When I heard that Medieval Dynasty was a successor to another game called; “Lumberjack’s Dynasty,” I genuinely thought that this was some internet joke that I was completely out of the loop on. Upon looking it up, – to my amazement, – that game is completely real. However, after playing through Medieval Dynasty for review, I do not think that I’ll be checking it out.
Medieval Dynasty is out now and is available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
I have often thought to myself that the medieval era may not have been as exciting as shows like Game Of Thrones make it out to be. With no internet connection or basic hygiene, one can presume that it must have been a pretty mundane and disgusting time to exist in. If that is the sort of simulation that you are looking for, then I am glad to inform you that Medieval Dynasty is authentic to a fault in this regard.
However, the one positive that I took away from my Medieval Dynasty is also owed to this painfully slow pace. After recently coming off of two recent horror blockbusters, playing through this bore-fest actually made for a fairly pleasant break in the intensity of those other experiences. With that said, it is not advisable that you play this game whilst tired as it is almost guaranteed to lull you to sleep.
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Unfortunately, the chilled-out vibe of the game is interrupted by some of the rage-inducing game mechanics and the frustrating control scheme. At the time of writing, it has been over twelve hours since I last played Medieval Dynasty and even now, I still have a cramp in my left thumb due to the sheer amount of time spent holding down the L3 button to sprint.
Medieval Dynasty asks the player to do a lot of travelling on foot and yet they have the audacity not to include an option to toggle the sprint function. In a title which provides the player with no other means of transportation for the first few hours of the game, with a huge, barren environment like this one, released in 2022, this is unacceptable. If I call InjuryLawers4U, does this count as an accident in the workplace?
The game’s mechanics are also made far harder to grasp than necessary, due to the fact that Medieval Dynasty provides no proper tutorial to the player. Instead, you are quite literally plonked in the middle of a barren outdoor environment and left to work things out for yourself. No game released in the modern era should have me turning to a Google search for answers as much as this one did.
This lack of specific instruction is doubly alienating when coupled with the game’s timed side-quest mechanic. In Medieval Dynasty, side-quests must be completed in the same ‘season,’ that they are issued. The problem with this is that the seasons in the game are extremely brief and once you work out what it is that you need to do, the season is almost over and the side-quest is marked as a failure.
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The game’s presentation is also pretty poor. Voice acting is minimal at best, with most of the uninteresting conversations being related to basic dialogue boxes. The musical score in the game is pleasant enough at first, but winds up becoming just as boring as the rest of the game. The visuals in the game are not anything special either, with this thing looking more like a early-era PS3 title than something released in the PS5 era.
Overall, Medieval Dynasty is not an awful game, however it is extremely unengaging. Besides its off-putting control scheme, there is nothing really remarkable about this title. Perhaps if you are into this sort of slow-paced building simulator, then it may be more up your street, but for me it is one of the most forgettable experiences of 2022.
Medieval Dynasty – 4/10
Medieval Dynasty was played on PS5 with a code supplied by Toplitz Productions.
