TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 2,021
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Don't be rude.
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Going Medieval, the Middle Ages-themed colony sim, has finally left early access after five years of tinkering. It's changed a great deal since I first played it, when I already thought it was brilliant. Back then, it struck me as an easy-to-recommend RimWorld-like, but now it's just as evocative of the devilishly complex Dwarf Fortress. I still think it's brilliant.
With that out of the way, let's talk cellars.
I had a vision when I started my playthrough of Going Medieval 1.0. A simple vision for a simple man. I wanted to build a castle. A big castle with stalwart walls, a few towers, maybe even a moat. Something where, if you encountered it, you'd be like "Yes, this certainly is a castle."
Maybe you'd expect me to start with the walls. That makes sense. But you'd be dead wrong. Setting vanity aside, I decided to begin with the part of the castle that most people never see. Because, frankly, it's a little boring. I started with a cellar. Starting at the bottom felt practical if not glamorous, and with summer about to kick off, quickly rotting all the food in my outdoor storage yard, I needed a cool place to house all my delicious meat.
Digging a big hole doesn't sound too complicated, but it quickly became obvious I had bitten off more than I could chew. My colony was only one season old and contained a grand total of four people. I'd tasked one of them (Redmund, more on him later) with the very important job of researching new medieval tech—effectively forcing him to spend all his waking moments writing chronicles.
How Going Medieval handles research, I should add, is incredibly novel. See, research is a tangible thing here. When you put your smarty-pants settlers to work at one of your research tables, they're not simply filling up a bar. They are studying and writing, producing texts of different qualities that must then be stored.
These books effectively work like currency, and each new discovery has a specific requirement—a different mix of chronicles, textbooks and theses. This means you need to protect your knowledge. If a fire destroys your library and you lose all your books, your scholars will need to replace them all before more new research can be conducted. It makes research less abstract, as well as capturing just how fleeting knowledge was in the years before the printing press was invented.
Anyway, back to ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Going Medieval, the Middle Ages-themed colony sim, has finally left early access after five years of tinkering. It's changed a great deal since I first played it, when I already thought it was brilliant. Back then, it struck me as an easy-to-recommend RimWorld-like, but now it's just as evocative of the devilishly complex Dwarf Fortress. I still think it's brilliant.
With that out of the way, let's talk cellars.
I had a vision when I started my playthrough of Going Medieval 1.0. A simple vision for a simple man. I wanted to build a castle. A big castle with stalwart walls, a few towers, maybe even a moat. Something where, if you encountered it, you'd be like "Yes, this certainly is a castle."
Maybe you'd expect me to start with the walls. That makes sense. But you'd be dead wrong. Setting vanity aside, I decided to begin with the part of the castle that most people never see. Because, frankly, it's a little boring. I started with a cellar. Starting at the bottom felt practical if not glamorous, and with summer about to kick off, quickly rotting all the food in my outdoor storage yard, I needed a cool place to house all my delicious meat.
Digging a big hole doesn't sound too complicated, but it quickly became obvious I had bitten off more than I could chew. My colony was only one season old and contained a grand total of four people. I'd tasked one of them (Redmund, more on him later) with the very important job of researching new medieval tech—effectively forcing him to spend all his waking moments writing chronicles.
How Going Medieval handles research, I should add, is incredibly novel. See, research is a tangible thing here. When you put your smarty-pants settlers to work at one of your research tables, they're not simply filling up a bar. They are studying and writing, producing texts of different qualities that must then be stored.
These books effectively work like currency, and each new discovery has a specific requirement—a different mix of chronicles, textbooks and theses. This means you need to protect your knowledge. If a fire destroys your library and you lose all your books, your scholars will need to replace them all before more new research can be conducted. It makes research less abstract, as well as capturing just how fleeting knowledge was in the years before the printing press was invented.
Anyway, back to ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?