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video game reviews

The Wandering Village: A cute casual village builder you need to try once

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I was sent The Wandering Village as a review code. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review.

The Wandering Village is a cute and casual village builder with beautiful art, interesting mechanics, and a solid soundtrack. This game easily became one of my favorites due to its casual atmosphere. This game is simple enough to pick up quickly but offers enough of a challenge without becoming overwhelming. This game is the perfect entry point to the genre and a fantastic addition to any library. 

The world has become toxic and uninhabitable. The few remaining survivors have found refuge on the back of a giant wandering beast, the Onbu. Together you will wander the world as you attempt to rebuild a symbiotic civilization on the back of the Onbu. 

The Wandering Village is a beautiful game with many moving parts. I recommend you play a few runs without looking up guides. I believe most of the fun is trying to figure out how to grow your village properly, failing, and doing it better the next time around. I am sure there is an optimal way of running through this game, but I had as much fun failing as when everything was running smoothly. This game is casual enough that guides aren’t necessary.

The Wandering Village is one of the more casual village builders I’ve played. Worker, resource, and resource management are challenging enough to keep the game engaging without becoming overwhelming. There are settings you can tweak that makes the management mechanics more difficult, but I never felt like it lost its casual vibe. What does create a challenge is adapting to the random encounters throughout the Onbu’s journey. The types of scouting missions that become available, the types of biomes it walks through, and the Onbu’s health all affect the growth of your village. Players will often have to readjust quickly to changes. I lost a few villages because I wasn’t planning properly. You will eventually be able to have more control of the Onbu, but I enjoyed the random nature of the journey. It makes every run unique, giving the game lots of replayability. 

I had a lot of fun with The Wandering Village, and recommend it to anyone in the market for a new game. The art is beautiful, and the mechanics are fun and interesting. The game just got an update that added a new biome, buildings, and encounters. You can pick up The Wandering Village on Steam and Xbox for $24.99 or play it for free if you have Game Pass. 

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Game Review: Havendock

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I was sent Havendock as a review code. I am very grateful for the opportunity, but this will be my honest review.

If you are looking for a fun village builder to add to your collection or need a good place to start with the genre, get Havendock. The game has great graphics, catchy music, and an addicting gameplay loop. 

You wake up alone and stranded in the middle of the ocean without a single memory. To survive, you must build a base from the materials that float by. As you slowly establish your haven, you will attract other survivors who will help you grow your haven. The trick to this game is efficiency. You must juggle between building, resource management, exploration, and research.

Do not let the game’s cuteness deceive you. You will become overwhelmed by your sloppiness, but that’s part of the process. I recommend that you go in blind on your first playthrough to get the truest Havendock experience. Once you get to the point where you get stuck, look up tips and tricks. If you need more of a challenge, there are settings you can tweak. 

What I like most about this game is how easily it eases players into the mechanics. All players start with a questline that does a fantastic job of teaching players the fundamentals, but it leaves enough room for error to make the game challenging. While I never thought the game was frustratingly difficult, there are enough obstacles to keep it engaging. The game is impossible if you don’t have at least a basic plan on what to research, build, or gather. Havendock will prove a tricky game to master, but it is such a satisfying and enjoyable ride. Even when my village was on the brink of collapse, I found myself humming along with the catchy music, enjoying myself. 

If you are looking for a new game to get into, you should buy Havendock. It is cute, fun, and great for those who’ve never touched a resource management game. The hardest part about this game is choosing when to walk away because there is always something you need to build, research, or work towards. I loved this game, and I think you will too. 

You can buy Havendock on Steam for $16.99. The game is in early access, but it doesn’t feel like it. But if you need further convincing, go try the demo. 

Images taken from the presskit