Do you ever see an upcoming game and you get a great feeling that it’s going to be a belter? That’s exactly what I thought when I first laid eyes on Manor Lords. Having now spent almost 20 hours constructing various towns and villages I can confirm that this game has an excellent future ahead of it and its’ vibes are immaculate.

Creating Believable Worlds
A lot of people talk about immersion in video games. That feeling of being there, in the moment, part of that experience. Immersion isn’t something I would necessarily correlate with a city-building game. As you’re essentially some kind of metaphorical god looking down upon your peons, moulding the lands with a click of your mouse. You’re never really immersed in the thick of it. However, the detail, the atmosphere and the art direction of Manor Lords had me feeling like I was creating a living breathing settlement.
With every new Burgage plot you build a new family will move in. You’ll quickly see them scuttling around on the dirt roads on their way to work, church, or even the market. Each NPC has a life they live out. You’ll watch them using the Ox to drag logs to destinations. Sacks of various goods will be flopped over shoulders as they carry things from one place to the next. Along the Kings Road, you’ll see travelling traders with horse-drawn carts approaching your town.
Whether you’re looking down from your lofty position or in the streets with the experimental Lord view where you can walk around your creation as your Lord. Every inch of this game looks amazing. The game feels grounded in a believable reality as if you’re looking back at a slice of what life might have looked like.
Freedom To Build
One of the things I like the most about Manor Lords is how you can build. It may sound like a small thing, but how you can mould certain building plots to the space around them is an excellent feature. Do you have a slightly obscure little patch of land between other buildings or a road? Well, chances are you can squeeze a house plot in there. Plotting the land you build on will adapt and wrap around the things around it. Garden plots can stretch out far beyond the confines of your original house. Or curve around a cluster of buildings enveloping them. You can then convert these garden spaces into vegetable plots, apple orchards, and more. It creates a natural and realistic feeling flow as if this is how it could have been built if it was real. Plus it looks cool as heck.
Fighting

For the most part, Manor Lords is a chilled experience. However, when the need arises to eradicate enemy forces, the combat is good fun. I will say it feels in the early stages at the moment and it is probably the weakest part of the game – there are some funky bugs around… That being said, when things work properly, and you get stuck into big fights it can feel really rewarding.
The placement of your troops not just in formations with each other. But also, where on the battlefield you choose to fight can play a big part in winning or losing. If placed badly your archers can get run down and will be rendered ineffective and quickly killed off. Furthermore, if you push too far forward with one regiment, they may end up surrounded and overwhelmed. I can’t wait to see what kind of large-scale battles we will see when additional units such as cavalry get added later down the line.
Better Than I’d Hoped
Manor Lords has so far exceeded my expectations. There is a lot more building content to get stuck into than I was initially imagining. Additionally, I just looks so damn good. I’m constantly finding myself just watching the world go by in the town I’ve created, taking in the views. It’s clear a lot of love and attention has gone into the way the game looks. Each building, with its growing vegetables, livestock roaming around, and material-making workshops is full of detail and life. As the seasons pass the trees turn from green to orange to brown. The snow settles in for winter. It all just feels so immersive and engaging. The future of Manor Lords is looking exceptional.
-Will