Hearthlands

Hearthlands is a strategy game that you can download on Steam and similar services for $20. The main premise and controls of the game are similar to other fantasy city-building strategy games like Frostpunk and Sim City, but it does come with an in-depth and lengthy campaign. The campaign is separated into missions and steps, each with their own difficulty and time consumption.

Getting Started

Hearthlands starts like just about any other city-building strategy game, with an emphasis on building more structures and increasing population. Everything you build will take their own amount of time and resources. When you first start, it’s best to build the fastest and least resource-consuming projects as they will boost your population and overall sustainability.

Time Is Everything

In Hearthlands you don’t really fail any missions, but you can definitely get stuck on one for a long, long time. When playing this, you want to make sure you do everything as fast as you can and try to lessen the amount of time everything takes. Although these traits aren’t usually associated with video games, multitasking and good time management are skills that will help you finish this game with great success.

Prioritize Population

The in game tips and guides are useful so make sure you pay attention to them. As for the missions, they aren’t necessarily hard to complete, but they could take a long amount of time. The difference between breezing through missions and hitting big plateaus is all about your strategy and ability to make difficult decisions. The best way I found to do this successfully is by prioritizing the population. Having a high population increases your resources and allows you to progress through the campaign with more ease. So, when choosing between more housing and more commercial buildings, choose housing. Your population is your most useful asset.

Worth Buying?

This game is for players who want to make a commitment. The length, intricacies, and price make this a game that you’re going to want to be serious about putting time into it if you decide to buy this. If this does seem like the detailed and long game you want to play, it is a good game with more items and better opportunities for strategic planning than other games.

This game is definitely for a more experienced and serious strategy player that wants a challenge, rather than someone just trying it out. If you do happen to be a serious strategy player though, this game is definitely going to meet your needs.

Pros

• Familiar style
• Longer and more extended than other fantasy strategy games
• Campaign with long missions that are rewarding

Cons

• Much more expensive than similar games
• Can be too involved and daunting to some players