[b]I will update this review again once the game reaches its final state and is considered feature complete.[/b]
[b]Summary:[/b]
Yes, I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone that enjoys city building, with a medieval theme to it.
[b]Still in Development:[/b]
Although the game released it's 1.0 version, there are still significant content updates planned that will make a big difference to the game experience. However, I would still say this game is well worth playing. I would say some of the updates have been a bit slow to arrive, however they do come often enough to see this game has NOT been abandoned, the developers are still actively fixing bugs and planning new content.
[b]Free Form Building/Pathing:[/b]
This is a feature that has turned some players off this game, however for me I see it as a positive and helps this game stand out from other city builders.
You don't build the houses for your citizens, instead you paint area's where they are allowed to build homes. If you paint large housing area's this can lead to some chaotic housing as people will build the houses randomly around this area. It should be noted though that you can gain complete control over housing and create well planned/organised housing area's by being smart with the in-game tools (either by creating single house sized areas or dividing them up into single house sized plots using fences or paint no go zones that block access).
On top of this, you don't build roads, people will take the shortest path they can find, even if that means cutting across an area you'd prefer they didn’t, like a wheat farm field. Again though, this is easily overcome using the same tools, place fences, or pain no go zones to restrict people to paths you want them to use.
Monument buildings can also be confusing in how they work, a type of building where you create one overall building but continually modify that building throughout the game to add additional sub buildings to it. This allows players to design their own layout for important buildings rather than having to put up with whatever the developers decided a building should look like. It can be confusing initially but ultimately should lead to a lot more variety in the creations players come up with and add to replayability.
Another real positive is that this game embraces hills. One of the major turn offs for me in modern city builders is the number of games that require perfectly flat land, or very close to it, in order to build anything. Foundation throws those rules out the door, you can build on some very hilly terrain and is another feature that helps Foundation stand out from the crowd. I'm tired of building flat as a tack cities, I enjoy games that allow me to build on hilly terrain as it leads to a much more interesting result when you can incorporate hilly terrain into your design.
Again, for me these features are a positive as they lead to a much more organic look and feel to the game and the resulting city, however I understand are features that may turn some players off.
[b]Graphics:[/b]
I feel the graphics are already excellent, there's plenty of colour, and when zoomed in there's nice details on the ground textures and buildings too. So far FPS has been good for me and not experienced any graphics related issues.
[b]Sound:[/b]
The music is nice, although would like to see a few more music tracks added for some variety, but what's there does the job. Sound effects are also fine, nothing groundbreaking but they do the job of helping the world sound alive and buzzing with life.
[b]Bugs;[/b]
Honestly, so far this game has been a very solid experience for me with no bugs at all. I know some players are reporting issues, but I've been lucky enough to avoid them and had a very solid experience. I will admit the game is still a little rough in some places, these aren’t really bugs, just some issues such as when you enlarge the UI some menu’s don’t fit the screen properly, however these are all being worked on and despite these teething issues this game gets my support as there is a ton of potential.
[b]Replayability:[/b]
As with most city builders, there is plenty of replayability, when you're done with the current city, generate a new map and start again. At this point in time there is no map editor, and I would like to see one eventually, I've managed to generate some really great random maps, and there are plenty of options to choose from as you do generate maps, e.g. how hilly the terrain is, how much water, and the sort of features you'd expect to find in most random map generators in a game of this sort.
[b]Final Thoughts:[/b]
As I said, I would recommend this game to anyone that enjoys city builders, try to embrace the more organic style of this game, it can lead to very interesting city designs and to me allows much more creativity.
