Clanfolk

I'd had this game in my wishlist for quite a long time, waiting for it to be fleshed out enough to be worth the price (in my eyes), but was gifted it during the July sale. When I tell you that it is worth every full price penny... When I tell you that it is everything I hoped for and more... When I tell you that I CANNOT stop playing... Clanfolk is a phenomenal game that warms the heart with its approach to survival by way of resource management, strategy, and family. Though not everyone's cup of tea, I find the art style cute as reminds me of the charm of older games I grew up on. The music is a soothing and fitting choice for being in the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands. Both work to lull you into a relaxed state as the game teaches you how things work before allowing you to lead your folk to survive their first winter. As your clan grows and develops, the randomised traits that you can choose to foster or breed out adds to the backstory of your clan as you watch your folks sow their seed, multiply and make the highlands their home. The problems and changes that arise as the seasons bleed by (temperature change, moisture, ground fertility) are what add difficulty to the game and the space to build and thrive is what makes the grind rewarding. You have to manage resources so that your Clanfolk don't starve to death. You need to strategise based on the skills, traits, likes and dislikes of your people to improve their mood and thereby increase task efficiency. And most importantly, you can't succeed alone... Or at least, it's bloody hard and makes for a short playthrough. Making a family, turning your house into a home, growing your clan... That's what made this game a winner for me. It's the first colony sim I've played in YEARS (SimAnt being the last) and it's not my typical genre but I have 0 regrets. I worried that there wouldn't be enough to do as it's early access but there is PLENTY to do. And even when you finish the main content, the game is still playable as you can continue to grow your clan or restart and try again in an entirely different way. Create narratives for your folk as you play and maybe build something that feels special along the way. All in all, Clanfolk is a wonderful game with an active and hardworking dev - Blorf - consistently working on new content. On top of that, he engages with players through Discord and responds to feedback and bug reports. I never thought I'd find a game that would surpass my hours on Stardew Valley but here we are. It's also the first time I've bothered to write a game review. I very much look forward to the end result and will keep playing along the way!

[h1]A Colony Sim Without Real Stakes[/h1] ⭐⭐☆☆☆ 2/5 — Scottish clans but no fighting? What is this? Clanfolk gives a really good first impression. The start of the game is actually hard, and that is something I liked a lot. Your first winter feels like a real challenge, and figuring out how to keep everyone alive can be pretty engaging. Managing food, shelter, and basic survival feels tense at the beginning. The problem is that once you understand how some of the mechanics work and learn how to abuse a few of them, the difficulty completely disappears. If you survive the first winter, you are basically already in the early endgame. After that point the game stops being challenging. Things that should feel dangerous just become annoying little problems you solve in seconds. Fires and diseases exist, but they barely matter once your main character has a bunch of kids running around doing every task instantly. When you have ten workers doing everything automatically, nothing really threatens your settlement anymore. Because of that, the challenge in Clanfolk feels more like an illusion. The difficulty mostly comes from early game friction and some awkward mechanics rather than real threats or meaningful decisions. Once you figure things out, the game becomes very predictable and repetitive. You can basically finish everything important in one long playthrough because there is no real escalation or new danger later on. The biggest thing missing from the game is combat. The game takes place in the Scottish Highlands, which historically were full of conflict, clan rivalries, and wars. Yet the game completely ignores that part of history. There are no raids, no rival clans attacking you, and no outside threats that force you to defend your settlement. Because of that the world feels very sterile. Nothing actually puts your clan in danger. Compare that to RimWorld, where the world constantly throws problems at you and forces you to adapt. In RimWorld you actually feel like you are trying to survive in a dangerous place. In Clanfolk, once you stabilize your food and workforce, the game just coasts. What makes this more frustrating is that people have suggested adding combat or some kind of conflict many times. It feels like those suggestions just get ignored. Because of that the game starts strong but quickly becomes shallow and stale. Right now Clanfolk feels less like a survival colony sim and more like a very safe sandbox with almost no real stakes. Without real danger or long term challenge, the game becomes boring much faster than it should. If you want a colony sim where the world actually feels dangerous and alive, you will probably have a much better time playing RimWorld instead. **Update** After all these years, the developer is adding bears... seriously? Meanwhile, the game still lacks the immersive combat, meaningful clan rivalries that could have made it feel like the medieval Scottish Highlands. ✅ - You can't fight because the devs created a fantasy instead of a realistic clan settlement. ✅ - Boring gameplay with only one goal: reproduce as much as possible. ✅ - Survival becomes stale after the first few years once you have 10 kids walking around doing jobs. ✅ - A pure illusion of danger, not even close to RimWorld.

This is a really enjoyable settlement game but there are a few things that could use some work, particularly late game. Making the more complex meals has absolutely no in-game value but requires a massive amount of materials/effort. So once you finally learn how to churn butter and make bread, it honestly feels like more hassle than it's worth. Additionally, why do we have to wait for other clans to come to us in order to buy/sell? If we can travel, then why can't we bring products to the other clans? Wolves should provide at least some threat to children. As it is, they're little better than noisy rats - i.e occasional dinner. Stockpiles should all be basic knowledge from the start of the game. It doesn't take a genius to know how to make a pile of stones. Also, clothing items take up WAY too much space. Once you have a settlement of 10 or more people and they have a different set of clothes for summer than they do for winter, the piles of clothes get really out of hand, even with the heavy space-consuming wardrobes (which cannot be easily sorted). Last but not least, for the love of all that is holy PLEASE add a few more songs for them to play on the flute!!

[h1] "Вы говорите, что у мужчин нет депрессии, а они в это время уходят шотландским кланом осваивать глухой лес" [/h1] Когда научная фантастика и фэнтези уже набили оскомину, когда уже нет сил разбираться часами, и все равно постоянно проигрывать, но при этом любовь к выживанию и градостроению вас не покидает, вы натыкаетесь на [b]Clanfolk[/b]. Иногда хочется чего-то такого приземленного, реалистичного, сурового, а еще потрогать траву и вернуться к истокам. Вот эта игра - она про [b] зеземление[/b]. Медитативная, спокойная, базированная. Здесь не бывает неурожая, вас не донимают захватчики, болезни, это шотландская утопия, в которой ваши единственные проблемы - [b]голод и холод[/b]. Вы не будете сидеть с горящим гузном от того, как очередная прихоть рандома угробила ваше поселение. Если гузно и будет гореть, то только по вашей собственной неопытности: эта игра максимально предсказуема и не требует вас противостоять каким-то экстраординарным событиям, что подкупает, но у этого есть свои минусы. [h2] Начали за здравие, закончили за упокой [/h2] Вот этот вышеописанный медитативный геймплей будет очень увлекателен, пока вы не решите полностью все проблемы с голодом, холодом и унылыми минами ваших шотландцев, пока не откроете все древо технологий. В предыдущей версии игры все интересное заканчивалось максимально быстро, стабильная точка бытия тоже налаживалась буквально в первый же год. После обновления играть стало интереснее, но когда шотландцы как сыры в масле катаются, знают все передовые технологии своего времени - [b] что дальше-то делать?[/b]. [h3] Земля обетованная[/h3] Мало того, что все это достигается очень быстро, но и к этому нет никаких препятствий. Земля, которую вы обживаете, как будто делает все для вашего благополучия. Дикие животные не сходят с ума, пытаясь отгрызть кусок от ваших обывателей. Потопы и заморозки не оставляют вас без урожая, сокращая население вашей деревушкки. Соседние кланы не точат зуб на ваш, никто не выясняет, чей килт круче и чья волынка мелодичней. Разбойники не пытаются гопануть вас на предмет денег и людей. И я даже понимаю почему все живут в мире и гармонии: еды и ресурсов везде хоть попой жуй! Налево пойдешь - грибы ягоды найдешь, направо пойдешь - торфа и железной руды наберешь. Я конечно рада за наших шотландских пирожков, но не от всего сердца. [b]ЗАБЕРИТЕ МЕНЯ В ЭТУ СРЕДНЕВЕКОВУЮ ШОТЛАНДСКУЮ УТОПИЮ, ПОЖАЛУЙСТА[/b]. [h3] Гвозди бы делать из этих людей, крепче б не было в мире гвоздей[/h3] По сравнению с другими играми, члены вашего клана самые стойкие люди на земле. Они умеют бегать с рождения, из младенцев сразу становятся подростками, иногда могут простудиться, а если впадут в депрессию - ничего, как впадут так и выпадут, все это не повод не работать. Настоящие средневековые гигачады. Некоторым неженкам, которые тильтуют из-за того, что поели без стола, стоит поучиться у ваших шотландских кремней. Но у этих шотландских кремней межличностные отношения тоже как у камушков: они не начнут рамсить, если их брат обругал их по матери, они не против выйти замуж и жениться на ком угодно, все равно будут вместе жить и детей делать, они не будут уговаривать торговца из другого клана сделать скидку, торговаться для слабаков. В общем, они как будто слишком просты, чтобы доставлять какие-то сложности игроку. [h2]Вывод [/h2] Игре до готового продукта предстоит еще немало улучшений. Пока она ни рыба, ни мяса: [b]не дотягивает ни до сюжетной, ни до песочницы[/b]. Хочется больше контента: как по окружающему миру, так и по самим членам клана. Не нужно превращать игру в Римворлд на Ренди, но каких-то событий все равно не хватает, из-за чего игра становится по прошествии времени такой душной, что остается только основать новое поселение с каким-нибудь более прикольным составом клана, чтобы не заскучать. У игры очень большой потенциал, и [b]разработчики двигаются в правильном направлении[/b]. Удачи в разработке, будем ждать новых обновлений!

Appreciate the hardwork of the solo developer's but as it is currently the game still boils down to surviving the first winter and nothing to look forward after that. Second settlement is mostly just about repeating the same survive-the-first-winter cycle but with your favourite family members and pets. More events like outcast mother that leads to dealing with other clans could have been a potential solution to the endgame issue but that got sidelined in favor of more new tech.

Really enjoyed this game and ended up losing a week of my vacation to it when I first bought it - it's been years since a game managed to suck me in like that. In short, it's a chill colony sim with a focus on historical accuracy and construction/production processes, without any tedious combat. It also taught me that you can bake bread from oats and almost had me order organic landrace oats from a scottish island but they wouldn't ship to Sweden because of Brexit. 10/10 will get sucked into this rabbit hole again.

I love this game, but a bug stopped my progression and I had to give up on many hours of play. Extemely frustrating. I also reported it but no feedback at all.

Consistent feedback/updates, taking advice from community, and dedicated to the overall quality and historically interested in the time (ie: actually follows how the time worked such as bee keeping being detailed and in depth). Game runs smoothly, with many different ways to adjust within the game. While still in .0 land, this game runs far smoother and better than Rimworld. While no mods of yet, I have put so many hours into actually playing this game instead of worrying about the aspects of it. Game ccn be as hard or as simple as you want, changing midgame life and respawn families. There are so many bonuses to this game that it feels full fledged. If interested in Rimworld style of games, check this out!