Whatever fortunes are amassed in this medieval city builder, a cut must go to the king. Somewhat cheekily, this goes far beyond gold, even extending to pieces of the finest peasant clothing from the local tailor, and honey from your hives. Not even the bees are safe from zealous taxation! The time soon comes to take a stand, which can only be achieved by creating a bustling empire, assembling an army, and marching upon the capital to demand sovereignty.
This isn’t something that simply occurs overnight, with the lengthy campaign seeing you turn a settlement into a village, and then a town, and eventually a thriving city – all the while listening to the demands and needs of your forever growing population. This includes ensuring food, clothing and medication are in steady supply, establishing a religion with places to worship, passing new laws, and keeping the public safe by forging weapons before appointing guards.
The first chapter of the campaign acts as a tutorial, showing how to get the essential components up and running. Your workforce is limited, and so are resources such as wood and ore. Buildings must be connected by roads, too. Not only this, but they must be within catchment areas – which can be extended, but not greatly. For example, crop fields, a dry store and a marketplace must all be close to one another to feed the population. The same goes for a lumberjack, a sawmill, and a warehouse. Missing components are highlighted with a spinning icon, along with a brief description. This doesn’t always guarantee a smooth operation, though, as sometimes you’ll need to stop and figure out why needs aren’t being met.
The combat system is something of a disappointment, involving placing dull tiles on a static grid rather than 3D battlegrounds with animated characters. You’re given the chance to create an army first – initially formed from farmers with pitchforks – and can use your resources to create fences and pitfall traps. These must be placed on a grid before taking turns to move your squad around, either using close or ranged attacks. While there is scope to corner foes, this is unquestionably a city builder foremost, with combat only acting as a diversion.
Luckily, there is quite a bit to get into elsewhere. There’s a list of laws to enact and dozens of buildings to construct, including a homeless shelter, a university, glassworks, and decorations such as fountains. In addition to the campaign and a free mode with a choice of difficulties, there are a bunch of scenarios to complete. One scenario involves turning your population into booze hounds to drink a thousand pitchers of ale, while another sees your village set upon by werewolves. You’ll also need to fend of waves of Vikings for an entire year, and create a holy city able to accommodate hundreds of worshipers. In every scenario the basics of a town are, more or less, established. The same map however is used throughout, right down to resource locations, while a repetitive lute melody plays on a short loop.
While the UI is reasonably intuitive to navigate, this console conversion suffers from small text. Peculiarly, only the cursor can be enlarged. A few examples of odd capitalisation within the menus also let the package slide. If you’ve played Driftland: The Magic Revival, from the same publisher, you may be at an advantage as it appears to use that as a blueprint for its controller layout. A surprise addition to this Xbox Series version is keyboard and mouse support, which is never a given.
One thing difficult to shake about Feudal Baron is the lack of general excitement. This is a slow, methodical, city builder where tasks can take ages to complete. You’ll be gradually working your way through objectives that become increasingly convoluted, all while waiting for resources to be gathered and produced. Frustratingly, the longer you linger on certain tasks, the more taxes you’ll have to pay. I guess that was intended to be a motivator, but all it does is bog the experience. The king wants a cut of everything. So, while this conversion isn’t broken in any way, Feudal Baron nevertheless commits the gaming sin of being rather dull. In the console space, that’s akin to high treason.
Sim Farm S.A’s Feudal Baron: King’s Land is out now on Xbox Series with a PS5 version due 6th August. Published by Ultimate Games. The PC version launched in 2024.