Clanfolk is the newest ‘Early Access’ medieval colony simulator available to the growing gaming genre, with a theme centred around a struggling clan in the Scottish Highlands.
Developed by MinMax Games for PC, Clanfolk presents us with a Scottish family to look after, an empty plot of land, and one simple instruction: survive. It draws a lot of comparisons to Rimworld in a lot of ways, but also offers a healthy amount of improvements and variations that allows it to stand on its own in the growing pool of colony simulators available.
If you’re unfamiliar colony simulator-type games, Clanfolk can best be described as a top-down simulation and survival game, in which you control a number of pawns/characters in a sand-box like environment, where your primary game objective is to help them survive.
The game genre is notoriously difficult to pick up for new players, as your pawns every needs to be catered to as quickly as possibly to prevent injury, sickness and death (which trust me, will happen a LOT when starting out, so don’t be discouraged).
Shelters and sleeping areas need to be built, food sources need to be established, and clan tasks need to be allocated and managed effectively. It’s admittedly an incredibly overwhelming type of game with the sheer depth and complexity of systems available, but with a bit of patience – a world of potential is unlocked.
Clanfolk has a rather unique take on the ‘objective’ and ‘story’ of its game. Rather than focusing on reaching an end game, we are instead presented gameplay premise keeping you (as the player) around for the long-run, as the clan you’ll establish will last as long as you manage to keep them alive.
You’ll expand your family tree through marriage and birth, establishing a lasting home that will hopefully survive every foreseeable test thrown at it. In it’s an incredibly unique take on a what I expected from this style of game, and for someone like me who gets far too attached to their randomised characters; made the entire experience even more enjoyable (and their deaths even more traumatising).
Surprisingly, there’s no combat presented in Clanfolk, as you instead prioritise surviving against the natural elements and harsh winters of the Scottish wilds. Additionally, there’s no ‘social relationships’ presented in the game, which felt like something that was really lacking throughout my gameplay experience; as the game premise of a family-orientated clan really needed to lean on some form of social dynamic for both realism purposes and just the general joy and randomness that you get from this type of game mechanic.
It’s one of the primary reasons I’ve thoroughly enjoyed over 200 hours in Rimworld, and to reiterate; was a glaring exclusion from the game. Because of this; it’s a game that has a heavy emphasis on creating your own story and playing ‘your way’, as there’s not necessarily a ‘right’ way to play the game – you can manage and grow your clan however you’d like.
All of this being said, it still feels far too similar to Rimworld, and to try and hide away from this glaring obvious fact would be unfair. If Clanfolk was presented to be as a really in-depth mod/texture pack, I honestly wouldn’t blink an eye at the premise. Despite some in-game tool-tips and instructions, there’s still a lot of assumed knowledge that you’d only really know if you’d played Rimworld, which should ideally be fixed as soon as possible.
There’s also some logic-based issues I have with the skill-tree which might just be me nitpicking, but it seems a bit unclear on how to unlock a lot of what you’ll eventually unlock. I also didn’t quite understand why some very simple ideas such as a ‘poop hole’ were further down the technology tree than complex tools, but maybe this is historically accurate (I wasn’t the most attentive student, so who knows). I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with Clanfolk, and am ambitious to see what they’ll continue to add to the game throughout the Early Access period.
