Minds of Nations

About

"Minds of Nations" is a massively multiplayer online game where players build and manage nations across simulations to help souls evolve beyond their taints. The nation serves as a school for souls, requiring players to balance the material needs of the community with the souls' spiritual growth. With 13 ideas to explore, players must consider strength, resources, and the souls' evolutionary needs in their quest to create successful and spiritually advanced states.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

66%

Audience ScoreBased on 461 reviews

gameplay16 positive mentions

stability20 negative mentions

The game offers a unique and complex nation-building experience with deep mechanics.
The developer is responsive and actively works on updates and bug fixes.
The game encourages strategic thinking and diplomacy, making it engaging for players who enjoy long-term gameplay.

The game is very slow-paced, with long wait times for actions and progress, which can be frustrating.
There are numerous bugs and glitches that affect gameplay, making it feel unpolished.
The tutorial is lacking, leaving new players confused about the mechanics and how to effectively manage their nations.

gameplay
70 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
70%
7%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing its slow pace, lack of engaging mechanics, and overwhelming complexity. While some appreciate the depth of customization and strategic elements in nation-building, others find the experience tedious and frustrating, particularly due to bugs and poorly designed tutorials. Overall, the game seems to struggle with balancing its ambitious ideas against a satisfying gameplay loop, leading to a divide between those who enjoy its potential and those who find it lacking.
- “Gameplay consists of selecting social, government, and spiritual policies to create a strong nation capable of defending itself.”
- “Back to the gameplay a bit, I thoroughly enjoy running a nation, deciding in-depth policies, playing diplomat for your survival or dominance, leading massive armies to great wars; the list goes on and is only getting better.”
- “Having to build a civilization across randomly-generated lands is extremely cool, and the combat mechanics are detailed and thorough.”
- “There is no gameplay (other than staring at poorly designed graphics and waiting for a bar to fill).”
- “Gameplay is tedious, as they force your actions to be dragged out due to the game being a multiplayer experience.”
- “The game will drop you in with absolutely no tutorial and no way of helping you understand the mechanics, so if you'd like an early access game that's slow as hell, resets your progress every month, and screws you over by explaining absolutely no aspect nor mechanic of the game, then this is the game for you!”
stability
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is frequently described as buggy and unstable, with users reporting various glitches, slow performance, and a clunky user interface. While many acknowledge these issues as typical for an early access title, they still find the overall experience enjoyable and worth exploring, especially given its free availability. However, the presence of bugs and a high cheater population can detract from the gameplay experience.
- “The game is quite buggy and has a high enough cheater population to ruin the experience while playing some of the sims.”
- “This game definitely has some flaws, from being very buggy, sluggish, graphic-wise not stellar, and sometimes just janky.”
- “Also don't even try the mobile version of this game; it's pretty much unplayable with how unoptimized and buggy it is.”
graphics
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some users criticizing them as poorly designed and reminiscent of basic applications like Paint, while others appreciate the visual representation of strategic elements on the map. Overall, the graphics are deemed adequate for a grand strategy game, though they suffer from issues like washed-out screens and bugs, detracting from the overall experience.
- “Graphics are on par for a grand strategy game.”
- “What I will say is I like the graphics, the slow expansion over the map, and the trade-offs that ideas give.”
- “The graphics are good.”
- “There is no gameplay (other than staring at poorly designed graphics and waiting for a bar to fill)”
- “☐ An Excel spreadsheet is more graphically stunning than this.”
- “Can't see what I'm doing because the screen is washed out and I can't change the visuals.”
monetization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
25%
38%
The monetization model of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the removal of certain microtransactions while others criticize the presence of pay-to-win elements that provide significant advantages. Although players can opt for servers without these microtransactions, the overall sentiment suggests that the game's temporary nature may deter spending, leading to concerns about its long-term viability and design quality.
- “I hope that the devs try to move to a monetization model based on selling cosmetics such as flags or nation colors.”
- “The pay-to-play microtransactions are not bad, especially since the game is free. The only problem I see is that I doubt people would want to spend money on it, because the games are temporary (it resets every month), and I think it can hurt the income of the developer.”
- “He removed microtransactions.”
- “Also, the game is riddled with microtransactions that provide an advantage boost, although you can choose not to play on a server with these microtransactions. However, the main issue is that the game is way too long, and there's literally nothing to do except log out and get back in after 5 hours.”
- “I think I'd much more enjoy this single player experience, allowing me to build my nation with all these Buddhist concepts to learn about, rather than worrying about a larger community that could steamroll me while I'm offline, not to mention the microtransactions.”
- “But the microtransactions are completely broken in their power.”
music
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
14%
14%
The reviews highlight a significant absence of in-game music and sound, with many players suggesting the addition of a soundtrack to enhance the gaming experience. Some users appreciate the idea of incorporating Indian or Buddhist-themed music, while others recommend using royalty-free tracks to fill the silence. Overall, the lack of audio is noted as a drawback, prompting players to rely on their own music playlists.
- “It would be nice to have a cleaner UI screen for selecting policies to adopt, and perhaps even a soundtrack (royalty-free would be great for a game as simple in concept, and as well flushed out for the time being) to help people deal with the silence.”
- “Some improvements could be some sort of music soundtrack that plays while in-game as there is no audio included.”
- “It seems very early access still; there's no in-game music, which would also be a good addition.”
- “Some improvements could be made by including a music soundtrack that plays while in-game, as there is currently no audio included.”
grinding
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and slow, particularly due to its multiplayer nature, which can drag out gameplay. While some appreciate the nation-building concept, many feel it lacks the pace needed for enjoyment, with comparisons made to other grinding games like Clash of Clans. Despite its grindiness, some still consider it a favorite for its unique features.
- “Gameplay is tedious, as they force your actions to be dragged out due to the game being a multiplayer experience.”
- “While an interesting concept, since games that actually allow you to build a nation are quite limited, I feel as if - in its current state - the game is way too slow and grindy to be fun.”
- “Good nation building game if you like slow and grindy.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
33%
50%
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while multiplayer offers high replay value and strategic depth, some players feel that the single-player experience lacks variety and depth, suggesting that future updates could enhance its replayability.
- “Multiplayer has high replay value and requires strategy to win.”
- “Replayability: you'll get the same experience in different colors.”
- “For a free indie game, it is really well done, and I can perceive the passion put into it by the developer; however, I feel like it lacks a key feature, which is replayability.”
- “The future updates that focus on quality of life and replayability will make this game a gem.”
story
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
20%
40%
Players praise the game's storytelling, particularly highlighting the engaging roleplaying experiences that have led to memorable narratives within the community. While some mechanics are seen as promising, there are criticisms regarding inconsistencies in the game's world-building, such as inaccurate size comparisons of locations.
- “As an added side benefit, the community has great roleplaying matches which have given me some of the best storytelling I have ever taken part in any online MMO.”
- “The game ended after that, but the story we told was amazing and I would have definitely paid for it.”
- “The story mechanics appear promising and interesting.”
- “When clicking on a province, it says it is larger than some real-world location, which is just wrong, as I am pretty sure a random tiny plot of land in Cyprus isn't larger than León in Spain.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
Overall, the game's optimization has seen significant improvement with the latest patch, enhancing performance for most users. However, the mobile version remains largely unplayable due to severe bugs and optimization issues, and some players have reported that the Steam overlay has become laggy post-update.
- “It's primarily about the enlightenment of your people and their souls, which also has a practical impact on the performance of your nation.”
- “The latest patch improved the game performance by a great measure, but it makes the Steam overlay very laggy.”
- “Also, don't even try the mobile version of this game; it's pretty much unplayable with how unoptimized and buggy it is.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews indicate that the emotional experience of the game is overshadowed by a steep learning curve and reliance on external resources, leading to frustration rather than enjoyment. Players express a sense of relief upon completing tasks, suggesting that the emotional engagement is minimal and often negative.
- “Me touching grass after finishing the task on this game”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the game to be humorous, highlighting its comedic elements as a standout feature.