Manor Lords Preview

Manor Lords is a challenging venture, where you'll start with a small settlement of five families. Each family's role is crucial, and you'll need to strategise to ensure they contribute effectively. In this unforgiving world, you'll face the challenge of managing resources like heat and food, with other threats lurking in the shadows, adding to the excitement and intrigue of the game.

At the start of each game playthrough, you'll find yourself thrown into a random location in the world map from various regions that you'll be able to venture out into and conquer. Before you can set off and wage war on the world, you'll first have to build a steady, self-working settlement that can meet all of your basic needs, from providing warmth to food, with a handy UI system built to let you know how many months you have of reserves left. 

Struggling to start your world is a gratifying experience that gives you a sense of accomplishment out the other side. Getting your first settlement going offers jittery excitement as you watch it change from the early versions into a large, sprawling town that brings glory to mediaeval times.

One of the first notable things about Manor Lords is its stunning visual design. As a fan of all things mediaeval, the developer Slavic Magic has truly impressed with the game's aesthetic, both in its mechanical gameplay and the elements that come with it.

There are currently three main game modes you can play, and I found myself spending the most time and being enamoured by the city-building one, Rise to Prosperity. The goal is pretty simple and straightforward, as the game gives you clear objectives, mostly centred around being able to upgrade the burgage plots into their advanced versions. This turns into a vast quest to find new ways to please your settlers, from acquiring a new food source (from various to find and choose from) and filling the market to getting clothes or securing weaponry for your army.

The clear goals and things to do are welcome, as it creates a sense of progression and feels like a steady climb from poverty to riches. The sense of gratification is further amplified by the cinematic shots you'll be able to take of your city as it grows. Manor Lords does a great job of implementing grid-free building that's engaging to play with and creates organic-looking cities that seem like they came straight out of a mediaeval fantasy set. This is the city builder I've most spent time on cinematic mode taking screenshots, and just a few hours in, I'd nearly amassed 100 pictures taken — some of which I assure you will become my monitor background in the future.

Whenever you venture into either of the other two game modes, you'll find yourself fighting for your life against a slew of threats, from thieving bandits to raiders and the enemy AI lord you'll have to face. From my time playing the game, this part of the experience was bugged, with the AI lord decimated and expanded rapidly, amassing a large army whilst I still barely had enough for backyard battles.

It's a bug that's already in the works to get fixed, but its combat and army amassing is pretty fun — I just wish I'd had the time to pick up a blade and fight back. You'll equally distribute your militia among the male settlers of each family, and from there, you'll be able to command them and create battle strategies to respond to how your foe is attacking on the battlefield. It's great fun when you do get to engage in combat — I can't wait until the bugs are fixed and I can start my journey to conquer.

Manor Lords is still in its Early Access state, having come out just on the 26th of April 2024, but the developer has stated numerous times — they want feedback. It'll be an ever-growing project working together with the community to bring the title to its fullest potential.

Despite its Early Access tag, there aren't really that many bugs. I only encountered one major one where my settlers decided we were out of timber when I had a vast amount, but it's nothing that won't get patched out quickly and a save and reload won't fix. Once the AI lords have been amended, the gameplay will be great fun, and you can already start your city-builder journey and manage all of the regions with their own cities and settlements, creating the ultimate kingdom in an endless mode.