is a very trial-and-error game. What I mean is that it’s easy to make a mistake in the early stages that end up being quite punishing later down the line. For instance, you may overfarm without planting enough crops for the winter, or focus too much on early building projects and overextend yourself. It’s not as bad as in other, similar games, but it’s still a challenge.

The biggest problem that I found through my playthroughs was that, as my communities got bigger, it got a lot harder to keep track of everything that was happening. Now, this makes a certain amount of sense, but at the same time, it stopped being as fun as it was when I had a smaller town filled with recognisable characters. Thankfully, it takes a while before you reach this point, so it’s not going to be a problem that you’ll have to face for a while. 

Going Medieval is a visually pretty game, with everything feeling natural while still being discernible at a glance. So, you’ll know what things you can harvest without having to randomly sweep your cursor around in a vague hope of spotting something. Meanwhile, the characters themselves are all noticeable enough that you can quickly select them without having to check if it’s the right person. 

Going Medieval is a fun little title that’s great to keep running in the background while you do other things or watch a movie. There are some disappointments, mainly that a lot of the wackiness seen in similar games is missing, and that the actual participation of the player soon becomes mundane as your villagers do what they need to. However, if you ever wanted to start your own village and survive through the trials and tribulations of the medieval period, then this could be for you.