Manor Lords was recently the most wished-for game on Steam. Since yesterday it is in Early Access and has immediately become a bestseller. Does it live up to the hype?
What kind of game is it? Manor Lords is a medieval city-building game that solo developer Slavic Magic has been working on for 6 years. It promises detail-oriented city construction and large-scale battles in impressive graphics. This has made Manor Lords the hype game for strategy fans and made it the most wished-for game on Steam.
Since April 26, 2024, Manor Lords has officially been in Early Access, and players can finally see for themselves. On Steam, the medieval sim is currently available at an introductory price of €29.99. From May 10 onwards, it will cost €39.99. However, it can also be played on Game Pass at no additional cost.
More than 150,000 simultaneous players and 90 % positive
How has Manor Lords been performing so far? Just 10 minutes after the start of Early Access, Manor Lords was already the number 1 bestseller on Steam. Thousands of players dove straight into the medieval simulation: within just one hour, it surpassed the mark of 100,000 concurrent players.
Currently, Manor Lords is in 6th place among the most played games on Steam, making it the leading paid title – the top 5 consists of free-to-play games. The current peak stands at 159,000 concurrent players (via SteamDB). So things are looking really good for Manor Lords at first glance – but what are the first players saying?
What the ratings say on Steam: On Steam, Manor Lords enjoys a “very good” rating with 90 % recommendations based on over 7,400 reviews. The reviews are full of praise for the developer: This is exactly how it’s supposed to be done.
While players acknowledge the incomplete state of the game and certain bugs, they mostly seem to agree that this is expected in Early Access. Even in the negative reviews, users assure that Manor Lords has potential – it’s just not recommendable in its current state.
We’ve gathered some of the reviews marked as “helpful” here for you:
- Ion (recommended): “[…] In settlement building and operation, I always have the feeling that thought has been put into it. It starts with simple things like sensible colors when building and ends with fair conditions for the game mechanics.[…]”
- Delevend_ (recommended): “My village really burned down!!! The worst part? It looked SO COOL xD After the first hours I can only say that the purchase was totally worth it! Everything done right and with a lot of love! Atmosphere, detail, sound just great!”
- Abruek (not recommended): “I’ve been following the game for a while, since the demo was released. It has certainly made a lot of progress since then and I believe the game will someday be the king of its genre, but it’s not there yet. […]”
So it seems that Manor Lords is living up to the hype so far. However, one should keep in mind that these are still quite early reviews, and most users have spent only a few hours in the game. So it remains to be seen how the reviews will develop in the long run.
Our colleagues from GameStar agreed in their review: Manor Lords impresses even in its unfinished state.
Manor Lords is also popular on Twitch, attracting thousands of viewers. Streamers have been able to play since April 12 and have certainly contributed to the hype. Potential players were able to gauge whether it could be something for them. Particularly among the German audience, the medieval simulation was well received: Two German streamers dominated the new city-building hit on Twitch
