Hearthlands

2025-12-08
God I'm looking at all these early access town-builder/proto-colony-sims from this era in 2014: Gnomoria, Hearthlands, Prison Architect, etc. and it's making me sad. Because it a was a sad time for someone who enjoyed these games. We had just had Banished back in April as an indie success that was a beautiful town builder and in searching for another game that was as fun I kept playing these fucking DUDS man.

This was during the beginning of Early Access being a thing which meant gobs of shit being shoveled into our hands on Steam. And in Dec 2014 here was Hearthlands stumbling out as a barely passable builder with none of the depth or tech trees finished. It looked bad, sounded bad, and there was barely anything to even play. In a way I'm thankful for Hearthlands and games like it because it instilled in me a deep aversion to any game with the "Early Access" label on it. I still scratch my head as to why I would play anything that was unfinished back then. Youthful impatience I guess? Or maybe I just forget that if you go back to the early 2010s there really just weren't that many games coming out, and the gates opening to let in these newcomers was exciting. Till we found out half of them were no good husks, who'd sooner take your money and run than deliver anything that was worth playing.

Ironically I'd buy Rimworld in Dec 2015, and that still stands as the only "early access" anything I've ever touched that was absolutely fantastic out of the gates. Cheers to you, Rimworld. And eat shit and die, Hearthlands.

2023-07-27
God I'm looking at all these games from this era: Gnomoria, Hearthlands, etc. and it's making me sad. Because it a was a sad time for gaming. We had just had Banished as an indie success that was a beautiful town builder and in searching for another game that was as fun I kept playing these fucking DUDS man. This was during the beginning of Early Access being a thing that shoveled shit into our hands. I mean it was just a barely passable builder with none of the depth or tech trees finished. Just not fun.