Pioneers of Pagonia

Pagonia is slow, a bit awkward, and sometimes weirdly ugly, but I had a really good time with it. Overall, I’d say this is a very good game and a worthy successor to The Settlers. It has issues, some of them quite obvious, but considering this is the studio’s first game, it’s a decent and promising start. I’ll definitely be interested in future expansions. The game starts off a bit overwhelming because there are so many buildings, resources, production chains and unit types. At first it feels like a lot, but to the game’s credit, it teaches you at a good pace. Before long, you start a new island and already know the usual opening steps, what you need, and how to build your economy properly. What felt intimidating at the beginning actually became one of the better parts of the game. It is definitely slow, but not in a bad way. And if it gets too slow, you can increase the speed up to x5, so that complaint only goes so far. Some reviews say you can just peacefully build for ages, but that wasn’t really my experience. The game keeps throwing enemies at you in waves, which keeps things engaging. That means it’s not exactly a cosy city builder, but honestly, I think that’s a good thing. The combat is decent, although I wish the fantasy side was stronger. High-tier units don’t look especially impressive, casters could really use some cool spells, and I still don’t know if wealth affects defensive stats or anything like that. The game also never clearly teaches you that units can be downgraded. I found that completely by accident when I was almost done with the campaign, which is a bit ridiculous. One thing I disagree with from some negative reviews is the idea that you need to build every type of unit every time. I don’t think that’s true. It feels more like each campaign map gives you a pool of options, and you choose what makes sense from what’s available. The building and visual design is probably my biggest complaint. A lot of the buildings are just ugly. The two final buildings look nice, and maybe the millhouse, but many others look like they belong to a different art style. The grass is too green, the roofs are too orange, and the terrain terraforming looks cheap and unpleasant. I think buildings should have been placed on proper foundations, like in Warcraft 3, instead of the terrain being stretched and changed so badly. Buildings are also harder to identify than they should be. In games like this, you should be able to glance at your town and instantly know what everything is. Here, many buildings don’t look typical enough for their function, so finding what you need can be annoying. The lack of hotkeys doesn’t help either. There should be hotkeys to highlight units, jump between discovered resources, show what’s inside each storage, and generally make navigation less clunky. The town can also end up looking bald after deforestation. I really wish there was a non-resource forester or decorative tree planter, just to make villages look nicer again. Using a normal forester in the town centre is annoying because the trees then need to be cut down when you want to place buildings. You end up planting trees and cutting them down at the side, which works mechanically, but it doesn’t help if you want a nice natural-looking settlement. The beautification side is a missed opportunity in general. Extra props don’t seem to affect anything, which is a shame. There are no nice monuments, and artifacts should really be displayed in some kind of shrine or special building instead of feeling so disconnected. A game like this could have leaned much harder into fantasy and visual charm. There are also a few systems that either aren’t explained well or don’t feel fully useful. The mine mechanics confused me. My mines were full of food and wood, but I rarely seemed to get 100% effectiveness, if ever. I also don’t really understand what the number next to a dish means. For miners, I assume it affects how long they can work before needing more deliveries, but for villagers I’m less sure. Does it affect how quickly they reproduce? Who knows. Apparently the Pagonian culinary economy is classified information. Taverns also felt obsolete to me. Since the market is enough to populate even high-tier houses, I never felt like I needed taverns to generate workers. If I built a big house somewhere on the map, it would get populated, and the houses in the centre would get new workers anyway. Maybe I missed something, but my feeling was that taverns just weren’t necessary. A few other missing features stood out. Not being able to build bridges is disappointing. Not being able to upgrade buildings also feels like a missed opportunity. And the fact that every Pagonian can only carry one single unit of goods is ridiculous. It does make the village look alive, which is nice, but surely there has to be a better way. How have these people built an entire civilisation and still not invented carts? The story is okay, but it could be better. Some of it is told in a slightly infantile way, and one of the plot twists is given away far too early in a silly way, which is just poor writing. The world has potential, but the game could do more with it. With all that said, I still had really good fun. Despite the rough edges, confusing systems, ugly terraforming, missing hotkeys, and the apparent national ban on wheeled transport, Pagonia is a strong and enjoyable builder. It kept me engaged, it grew on me, and by the end I was genuinely satisfied with it. It could be prettier, clearer, and more ambitious with its fantasy elements, but the foundation is solid. I’m glad this exists, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the developers take it next.