Medieval Dynasty is a survival simulator developed by Render Cube and published by Toplitz Productions. Players control the peasant Racimir, whose parent’s home is ransacked during the war. Remembering tales of his uncle Iordan staking a claim for himself, Racimir treks tirelessly from danger towards the village of Gostovia. But, upon arrival learns that Iordan too has passed away, and with no relatives, he must eke out a new life.

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Thankfully, Racimir is a skilled craftsman and can design many tools and buildings. Players will start with the very basics of gathering sticks and stones by hand. But soon, one will have the option to make rudimentary axes, hammers, hoes, and spears. These, in turn, allow access to more bulky resources like wood logs and ore. Racimir can then start creating a home, as no space within Gostovia proper is available. These objects have durability, resulting in a need to recraft and repair tools and structures constantly.

Players need to be mindful of Racimir’s basic needs. He has a stamina limit which will cause activities to become more challenging and slower unless given a few seconds to catch his breath. The standard health bar is where players will suffer damage from falling, objective collision, or wild animal attacks. Most importantly, Racimir must drink and eat to prevent further health loss. This can be quenched by gathering wild fruit, fishing, cooking, or buying food from townsfolk. Finally, the realistic day-night cycle and weather effects may make it too dark or hazy to see clearly. For this, torches can be made to illuminate the area.

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After making a secure home, it becomes up to players how they want to progress. Racimir can try to live totally off the land on his own or take up a skilled trade. Villagers are always eager for a supplier of wood, ore, and food; they would happily barter their items or trade money directly. Many folks will also have resource requests, such as wanting a well-made hammer or help in planting carrots.

As players become more reputable, neighbors may start sharing stories of their past or ask about events elsewhere in the country. Racimir can uncover details by speaking to multiple people across different villages and even pursue a romance with any single woman. With time they can marry and raise a child. If Racimir dies while his descendant is an adult (18), players can even continue as said new protagonist.

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With enough supplies and know-how, players should not feel obligated to remain near Gostovia and can uproot their families to any unoccupied area. With time and security, other travelers may decide to settle in the same land, allowing Racimir to become more of a leader as Iordan did. This allows giving direct orders and scheduling to enable villagers to develop the settlement independently, create shops, and build new houses.

Racimir has many known skills but slightly fumbles to execute them. Almost every task involves juggling through menus to select a craft or design, sort load-outs, and manage inventory. Additionally, objects have weight and condition percentages, making it essential to only carry what is genuinely needed or risk sluggish movement. A more fluid system could have used more shortcut hotkeys or a detailed heads-up display. It feels like the design interface was made for controller input, and keyboards are afterthoughts. This clarifies that Render Cube has the ambition to make the game more readily accessible for a console port.

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While there is a lot of doing in and lots of freedom in Medieval Dynasty, it can be rather hard to track progress and easily get lost in it all. Very often, the game will bombard with many waypoint markers all stacked near each other, making it hard to discern where to go. Once at a location, no direct quest markers will be visible; players will need to speak directly to the quest-related person. Because many NPCs roam during the day, tracking down certain people or merchants can be a headache. Worse yet, some supplies might only be available in a few towns - one might find themselves in need of wool or eggs and discover they will need to travel a few hours to the next village.

Medieval Dynasty runs into the issue that most other sandbox-style games have: players need to find their fun. While NPCs might have some early objectives, most of their storylines drop after two or three entries. After a few hours, there will be no main goal anymore, with players simply having to choose how they will progress further. This can be ideal for those that just want to build a house, village, or explore. But it can also make it indeterminate when things are going well, or a conclusion is in sight.

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Medieval Dynasty had been in early access for over a year. While it is now officially released, it doesn’t feel completely done. Render Cube still has plans for more update patches, including direct combat with bandits. Other features are still possible, with maybe an option to create a female Racimir. There is still a lot of meat to satisfy diehard simulator fans. But others might want to wait until even more features are added.

Kurtis Seid, NoobFeed
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