TFM: The First Men

Gets regular patches that change the game completely. it was nice once and currently it's a hot mess with a lot of bugs. Don't buy it right now.

I am sad. This game has been on my wish list for a long time. I almost clicked the buy button several times but have been burned by games in EA status many times before...so I was waiting for further development. I saw it on the fall sale and decided to give it a spin. I saw that some people posted the they removed some of the original features reducing the game to a simple slog. but decided to give a try anyway. Now was the time! I excitedly and anxiously loaded it up and started the tutorial. There is a tutorial scenario but its not much of a tutorial. The instructions were so basic yet confusing because I guess the tutorial does not reflect the changes from the updates. "Click the person to select" done. "Collect 15 wood" OK Cant chop trees, so i assume theses things on the ground are wood. They are brambles sometimes they drop wood." got 15 done. "Build a cooking hut" Where is the build menu? Ok found it "Assign a person to the cooking hut" Ok click the person right click the cooking hut? That worked "Build a warrior hut" same thing and i assigned a warrior. "Time to make the first man and woman a couple, Click the binding icon next to their name" Huh? There is no icon next to their name. Fumbled with that for 15 minutes. Then I realized that food icon above their head was not because they were eating but because they were hungry. Why are my people hungry? There has been someone assigned to the cooking hut this whole time. Oh he has too level up to learn a recipe. Every task after this was a tedious confusing attempt at trial and error to learn this game. I cant recommend this game at this time but I look forward to the possibility of repurchasing in the future. I know this game is in EA, and I don't expect polished, but for $20 (on sale) and being 2 years old it should be a bit more functional. It seems like the devs don't even know what the finished product is supposed to look like. Im going to be returning this until I start seeing better reviews. For similar games you can read my reviews on Clanfolk, Norland and Rimworld

**DO NOT BUY THIS GAME, DEVELOPMENT HAS ALL BUT STOPPED** This game started out a fun and promising twist. I bought it, and played a ton. Early in development the dev was active and communicated well. The game went through several overhauls and changes. But sadly has been left paralyzed in an unplayable state with no plan or action since the last communication of a promised update in may 2025. im leaving my review as negative until the game is playable again.

游戏刚发出就买了，放着想等很完善之后再来玩。今天过来一看，取消了中文！！！你们的行为就是欺诈消费者！！！我在Steam的第一个差评给到你。

[h1]Concise Game Reviews: "TFM: The First Men"[/h1] [i](Scroll down for the longer version)[/i] [table] [tr] [th][b]Game Value:[/b][/th] [th]✅ Highly recommended for fans of deep strategy and base-building simulations, especially those who enjoy complex civilization-building with RTS and 4X elements.[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Game Tags:[/b][/td] [td]✔Early Access ✔Colony Simulation ✔Base Building ✔Strategy ✔Sandbox ✔Simulation ✔Construction ✔Open World ✔Management ✔Survival ✔Procedural Generation ✔2D ✔Fantasy ✔Tactical RPG ✔Resource Management ✔Exploration ✔Crafting ✔Real-Time Tactics ✔City Building ✔Cartoon-Style[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Genre Classification:[/b][/td] [td]A strategic simulation focusing on character-driven base building, exploration, and real-time tactical combat, with elements of RTS and 4X gameplay.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Game Length:[/b][/td] [td]Approximately 30~60 hours, with open-ended gameplay and procedural generation adding significant replayability.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Challenge Level:[/b][/td] [td]High; complex systems require careful planning and strategic decision-making, especially in managing civilization growth and tactical combat.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Graphics:[/b][/td] [td]Distinct and atmospheric, with a comic book-style aesthetic that blends fantasy elements with historical visuals.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Technical Stability:[/b][/td] [td]]Currently in Early Access, with some reports of bugs and performance issues, but regular updates are improving stability.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Replay Value:[/b][/td] [td]High; procedural elements, diverse character progression paths, and various game modes offer varied experiences across playthroughs.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [b]For further insights, feel free to join my [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/MaverickGameVault]Steam group[/url] or follow my updates on my [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/MaverickGameVault/curation]curator page[/url]. [h1]Detailed review:[/h1] [table] [tr] [td][b]What It Is:[/b][/td] [td] 🌟 [b]Real-Time Strategy with RPG Elements:[/b] "TFM: The First Men" is a strategy game where you lead a primitive society from its origins as a small tribe to a sprawling empire. The game blends RTS, 4X, and RPG elements to create a deep, complex simulation experience. 🔥 [b]Epic Story and Exploration:[/b] Set in a fantasy world, you guide the first humans, Adam and Eve, as they navigate a world filled with mythical creatures, diverse cultures, and ancient secrets. The story-driven gameplay allows players to shape their civilization's history through their decisions. 🎯 [b]Character-Driven Progression:[/b] The game emphasizes the growth of individual characters through attributes like body, mind, soul, and heart. These attributes, combined with hundreds of perks, influence the development of your tribe and the success of your empire. 🎨 [b]Unique Visual Style:[/b] The game features fully two-dimensional graphics with a comic book-inspired aesthetic, enhancing the mythological and historical themes. ⚙️ [b]Tactical Combat and Civilization Building:[/b] Engage in real-time tactical combat with an active pause option, allowing for strategic planning. Build cities, develop technology, and manage resources while interacting with other civilizations, either through diplomacy or warfare. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]🌟[b]Overview:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]"TFM: The First Men" is a character-focused strategy game that challenges players to lead the first humans through their early history. With an emphasis on strategic decision-making, resource management, and real-time tactical combat, players must balance exploration, base-building, and the evolving needs and abilities of their characters. The game offers a blend of RTS, 4X, and RPG elements, providing a rich, multi-layered experience.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]🎮[b]Gameplay:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Step into the role of a leader guiding the first humans, balancing resource gathering, base building, and character progression with strategic decision-making. Ensure survival, explore a dynamic world, and engage in tactical combat. 🌍 [b]Exploration:[/b] Discover new lands, interact with civilizations, and uncover ancient secrets in a world of opportunities and dangers. 🔧 [b]Character Progression:[/b] Develop characters through attributes, skills, and traits, with each decision shaping their growth and the tribe's future. 💥 [b]Combat System:[/b] Engage in real-time tactical combat with a pause function, allowing for strategic planning. Choose between peaceful or martial interactions with other races, adding depth to the gameplay. With deep strategy and character progression, "TFM: The First Men" delivers a compelling and immersive experience. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]📖[b]Story and Depth:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Set in a mythological world inspired by creation stories, "TFM: The First Men" delivers a narrative-rich experience. The story unfolds through the lives of your characters, each with their own attributes, skills, and destiny. The game emphasizes character-driven storytelling, where your choices shape the narrative and influence the world around you. The game's narrative depth is further enhanced by its dynamic world and the constant evolution of your tribe, ensuring that every playthrough offers a unique experience. The game also includes RPG-like adventures, where players direct groups of heroes to complete tasks and gather treasures.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]🏆[b]Verdict:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] "TFM: The First Men" is an ambitious and engaging strategy game that combines deep character development with complex base-building mechanics. The game provides a rich, narrative-driven experience where every decision has lasting consequences. Its unique blend of tactical combat, exploration, and character progression makes it a standout in the genre. While the game is still in Early Access and has some rough edges, the frequent updates and active development promise a bright future. For fans of deep strategy games with a strong narrative focus, "TFM: The First Men" is a must-play.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]✅[b]Good:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] 👍 [b]Character-driven gameplay:[/b] Deep progression with narrative focus. 👍 [b]Strategic combat:[/b] Real-time tactics with pause for depth. 👍 [b]Civilization building:[/b] Grow from a small tribe to an empire. 👍 [b]Exploration:[/b] Engaging world with secrets to uncover. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]🛠️[b]Ways of Improvement:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] 👎 [b]Steep learning curve:[/b] The game's complexity can be overwhelming for new players; a more comprehensive tutorial would help. 👎 [b]Limited content variation:[/b] Adding more diverse events and scenarios could enhance replayability. 👎 [b]UI improvements needed:[/b] The user interface could be more intuitive and streamlined to reduce micromanagement frustrations. 👎 [b]Pacing:[/b] The slow progression of gameplay can be tedious, even with the option to accelerate time. [/td] [/tr] [/table]

The early game is horrible. You don't grow food like you do in other games, you level your cooker, which takes a while unless you "inspire" them, which is how your going to level anything other than a fighter... Underworld invasions consist of a weirdo trying to stomp on your camp, there's some dogs that try to help you, but it's no different than fighting a snake or a raccoon. Again, leveling anything other than a fighter is is just pressing the "inspire" button, breeding is the press of another button...bonding, yep, press that button. It's a clicker, so if you like those, go for it, but an in depth story....HA, not here. There's a million management games better than this. The game has changed direction numerous times, and while I know it is early access, it's changes have only really tried to hide the aforementioned fact...its an idle clicker, and not so much a deep management game, not that it doesn't have a place there, for a clicker its great, something you could play with one hand :)

The game is not finished, many mechanics hinder having fun in the game. It is very hard to understand how to gain certain resources and items that are necessary for advancing the settlement. Most of the time is spend trying to maintain food and workforce, since there is almost no automatic food generation and every time someone dies you have to manually replace him at his former workplace. The fighting system is very basic and suffers from your party dying of old age very quickly, it is necessary to constantly retrain your fighters, which consumes resouces. All this makes the game very cumbersome and tedious to plain, compared to e.g. rimworld or noble fates.

其实还是满有想法的村庄管理类游戏，每个村民可以独特培养，然后组队去探险，有scenario有科技树，相当于是个4X版的环世界。 但是官方很明显在宣传上不够成熟， - 首先确实是在并非有确定的本地化支持下，在商店页添加了太多国际语言，让人以为游戏发售时已有该语言可玩（实际上只有零星的UI机器翻译），而国内玩家是很看重本地化的（非英语拉丁语系玩家都很需要本地化，而国内玩家数量最多），虚假宣传很容易招致差评。 - 然后是既然并未专门委托本地化公司进行本地化工作，但官方也并未给玩家提供一个志愿翻译平台，例如crowdin、transifex、weblate等，想贡献翻译的志愿者也爱莫能助 - 此外在官方公告中对于本地化支持的公告缺少委婉，过于绝对，“我们决定在商店页面移除英语之外的所有其它语言支持。”这句话加粗明显是放错重点了，“移除语言支持”不应该是目的，“正确反映现状”才应该是。而后面提到的社区翻译平台如上面所述，到现在也没有提供。（但是商店页内容当初是有翻译平台的，其中文还是我翻译的，不知道为什么游戏自身没有提供……） Steam的算法很看重以下几点，关注度、评价、销售额，有一个够高就可以提高算法权重，出现在商店页的各种推荐位置。而本地化问题很明显影响到了游戏在steam上评价，使得steam曝光度太低，后续乏力。 这样的游戏销量很明显难以覆盖开发商的各项成本，现在能缓慢更新已经很难能可贵了， 现在回过头来看蛮可惜的，游戏的概念还是非常不错的。 顺便说下，游戏内置中文字体，只是文本没有本地化，以及有少量hardcoded的文本无法翻译 https://github.com/UnluckyNinja/tfm-localization-mod/ 这是我22年开发的文本导出导入MOD，MIT开源，借助BepInEx开发，可能不适应当前版本， 而且也比较朴素，功能简单，但代码应该很容易读懂， 就是找到包含文本的变量，然后在游戏加载阶段实现导入导出功能。 有心人可以在此之上构建一套完整的本地化工作流，可以参考《本所七大不可思议》的汉化组的工作流。 一些碎碎念：[spoiler]当我在官方Discord频道指出上文提及的几点问题后，突然有个国人不是直接回复英文频道中我发的消息，而是特地跑到中文频道用中文飙脏话骂我，说我是在侮辱国人，我当即就黑人问号遂block之。 原本我也想帮助本地化翻译中文的，还搞了一个文本导入导出的MOD，但是之后每当想起翻译频道有这么一个出口成脏的人，我都不太想打开官方discord了[/spoiler]

It was a promissing game but developmed stopped mid of 2025. The company web pages do not exist anymore and LinkedIn profile shows the initial three employees were replaced by one single guy, who probably just waits and hopes people will still pay 25,- for an abandoned game. It's a shame it was such a promising game with a new take on colony sim.

两年多了，更新没几次，还中途取消了中文，在仓库吃灰，最后悔买的一个游戏