Empires and Tribes
- December 21, 2023
- empiresandtribes
- 20h median play time
Get on Steam
Get on itch.io Store"Empires and Tribes" is a medieval city-builder and role-playing game hybrid, set in the 13th century. Oversee your city's growth, resources, and technology, while navigating political power struggles and raising a formidable army for protection. Experience immersive RPG elements, such as first-person perspective exploration, as you make critical economic and diplomatic decisions to maintain your position in this challenging world.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game offers a unique blend of city building, RPG elements, and first-person gameplay, providing an immersive experience.
- The developers are responsive to player feedback and have shown commitment to improving the game through updates.
- The concept of managing a medieval settlement with dynamic AI interactions and a day-night cycle is engaging and has a lot of potential.
- The game is still in an early access state with numerous bugs, including crashes, AI pathfinding issues, and incomplete features that hinder gameplay.
- Graphics and animations are outdated, reminiscent of early 2000s games, which detracts from the overall experience.
- The tutorial is lacking in clarity, making it difficult for new players to understand the mechanics and objectives, leading to frustration.
- graphics28 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players noting that they resemble outdated visuals from the mid-2000s, often comparing them to titles like Morrowind and Mount & Blade. While some appreciate the artistic direction and find the visuals acceptable for a non-AAA title, others criticize the bland textures, clunky animations, and various graphical glitches that detract from the overall experience. Overall, there is a consensus that significant improvements are needed to elevate the game's visual appeal.
“The visuals of the buildings - watching your buildings upgrade from wood huts to fortified stone keeps is very satisfying.”
“The graphics might be on the bland side, more so if you compare them to games like Kingdom Come, but if you think of this as a colony builder, not as a first-person game, then the graphics are quite acceptable.”
“The graphic is fantastic.”
“Great combination of roleplaying game, village builder and real-time strategy with mediocre 2005-2010 graphics and open world.”
“Just bought the game, played for 10 minutes and asked for a refund. I think the game has a lot of potential, but the game designers obviously did not put the time into the game; the graphics are absolutely horrible, 1999 video game quality.”
“I was taken aback by how crappy the textures and graphics looked in-game even at the highest settings and the horrible animations - it made me feel like I was playing a medieval Minecraft from 2008 and not a life/city simulator.”
- story25 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The game's story and quest system are criticized for their lack of variety and depth, often revolving around simple fetch quests and repetitive tasks. While players appreciate the integration of city-building and RPG elements, many find the quests uninspired and the overall narrative lacking polish and engagement. Despite these shortcomings, the game offers a unique blend of mechanics and has potential for future improvements as the developers continue to refine the experience.
“The game does include quests which can come from your residents or directly from the king via his messenger.”
“Walking through your city, visiting the church, attending council meetings and court hearings, events, and quests also fill your time spent in the game with proper activities.”
“It has a story, quests, and assigning your villagers with jobs according to their likes.”
“I have to turn in a quest and I have no idea where the quest giver is in a town of 200 people.”
“The quests are simple and not fancy, and there is little in terms of variation.”
“The quests your villagers give are boring; sadly, I hope newer versions of the game will have more dramatic quests, as for now it's mostly uninteresting fetch quests or characters asking for wood or food.”
- stability23 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous users reporting frequent bugs, crashes, and game-breaking issues that significantly hinder gameplay. While some players find enjoyment in the concept and potential of the game, the overwhelming presence of glitches, unresponsive controls, and performance problems make it difficult to recommend in its current early access state. Overall, many agree that the game requires substantial improvements before it can be considered stable or enjoyable.
“Honestly can't say to recommend this game because it's so buggy and crash-prone as it stands right now.”
“This is an early access game; it's not finished, and at this moment, the game is filled with bugs and glitches (you can watch any videos or look around the community hub's screenshots). You'll probably encounter game-breaking bugs (it took me 2 tries to finish the tutorial because of game-breaking bugs), and many things are broken or yet to be implemented.”
“This game is currently a buggy mess for me; as such, I can't recommend it. Only get this to support the development of the game at the moment.”
- gameplay23 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 74 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this title is a mix of city-building, management, and RPG elements, offering a unique first-person perspective that some players find engaging and reminiscent of classic titles. While the mechanics are intriguing and provide a solid foundation for replayability, many users report significant bugs, AI issues, and a confusing interface that detracts from the overall experience. Despite its flaws, players appreciate the potential for depth and creativity in gameplay, especially if the developers address the current shortcomings.
“Although this game looks outdated, gameplay-wise it not only clicks with me, it is a hidden gem I was looking for a long time — basically, this is a Guild 2 from a first-person perspective, with more autonomous and smarter AI, and less need to pause the game to decide something about production.”
“The game mechanics allow for your style of play; e.g., you can run around and build everything you want or instruct villagers to go and build for you. It also allows you to engage in simple combat with animals and people.”
“The game combines city building and management mechanics with top-down RTS, RPG progression and quests, castle building, and first-person combat.”
“While it all looks very pretty, the actual gameplay is a confusing mess.”
“Besides this issue, there are a massive array of other gameplay issues that render the game very low quality and quite boring most of the time.”
“I do not recommend this game at this time as it's still riddled with bugs and gameplay issues.”
- optimization7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been criticized for significant deficiencies, including massive save files and frequent crashes after short play sessions. However, recent performance updates have reportedly improved the experience for some players, allowing them to enjoy the game despite lingering glitches and issues. Overall, while there are improvements, optimization remains a notable concern.
“Performance improved.”
“I think the performance update made a huge difference for me.”
“Edit: Performance has gotten better, thanks!”
“The game is severely deficient in polish of the basic things such as optimization, character animations, and the quest pool, bandit encounters, combat in general, as well as having no mounts in a giant land and no siege engines, but magical ability to tear down stone walls.”
“Save files are massive, optimization is so bad, and the game closes itself after 30-45 minutes.”
“Not sure if it's related to memory/game optimization.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find humor in the game's quirky bugs, particularly the lag that occurs when building multiple guild halls. Additionally, the transformation of a small village into a bustling town is described as amusing, especially from a first-person perspective.
“It is very funny seeing your poor little village evolve into a nice town, especially from the first-person view!”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, particularly due to the repetitive nature of searching for hidden evidence in familiar locations, which can diminish the overall enjoyment over time.
“Sadly, the court mechanics are based on looking for 'evidence' that's hidden in different parts of town. I can see this mechanic becoming tedious once you know all the usual hiding places.”
“The grinding in this game feels endless and repetitive, making it hard to stay engaged.”
“After a few hours, the grind becomes painfully obvious, and it detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users express disappointment in the game's emotional impact, citing poor graphics and animations that detract from immersion, likening the experience to outdated titles rather than a modern life or city simulator.
