I was immediately intrigued when Farthest Frontier was announced in February because it's a medieval city simulator being made by Crate Entertainment, the studio responsible for Grim Dawn. I very much like Grim Dawn, it's one of the best action-RPGs to come along in years, but it's also, you know, an action-RPG.
City sims and ARPGs are pretty disparate genres, but as unalike as they may be, the new teaser for Farthest Frontier that appeared at the PC Gaming Show emphasized one major similarity between these two: Shit is grim.
"Life can be harsh everywhere, but in the Old World there was no hope of it ever improving," the narrator says. "When our crops failed, the ruling class would still collect the same share, leaving our children to starve. And if we had any coin to our name, the tax man would appear, demanding it for the Crown."
- Nested Lands is a 'brutal' survival city-builder about guiding villagers through a plague-infested world, and you can play its open alpha right now
- This ancient city sim constantly simulates 1000 NPCs in a clockwork murder sandbox where you can poison someone's drink and leave 'confident that you've pulled off the perfect crime'
Not all that different from today, am I right? Anyway, amidst this great vortex of peasantry suckage, a few hardy souls decided it was time to hit the bricks and try their luck elsewhere. It was a rough journey, and plenty of people died along the way, but hope is on the horizon.
Also on the horizon, according to the Steam page, is:
- Dysentery
- Cholera
- Scurvy
- Tetanus
- Rabies
- Frostbite
- Bubonic plague
All of which come on top of the usual issues with starvation, animal attacks, violence, and accidents. Not a good time for anyone, fair to say, but if you can pull it off your people might end up living in a pretty nice place. The developers have been posting a series of city-building blog updates on Steam over the past couple of months, and it seems to be coming together quite well. They've even got a pizza oven!
Farthest Frontier also now has a release date: It's scheduled to launch into Early Access on August 9. Crate Entertainment expects it will remain in Early Access for 4-8 months, "depending on how much we feel the need to alter gameplay systems or add to the scope of the game before we're ready to call it finished."
