Townsmen- A Kingdom Rebuilt

Say hello to the new and remastered version of the original Townsmen game from 2016. Townsmen: A Kingdom Rebuilt is a city building game brought to us by HandyGames. If you like The Settlers II, you may want to try out this title! Psshtt, by the way, if you happen to own the 2016 Townsmen version, you’ll see the new version in your library for free!

• A lot of content: First off, this game gives a lot of content for €20. There are six tutorials, 26 scenarios, and an endless mode on 24 different maps. Every tutorial, scenario and endless mode map comes with a small ‘story’. It’s just one or two lines about what is going on, for example ‘Bandits are raiding this town. Your task will be to establish a working infrastructure during the siege’. It’s not much, but it’s a nice addition. Besides this, you’ll also get information about the map size and the difficulty of a given map. The amount of content is definitely a big plus!
• Elaborate tutorial: This game isn’t the easiest one to get into. Things can get overwhelming since a lot of quests can appear at the same time, making it difficult to decide which one to complete first. Then there’s also the fact that there are a lot of different buttons, options, and actions. Luckily, there is a very elaborate tutorial available. You’ll find no less than 6(!) tutorials. Wow. And they’re not short either. It’s really nice that there are 6 and not one big tutorial, it would just be too much information and would drag on forever. You can skip the tutorials if you wish to, but I wouldn’t recommend this. There’s so much going on in-game and the tutorials do a great job preparing you for the scenarios and endless mode.
• Graphics: When launching this game, my first impression was ‘omg these graphics are cute’. And they are. There’s an overwhelming amount of green (well, in the summer, and white in the winter). The town also adapts to the various weather conditions. Like when it rains, the image becomes duller. The graphics are just basic but enjoyable to look at for a long time. Besides this, the colors are quite bright and lively. You’d expect a more grey feeling from a game set in the medieval times but nope! Not that I mind, the bright colors are very pretty.
• Soundtrack: Even though there isn’t much to say about the soundtrack itself, I would like to mention it is a nice and relaxing one that is playing in the background. It fits in with the theme of the game, making it very enjoyable to listen to during the gameplay. Besides the soundtrack, there is also a tiny bit of voice acting from the Townies. You get the whole text written out, but there’s also a small noise coming from the person who is talking. It’s a bit like in the Sims, there are no full sentences, just short sounds.

• The bandits: Introducing bandits to the game is great since it adds a little challenge. Or in this case, it adds a lot of challenge. Even a little bit too much. The bandits seem to take so much stuff from your town so fast, that it becomes stressful. However, you can play without bandits as well, so if you want a more relaxing gameplay, that’s what you should do. If you can’t seem to handle the bandits, I recommend you to practice without them a little. 
• There is a lot of information to process: Elaborate games are fun ànd you know a lot of thought and time was put into it. But sometimes things can get a little overwhelming. As mentioned before, there are six tutorials to explain the whole game. Luckily, a fair amount of help is offered and the game is rather intuitive, making this a mixed point and not a bad one!
• Mobile look: One of the first things you will notice, is how the game has a very mobile-ish look, which makes sense since it was originally a mobile game. But still, this gets in the way of the game feeling like a full PC game. It kind of makes you think of those Facebook games like Farmville. Not very cool.

• Camera: The lack of camera rotation is quite annoying, it’s all very static. Then there is also the fact that some buildings become hidden from your sight because of another structure. This is very frustrating when you have to click a certain building because it needs repair for example. I guess the lesson here would be to not place your various buildings too close to each other, but seeing as the map is limited in space, this isn’t an easy solution.

CONCLUSION

Developer: HandyGames Publisher: HandyGames
Played on: PC
Steam store link: Click here