Towns

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Towns is a single-player fantasy role-playing game with good graphics that combines city building and management with RPG features. As you manage a settlement on top of an active dungeon, attract traveling heroes to explore the depths, fight monsters, and collect loot, while you focus on crafting weapons, trading, and building a successful town. However, be aware of its buggy nature.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

25%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,040 reviews

graphics19 positive mentions

stability100 negative mentions

The game has a unique concept of managing a town that supports heroes exploring dungeons.
There is a lot of potential for creativity in building and managing the town.
The game can be addictive and offers a challenge for players who enjoy resource management.

The game has been abandoned by the developers and is left in an unfinished state.
There are numerous bugs and AI issues that make gameplay frustrating.
The UI is clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult for players to navigate and understand the game.

gameplay
103 mentions
18 % positive mentions
63 % neutral mentions
18 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is characterized by a mix of detailed mechanics and significant bugs, leading to a challenging yet often frustrating experience. While some players appreciate the depth and potential for town management and resource allocation, many criticize the lack of polish, poor tutorials, and broken mechanics that hinder enjoyment. Overall, the game offers a unique concept but suffers from abandonment by developers, resulting in an unfinished and sometimes tedious gameplay experience.
- “The mechanics are detailed and thought out.”
- “Sufficient depth of gameplay and buildings to stay busy quite a while.”
- “The part that really captured my attention and held my interest was the mechanic that allows the player to construct a residence with certain attributes used to attract different types of wandering heroes who will stay in your town and defend it from threats.”
- “But I could never get very far without having everyone die, and the mechanics being very broken.”
- “The gameplay is nowhere near polished to be sold on its own.”
- “The tutorials were shamefully unhelpful, the gameplay was unintuitive, and the art style was unique but led to an overall crude feel due to the game's clunky play.”
stability
102 mentions
2 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
98 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its severe instability, being described as buggy, unfinished, and abandoned by its developers. Many users report frustrating glitches, poor AI, and a lack of updates, rendering the game nearly unplayable in its current state. Despite some players finding enjoyment in the concept, the overwhelming consensus is that the game's numerous issues significantly detract from the overall experience.
- “It's a great idea, but there are many better games similar to this one that aren't buggy.”
- “Not buggy (not seriously buggy; however, it would be more enjoyable if you could think of all the problems as just a mistake).”
- “The product was extremely buggy and unpolished to the point of being unplayable in the long term, but it was still sold on Steam as a finished game.”
- “The first and most infamous game to come out of Steam's 'Greenlight' program, this game is an incomplete and buggy mess, released in a beta state that never was completed, but rather abandoned by its programmer in a miserable state.”
- “It's unfinished, unpolished, buggy, and will probably never, ever see what it was meant to become.”
graphics
77 mentions
25 % positive mentions
62 % neutral mentions
13 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players noting a retro or simplistic aesthetic reminiscent of early 90s titles, which some find charming while others deem it crude and unpolished. While the art style is appreciated by some for its nostalgic value, many critiques highlight poor visual quality, clunky UI, and a lack of detail that detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the graphics are often described as a significant drawback, overshadowing the game's potential despite its engaging gameplay mechanics.
- “The graphics are impressively detailed and cute.”
- “While the art style may not be to everyone's taste, it's easy on the eyes and makes the world interesting to look at, providing you with plenty of colors to play with and enjoy.”
- “Good concept, but this game has poor graphics, tutorials, and general layout.”
- “In general it is rough and not very polished in both graphics and gameplay, and everything can very quickly become a tedious task without planning.”
- “The graphics are obviously not the purpose of this game, but rather the society that one builds while playing.”
- “The graphics are blocky, but just like in Minecraft, you can build what your imagination gives you.”
story
20 mentions
15 % positive mentions
70 % neutral mentions
15 % negative mentions
The game's story is widely criticized for its lack of depth and coherence, with many players feeling it squandered its potential. While there are character arcs and a backstory related to the developers' struggles, the overall narrative is seen as underdeveloped and unsatisfying. Players express a desire for a more engaging storyline or quest system to enhance the gameplay experience.
- “It told the backstory of what happened with the devs for this game and how they abandoned it (surprise? It just happened again).”
- “Df has literal story arcs for its characters, almost purely by accident.”
- “I know it's a sandbox game, but maybe a bit of a story would have been nice, or perhaps some rewards for reaching certain achievements.”
- “Terrible story of a game that genuinely had a lot of potential.”
- “The game has no depth in story or play since.”
- “It told the back story of what happened with the devs for this game and how they abandoned it (surprise? it just happened again).”
grinding
19 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and unpolished, with players noting that managing tasks and citizens can become a frustrating chore due to clunky mechanics and a cumbersome user interface. While there are elements of depth and potential fun, the overwhelming micro-management and frequent bugs detract significantly from the overall experience, leading many to find the gameplay tedious and unenjoyable.
- “To maintain a mix between idleness and workload, you have to insanely manage and switch work groups of citizens in a tedious, time-consuming, boring, and annoying way.”
- “This game is a tedious unpolished mess, filled with either insane levels of micromanagement or giant periods of idle time.”
- “There's a kernel of fun to be had in the game, even in this pathetic state, but it will be obtained through a terrible UI, broken game mechanics, tedious micromanagement of the most simple of tasks, and poor game design.”
music
15 mentions
20 % positive mentions
60 % neutral mentions
20 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its fit with the art style, while others criticize it for being overly repetitive and limited to a single looping track. While it serves as a decent background for casual play, many feel that the soundtrack lacks variety and can become tiresome after extended sessions. Overall, improvements in the music variety could enhance the gaming experience significantly.
- “Yeah, I might be one of the few who loves this game; the art style fits the soundtrack so well.”
- “It had promise, and I still really like the music.”
- “I wouldn't say it's intrusive, but you won't remember it either, which to me is a good point for game music.”
- “Finally, there is only one, one single 2 or so minute long music loop that plays throughout the entire game.”
- “There is exactly one music track that will drive you absolutely crazy after a few hours of playing.”
- “Oh and it's also set to some mind-numbing repetitive music barely above 'bad MIDI song' level.”
monetization
13 mentions
0 % positive mentions
8 % neutral mentions
92 % negative mentions
The monetization of the game has been widely criticized as a blatant cash grab, with many users expressing disappointment over its unfinished state and lack of meaningful updates since release. Players feel that the game was marketed misleadingly, suggesting it was more of a quick profit scheme than a genuine indie project. Overall, the sentiment is that the game does not justify its price, especially given its incomplete nature.
- “Towns is and was little more than a cash grab.”
- “Complete rip-off; there is no way this should be on sale without an 'early access' tag, and seeing as it will now likely never be finished it is difficult to see how even that would be fair advertising.”
- “Incomplete, unfinished and a blatant cash grab with the 'beta' mentioning conveniently hidden on release.”
replayability
12 mentions
33 % positive mentions
42 % neutral mentions
25 % negative mentions
Overall, the game offers a mix of replayability, with some players enjoying the variety of challenges and features, while others feel it lacks long-term engagement due to repetitive gameplay and limited achievements. Frequent updates and mods enhance its replay value, but opinions vary on its sustainability for repeated playthroughs.
- “There is definitely replay value as well.”
- “It has many features to explore with a lot of replayability in it, the alpha may as well be finished.”
- “The game is highly replayable with different challenges rising, and some just repeating.”
- “Overall the game is very fun at first but doesn't really have any long-term replayability.”
- “Though it has mods to take its replayability and value up a notch, it is not going anywhere beyond the most recent update.”
- “Not replayable (since you can't really ever do much in the first play or second or third or fourth... you will achieve very little in this game as everything takes forever).”
optimization
2 mentions
150 % positive mentions
-150 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been inconsistent, particularly suffering from performance issues as towns and dungeons grow larger, which can restrict the length of playthroughs. However, despite these challenges, players report that the game remains playable throughout its development.
- “Throughout its development, the game has had its ups and downs in the performance department, but it has never been unplayable.”
- “The optimization efforts have significantly improved the game's performance, making for a smoother experience overall.”
- “I appreciate how the developers continuously work on optimizing the game, ensuring that it runs well on a variety of systems.”
- “My only gripe is poor performance when your town (and the dungeon) gets very large, which limits how long a playthrough can last.”
- “Throughout its development, towns have been all over the place in the performance department, but it has never been unplayable.”
emotional
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players express a deep emotional connection to the game, highlighting feelings of heartbreak over its troubled development history and the impact it has on their experience, with some even feeling moved to tears.
- “Reading about how the original developer abandoned the game and 'sold' the rights to someone else is almost heartbreaking.”
- “This game makes me want to cry.”
humor
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Users find the humor in the loot system amusing at times, but feel it may not be appropriate for a game priced at $15, suggesting a disconnect between the humor and the game's overall value.
- “About the loot, here's the funny part.”