Checking in with Fabledom

How do you feel about revisiting previously played games? I love to revisit family all the time. Video games though, are a little different. I am straightforward when it comes to how I tackle a game. I like to play and see it to my personal conclusion, whether that is beating the game, or often giving up and forgetting about it. I do that plenty with games I am not reviewing; it is always the games I purchased that get ignored most. When I first tried out Fabledom, it was as a preview for Gaming Nexus. Since then about a year has come and gone, and Fabledom has grown. I recently had the chance to return to and see how development finished. Turns out, the path it was on was made with care and support.

Lucky for me, the story in Fabledom hasn’t changed much at all. This fantasy city-builder has stayed true to its early roots. You are still the heir of a thriving kingdom, and now it is time for you to make your way through this world. Find your own land, settle, and grow it into a kingdom. It is easier than it sounds. People just begin to show up. I love that every NPC is given a first, bland, name. Little touches like that are nice to see, and make me think that even something trivial as naming an NPC I will have zero contact with in my time was still done. 

The visual charm of Fabledom has thankfully remained a constant highlight. The game's blend of realistic and cartoonish elements is a visual treat. The environments are beautifully crafted, and the buildings are a testament to the game's aesthetic appeal. Fabledom continues to be a delight to behold. I especially love the look of the winter season and areas of Fabledom. It’s not just the visual glamour of Fabledom that I admire. The dialogue is great. Witty, charming, humorous - I love their take on it.

Diplomacy is the biggest addition to help drive home the idea that Fabledom isn’t the same game it was in Early Access.  You have other towns that you do not control, where you can interact with those leaders. You can even marry a neighboring one if you so choose. Deciding how to act with neighbors, aggressive or friendly, is up to you. But, who you choose to marry matters, how you handle certain aspects determines how some conflicts will be answered. 

I began a new game,  hating the idea of starting off where I had left off. While I could do that, I would feel utterly lost in what I was aiming to accomplish. When I left Fabledom, there were still many features that were unavailable to me. That has since changed, so I felt a fresh start was best. I found the tutorial to be as annoying, if not more, than it was before. It more or less tells you how to play, step by step. I knew exactly what I was doing in the early stages of Fabledom. I knew where I could and could not set up buildings.

My biggest gripe is just the timing loop the game forces the player into. Everything takes time, and Fabledom wants you to know. At one point I turned on a show with my second screen to help kill some of the time. But that worked out well. I was able to watch a show, and play Fabledom without much hassle. With everything feeling like it was slowed came the feeling of repetition. I feel like Fabledom has plenty to keep me entertained for hours, but it does feel like I am frequently repeating myself in my actions.

There is always new land to grab and turn into something, farms, condos, refineries of some sort. It feels never-ending. Sometimes in a good way, I’ll play a few more turns before calling it a night. It also feels like I don’t know why I am spending all this time playing. The slow timing might be due to some changes in how resource management works. I don’t recall enough about my previous experience to nail the specific change, but, one has been made, and it has not let to a full stop of progress while playing but has led to a slowdown in the speed of my overall progress. The biggest problem came when my people were starving to death from the lack of resource gathering I had at the time. It became unsustainable.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Fabledom is still solid. Issues, yes, and plenty of them. But it is a well-made game that runs without much issue and has a high replay value. Patience is the name of the game. There is no need to be in a hurry, while there is an end-game in mind when playing, it will take time to get there. Enjoy the ride - I found it worth taking. Get a few games under your belt and you can start to see the issues coming and know how to better prepare for your next run.