The survival building game “Medieval Dynasty” currently enjoys more players on Steam than ever before. The reason for this is a highly anticipated update that Mein-MMO author Linda B. has been waiting for a long time.
What is Medieval Dynasty? The game set in a medieval environment is a mix of survival, life simulation, and building strategy.
You complete quests, collect resources, and build your own village. NPCs can then move in and perform various tasks for you. To secure your dynasty, you can even start your own family.
The game published by the German publisher Toplitz Productions left Early Access in 2021 and delights players on Steam with 90% positive reviews.
You can get an impression of the new multiplayer update in the trailer:
Finally in multiplayer
Two years after release, an update has now been released that adds the long-awaited multiplayer to Medieval Dynasty. The number of players waiting for the new mode can be seen in the player counts: from an average of 3,000 players, the numbers shot up to over 31,000 at the update’s release (via SteamDB).
What’s new? In addition to the new multiplayer, the update also featured a new map, “The Oxbow”. Here, there are entirely new villages, NPCs, and quests to discover. You can experience all of this either alone or in cooperative mode with up to four players. However, cooperative play on the old map is not possible.
Also new is the character editor, where you can customize your village leader to your liking. There is now also the option to play as a female character.
How does the multiplayer work? To experience Medieval Dynasty together, a player must start a game on the new map in cooperative mode. Up to three additional players can then be added via an invitation code.
It should be noted that only the host can save and unlock Steam achievements.
MeinMMO author Linda has been waiting a long time for this mode and shares her first impressions here:
You’ll see me in the Middle Ages
Even in single-player, I was captivated by the game with its cool mix of survival adventure and city-building strategy. From the villages to the clothing, the setting is very credible, which is why Medieval Dynasty is one of my favorite medieval games.
At the same time, I always found it super disappointing to be able to play the game only alone. When the new cooperative mode was announced, I couldn’t have been happier.
Other players felt similarly to me when they learned about the announcement:
What’s great? In my opinion, the game is nearly perfect for cooperative play. Especially at the beginning, when not many helping hands are available in the village, there is plenty to do. Resources for village construction need to be grinded, there are quests to complete, farming to be done, villagers to organize, and so on.
Especially the cultivation of seasonal plants and quests that expire after a season require proper timing. That can make you sweat alone. In coop, however, you can simply divide the tasks according to personal preference.
That works really well. And what could be cooler than building a medieval village together? Especially fans of the Middle Ages and survival will get their money’s worth here.
What about the quests? Although the survival and management aspects are at the forefront in Medieval Dynasty, the game has consistently surprised me with funny quests and dialogues. In cooperative mode, you can overhear dialogues from other players by interacting with the same NPC.
This makes sense contextually. You can only hear a conversation if you are standing next to it. Gameplay-wise, though, it carries the risk of missing out on nice dialogues if you are busy elsewhere.
We solved it by reading particularly interesting conversations to each other. That worked well for us, but it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
I personally find it always pleasant when I can join dialogues from other players even from a distance. For example, through a button that lets me temporarily switch to the viewpoint of the interacting player. However, that’s definitely a matter of taste and shouldn’t be crucial for gameplay, but should be considered by story fans.
Are there bugs? In general, cooperative gameplay is already quite stable. However, it is not completely free of bugs yet.
In our nearly 10 hours of gameplay in cooperative mode, there was once a connection issue, resulting in an item stack disappearing from the inventory.
Another time, the game crashed completely. However, this only happened to one player, not the host itself. Therefore, no game progress was lost, and we could continue playing seamlessly.
Otherwise, there were a few visual glitches, such as shifted walls or floating NPCs. However, they had no impact on gameplay functions.
Conclusion? Overall, we had a lot of fun with the new cooperative mode and will definitely spend many more hours building a medieval village. The cooperative gameplay really benefits the game, just as I had hoped.
Even though there are still a few minor issues, the mode is already quite playable. The developer has also already released the first patches, so hopefully bugs will soon be a thing of the past.
