Folk Emerging

This is a soft yes. There are a lot of genuinely interesting attempts to shake up the 4X formula here, but at present Folk Emerging has both too many systems, and not enough systems that matter.

Definitely love the unique take this has on the 4X genre. Would recommend to anyone looking to try something more indie and different from the mainstream titles.

Folk Emerging is a worthy 4X game to buy and play because: 1. Setting - The struggles of early humans are the epitome of sweaty bloody life experience 2. Eco Layer - Early Man can devastate the eco system that supports him forcing difficult choices 3. Social Layer - Even in a Tribe Clans compete but also contribute according to their distinctives 4. Individual Accomplishment - Positions of responsibility beg to be filled but qualified men are rare 5. Climate and Terrain - Work as hammer and anvil to wreak havoc on nomads and settlers alike 6. Spirituality - Creates the conditions for culture and identity to lay a foundation of nationhood 7. Technology - A unique Tech Tree with different routes to different early civilizations 8. Combat - Requires patient investment in training and equipping to produce the most basic troops 9. Trade - Introduces a Debt concept to balance trades 10. Game Mechanics - Serviceable The game is challenging. I find myself focussing attention on every move. The early loop is to forage for food and when there is a surplus to spend time satisfying other needs: training troops, gathering resources, produce tools, etc. In the mid-game the discovery of farming and domestication permits early settlements to feed themselves without having to migrate when the local ecology is over-taxed. Rival tribes become a greater pressure than bad weather and aggressive animals. Wars can strip a player of his most valuable portable goods, e.g. pearls and amber. Settlements become hives of activity and progress but also magnets attracting enemies. When monuments and wonders are built it becomes a full time job to defend them. So the game is multi-dimensional and challenging. At 300 turns per play-through it will demand a big commitment to see to the end. Since the world is procedurally generated, there are six different tribes to choose from, and a series of random climate events, it will never play the same twice. Recommended. 7.5/10. Rating expected to rise with time. Game just came out.

Cool game in concept, but the autoplaying combat is ♥♥♥♥. There is no decision making to be done. No military build up. Just everyone around you gets to screw you over, on repeat, and there's nothing you can do. You can't even attempt to be friends. Even if you boost the relation they will still attack to destroy (and again, nothing you can do about it, so ♥♥♥♥ you). Also, the livestock domestication is boring. Domesticating a pig is somehow equivalent to domesticating a chicken.

I already played a lot of the demo and now I've played a lot since the game came out. It's very unique for a 4X game, playing the time period from before people masted fire right up to the edge of where states begin to form. Take care of your small band of 20-30 people, grow and spread out. The music and the art are really satisfying and set the scene. You have a lot more mobility than you do in other 4X games and it's not until the second half of the game that even start to build structures. Even if your warband is totally outmatched (armies as we think of them won't be invented until after the scope of this game), you can migrate elsewhere and try again choosing to start anew or come back for revenge. My favorite part of a game like this is usually in learning how to play it. There's quite a few systems that are fun to learn and plenty of different playstyles to explore. I'll definitely be coming back to this again and again.

A nice little prehistoric 4x game; which is a time-period thats massively underutilized. This game does lots of little things really well, from cultural choices affecting the civilization you can evolve into; to the regional biomes you journey in affecting the animals and plants you'll domesticate. Honestly, just a really charming game. Maybe a bit overpriced for what's on offer; but definately worth a grab on sale!

very fun game with very unique game mechanics for a 4x, but it definitely needs a way to turn off victory points or a way to play past when you win because its genuinely hard to even get to the late game technologies before winning even on the slowest mode lmao

Very unique and exceptional game. I played the demo and liked it. Still learning the ropes with the full game.

Fun game and the Dev is listening to player feedback and providing quick updates as a response. I definitely recommend if you always wished that the Civilization/ Humankind games would focus more on the early game in the Neolithic era. This basically turns the first couple turns of a game of Civilization into a full game.