The survival medieval city builder genre has one more game with the arrival of Farthest Frontier. The game, which is from the developers behind Grim Dawn, Crate Entertainment, came to Early Access on August 9, 2022.
I had the opportunity to try the game out almost immediately and I would like to cover the game more here on StrateGGames. Let’s take a look at it in a bit more detail, show you some basic information about the game, discuss the game mechanics, show you some tutorials and answer your questions.
Basic information about Farthest Frontier
| Release date (early access) | 09.08.2022 |
| Release date (full version) | now, we don’t know |
| Developer | Crate Entertainment (USA) |
| Genre of strategy games | Survival City Builder |
| Platforms | Windows and GeForce Now |
But before we take a full look at Farthest Frontier let’s take a look at the official trailer…
… from the trailer, it is possible to see the main elements that await the player in this game, which include beautifully painted environments, stunning music, gradual progress, battles with predators, farming, and building large cities. I was impressed by this trailer and that’s why I decided to play the game.
Why do you want to play Farthest Frontier?
I’ve put together a list of three things that I think are the most challenging things about Farthest Frontier. You have to take care of both the people and the village so you also have to build a basic army. In short, you’re on a roll.
1) Dissatisfied people
The story begins with your “people” being dissatisfied in the big city, as the rulers don’t care about them and so they leave to start their own colony of which you become the leader. You must choose the right place and then secure all the basic resources to survive the winter and over time you must ensure prosperity.
2) Balancing the colony
In the event that you are all well and you have enough free shelters so to you from time to time come new people. For these, you need to find work to provide housing and also food.
And at the same time, you want to make sure that you have someone doing basic work like building or cutting wood. Because there are many special buildings in the game where people can work – so you have to grow gradually so that someone performs even basic work.
3) Resist raiders and predators
To make it not so simple, you from time to time will attack a bear or hungry wolf and if you fail your people to defeat them so you can kill the inhabitants, but compared to the raiders are predators weak. From time to time a raid comes at you to destroy your buildings, steal valuables, and generally upset your colony. That’s why you need to think about defending your village.
Farthest Frontier’s main features
Looks like you like Farthest Frontier. Let’s take a closer look at the main features currently available in Farthest Frontier. It should be added and mentioned that the game is in early access, so there is a high probability that the game will continue to evolve. At the same time, I will gradually try to describe each direction in more detail through tutorials.
Survival element – survive the winter
The most important feature here is that it really plays on the changing seasons and that affects how your people behave. Right after the start, you need to prepare for the first winter, i.e. provide all people with housing and firewood inside the buildings. At the same time, it is not possible to collect food in winter, so you need to prepare enough supplies.
So the whole game revolves around the seasons. Therefore, it is immediately necessary from the beginning to act to survive the first winter and once you succeed so the next winter will be relatively easy.
Building the City – Town Hall Levels
As I wrote, this is a “city builder” game so the colony development element is very important. The basic idea is that you build streets and then you build buildings. You can choose from the following building types:
- Amenities & services
- Housing
- Storage
- Food production
- Resources
- Defenses
- Walls and roads
- Decorations
Every building has some properties, some produce something, and others consume something. It’s all beautifully described and you can read about it if you hover over the building. Besides the need to build, it is also important to watch where you build. Because it doesn’t make sense to build a housing estate on extra fertile land where it would make more sense to build more fields…
… and you also don’t want to build residential areas near industry (noise). So you really have to do a lot of planning and balancing. Because only when your residents are happy will their homes improve. And while we’re on the subject of planning, make sure you don’t build the village uphill, because then you’ll have to level the ground before building.
More about this feature I’ve described in Desirability Guide
Resources – collection, mining, construction
Besides building and farming/food, which I will describe below, other raw materials are important. As your city grows, you gradually get more and more resources that need to be mined and generally ensure a steady increase.
At the first level it is possible to benefit from the following:
- Logs (by harvest resources, clear function, or work camp)
- Stone (by harvest resources, clear function, or work camp)
At the second level it is possible to benefit from the following:
- Gold (by gold mine)
- Iron (by iron mine)
- Coal (by coal mine)
- Clay (by clay pit)
- Sand (by sand pit)
Over time, it is, therefore, necessary to ensure that your colony has enough raw materials and that you can use them correctly. Some factories consume raw materials, so you need to make sure you have enough of them, and you can’t just send workers there when you need to mine. For example, you need such gold all the time if you want to have a functional village defense. So keep an eye on it.
Food – proteins, harvesting, fish, trees
But farming is a pretty big luxury that will only unlock with time (described below). Food is one of the main commodities in the game, and you’ll need to be able to source it in other ways, especially in the beginning when there’s no food available.
The basis is collecting fruits, and berries from the surrounding trees, but the more your village will develop so this path will be more and more complex. When all the villages are near the water, you have an advantage and you can have fishermen and fish, or when you are near the forest so you can build a hunter cabin and then have a deer or bear. Meat is needed and will come in handy. The placement of buildings can look like this…
… where you can see on the colored “dots” what are the chances of catching a deer, bear, or others. Speaking of food, it’s good to provide enough diversity, but you also have to provide food storage. Because if you keep it out of cold storage, your food can disappear…
… in the same way, if you have grain and you store it outside the granary, it is possible that you will lose the grain because mice will take a chance on it. At the same time, if you have “raw food” that can spoil like milk, you want to process it as soon as possible into something more durable like cheese.
Farming – the right ingredients at the right time
Once your town grows with more people so it is good to find a fertile spot and build the first field. Note that building a field takes time, so you can’t rely on it right from the start and you need to secure other food sources (see above)…
… but as soon as you have the space it is worth building a field and starting farming. The whole subject of farming will be its own article. Since the fields here are complex because you are dealing with what to plant when and a lot of things you have to be able to use up somehow. At the same time, fields have their own characteristics (rocks, weeds) and you have to get rid of them over time. You also have different subsoils and different resources thrive there differently and you have to manage all of that at once.
Trading – buy what you can’t make
Once you get to level II with the town hall, buildings such as the mill open up for which you need “heavy tools”. But the heavy tools can be made by a blacksmith, which is unlocked at level III, so I thought the game was broken, but it’s not…
… in the game you can build a trading post and then every year a trader will head to you to trade. (more info about getting heavy tools) You can get rid of surpluses and buy what you lack. Everything is exchanged for gold, but be careful you have to act fast as the traders will leave after a certain amount of time.
So from the beginning, you want to think about the production of luxury goods, which produce for example baskets or clothes, because although it does not look like you need it somehow significantly so on the sale of these raw materials can earn and then buy what you need.
Reviews Farthest Frontier
On Steam, they had 5 000+ “very positive” reviews in 20 days after publishing.
But actually, there are no other official reviews at the moment, as the game is in the early access phase and during this phase, it is usually forbidden to review games or at least not done because the game can change a lot between what we see today and what will be at the end.
Is Farthest Frontier worth it?
If you’re a fan of strategy or like to play a strategy game from time to time, I think Farthest Frontier is a must-have in your library. I bought the game myself and will be following it, and I can recommend it to you as well.
FAQ about Farthest Frontier
Below you will find frequently asked questions about new games. I have tried to answer them briefly and to the point. If you can think of anything else you’d like to know about Farthest Frontier, feel free to ask me using the form below.
Is Farthest Frontier free?
No, Farthest Frontier is not currently free and since it’s in early access we can’t expect it to be free anytime soon. In fact, I wouldn’t be afraid to say that the price will go up over time. However, we will try to monitor prices/events for you.
Is Farthest Frontier a hard game?
This is definitely not a simple/easy game. You really have to keep track of a lot of variables and everything has to make sense together. You’ll have to figure things out for yourself from time to time, and you’ll have to do a lot of exploring overall. If you wanted a “lighter” level you’d have to set that up at the beginning of the game.
Is Farthest Frontier a good game?
After the first few hours, I have to say that I enjoy the game and I can imagine that it will keep me entertained for 100 hours. When I get tired of it I’ll set a more difficult level and a worse environment. But since the game is in early access I don’t want to give a final decision.
Is Farthest Frontier good for children?
I don’t think Farthest Frontier is good for kids. The game is complex, you have to keep track of many things at once, so I don’t think it will be a hit with kids (especially younger ones). However, if you have a little strategist at home who already has something recorded, he or she will enjoy Farthest Frontier.
Is Farthest Frontier turn based?
No, the game is not “turn-based”, so you are not limited in what you can do, the game is about speeding up or slowing down time, which counts the “years” during which the seasons change. So logically during spring, summer, and autumn, you have to make enough firewood and food to get you through the winter.
Can I play Farthest Frontier offline?
Yes, Farthest Frontier can’t be played except offline. You are alone in the game and you play against the AI.
Does have the Farthest Frontier campaign?
No, there is no official campaign at the moment. Farthest Frontier is a sandbox game. The goal is to make your settlement survive and evolve into a thriving city over time. You must survive the winters and fend off any predators/raiders.
When will be Farthest Frontier on consoles?
At the moment we don’t know if the game will be available on consoles. The studio is smaller, so I don’t think they will have the capacity for it and I think the controls are a bit more complex (as it is with strategy games)
Similar games to Farthest Frontier
- Banished
- Manor Lords
- Settlement Survival
- Anno 1800
- Ostriv
- Kingdoms and Castles
- Frostpunk or new sequel Frostpunk 2
- Cities: Skylines
