Introduction
Today we will wander around, not ourselves, but on Onbu. A giant gentle that is harboring a tribe of people. My wife played this game on Xbox. It is your goal to build a thriving civilization while either harming your gentle giant, or taking care of him. Let us take a deeper look into this game that has you wandering across the poisonous world.
What did Simone think before playing Wandering Village?
She saw it come by on Gamepass while looking for a new game to play. We did see it was in early access, but she liked the trailer as it showcased numerous building elements, while living on a dinosaur like creature. We both love dinosaurs, so that was a big selling point! She wanted to know more, and thus we checked the Steam page as it is the best place for gathering information.
The Steam page
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1121640/The_Wandering_Village/
This page was more informative than we had expected, there is also a steady stream of updates. You will need to build a functioning village or people will starve, yes, they might just, die. It seems you will indeed be given a choice, either live together with Onbu and both prosper, or hurt him and only think about your own people. My wife loves dinosaurs, she was keen to see how she could apply this choice.
Rating
I rated The Wandering Village with an 8.1 before playing.
My wife was sold, we installed the game, and she got ready to traverse this land filled with poison!
Story
The story starts with a small tribe running away from the poison that festers in the world. To their luck, they find a sleeping Onbu that allows them to live on his back. This gave rise to more challenges but also a safety from a lot of the poison spores on earth.
Rating
I rate the story of Wandering Village with a 7.0
While I love the intro, there is no true ending yet, I think this will be implemented later on in the development cycle.
Gameplay
The gameplay is quite intricate and complex. If you are looking for an easy village builder, then this might not be the game for you. The beginning is very rough as you barely have people or resources. Making wrong choices will end up with all of your tribe dead and a game over. You might think, my tribe will just give birth to new people. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, that is not happening in this game, then how do you find new tribe members?
You will need to build scavenger towers to find other people who live on the ground. Some are starving, or even sick. Which is why you need a doctor with a medicinal herb farm. Otherwise, you will soon have a whole poisoned community and death will soon follow. Once you have a doctor and a good stash of food, you will need to scavenge the world and find decent people to join your tribe. They love to work and make sure you prosper, but there is a big pit that you might fall into in this game.
If you keep on building, without having people to actually man the stations, then nothing will work. The smartest thing to do in this game is to only build for the people you have. As your city grows bigger, you can also man a research station. These points can be used to learn about new buildings, prosper with Onbu, or harm him. Learning how this game works is harder than you might think.
Next to growing your tribe and creating new buildings, Onbu will walk the earth. If you have a good bond, he will even listen to where you want to go. There are different biomes and they all have pros and cons. If you want to fish, you need to find an ocean biome. If you are in need of wood, a forest biome is a good place to look. I expect that more biomes will be added later to the game.
Rating
I rated the gameplay of Wandering Village with an 8.3
There is a lot to do already, my wife played the game several times while I watched and learned. Otherwise, I can’t type the review! There are higher difficulties and as updates are pouring in, I expect the gameplay mechanics to grow and evolve. As of now, you can go on for a long time but expect to easily sink in ten hours to just properly learn the game mechanics.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics are unique, it feels like a mix of 2D and 3D. You know the people are flat but also not flat. The surrounding biomes are pretty to look at. All the buildings have a unique flare to them, even the poison plants that you need to burn. Despite the limited space on Onbu’s back, it feels like there is enough room to build with how slow you accrue people. There are a few graphical glitches but they were not bothering and I expect them to be fixed in the final release.
Sound
The soundtracks are great and fun to listen too, each biome has a new soundtrack. The ocean biome is very relaxing though, and ominous music plays when a poisonous spore is coming closer, or even a tornado, a whirlpool! The sound effects of these extreme weathers are good, along with Onbu snoring and doing other stuff.
Rating
I rated the sound and graphics of the Wandering Village with an 8.5
I would rate it higher, but I disliked the user interface, if they would give it a nice overhaul.
While typing this review, I saw a new update has been released that actually overhauls the user interface! Simone will be playing this game when the final release drops, we look forward to seeing the new user interface!
What did Simone think after playing The Wandering Village?
She really enjoyed playing this game, there was already a lot of content and biomes to explore. Simone had to learn how this game works, since usually, you just breed new slaves, I mean, humans to man the stations. As she messed it up the first time, which was to be expected from a game that loves to screw you over, she did great the second time, and the third time, we recorded a full playthrough!
The hardest part is that you need to move slow in this game. Once you have the ingredients to bake bread, along with a few good doctors, you will rule from Onbu’s back, starvation, and poison will no longer be a problem.
Rating
I rated The Wandering Village with an 8.8 after playing.
Despite that there is room for improvement, as to a proper endgame scenario, this game is already a very fun game. The gameplay mechanics all click together.
Last Words
Pros
- There is already a lot of content for early access
- There are many biomes to visit, all of them are unique
- A special mechanic as to how you can grow your tribe
- Many different buildings, great graphics along with nice soundtracks
- Easy to play, hard to master
- Many different resources to collect
Cons
- The user interface needs an overhaul
- There is limited space on Onbu's back
If you are into village building games, then this is sincerely one of the games that you need to try! If I had not watched Simone play it so much, I would have tried it myself.
The Final Rating
8.1
Please let me know what you think of The Wandering Village in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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Haha this definitely seems fun! Village sim on a dinosaur that’s really a unique idea!
It is indeed, it is a challenging game!
seems and looks very nice, wishlisted!
I would like to play it when it’s finished
There should be a lot of updates in the neat future.
interesting game
It’s been on my wishlist. Good game.
Looks indeed interesting, have added to my wl.
“There is limited space on Onbu’s back” Well, I think managing space is the main theme of the game
It is indeed the main them of this game. I mentioned it since unlike some other simulators, you cannot build like a maniac.
Nice review! Thanks for pointing out this really cool twist on city builders. There hasn’t been a really good one in a long, long time.
Yeah, they are hard to make.
Good review! This game looks interesting!
You convinced me sven, I might pick this up in the next sale!
I am glad you like this review enough to pick it up!
The games concept seemed to be more relaxed than what you described in the gameplay. I’ll have a deeper Look into this nice game.
It is not relaxing!
Still not played but still wanna play xD. I wonder what changes they made, but game is still in early access.