CategoriSing ‘Medieval Dynasty’ into a certain type of game is proving to be far more difficult than it was to hunt deer with sticks. It is part survival, part simulation-sandbox, part town-building strategy, and definitely very medieval. In the game, we start as a landless young man on the outskirts of a town. Young man begins to learn to pick up sticks and stones, make an axe, cut a tree, harvest a reed, and build a house. But this is where ‘Medieval Dynasty’ stops being high-quality ‘Minecraft’.
The young man soon realises that he is hungry and can no longer live in isolation to feed himself. The game now introduces quests. This put us in contact with different people that live in prosperous villages in our vicinity. The young man must gain favour from his fellow NPCs, so that he can build his legacy. In the process of fighting beasts, building a small village, and razing down bushes—days pass into nights, weeks, and seasons. The young man becomes an old man. But his legacy perseveres, that is, if he manages to find a soulmate fast enough.
‘Medieval Dynasty’ has several virtues, of which the best is the ease of customisation. At any point in the game, we can choose to decide how relaxing or challenging we would like our experience to be. The sensitivity of the hunger-thirst-stamina triad, and the restrictive inventory capacity can all be done away with if we want a peaceful gameplay experience. Yes, it is cool that the game allows us to build windmills to double our flour supply.
But have you met a game that can shift seamlessly from first to third person? The average survival-gamer would disagree, but I think it is cool that ‘Medieval Dynasty’ allows me to enjoy realistic medieval pastures while my player hacks through a forest. My only gripe is that it does not allow for a woman character starter option—I hope this is fixed in future updates, unless the ‘Medieval Dynasty’ makers consider women to be non-existent entities pre-1500 AD.
After over a year in Early Access, the game is available on the PC. If you are a survival/simulation enthusiast, ‘Medieval Dynasty’ is enjoyable in its current form, and worth a try.