Judgement: Recommended

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Roguelike meets Eurogame in Freeholder. This game is still very rough, but shows a lot of promise. It's hard as nails to survive initially, but like most good rogue-likes, each death teaches you new mechanics about the game world, so you really do git good (or at least better) after a few playthroughs. It borrows a lot of mechanics from popular Eurogames including tile exploration, work management, delayed gratification, action types, land boons, and trading mechanics; Each one fits in very well and it feel like a single player tabletop simulation.

Pros

+ The beginning is fun for those who enjoy roguelikes. I find myself spending hours restarting the game over and over again trying to optimize my first few turns, because of how deadly everything is initially. The core gardening and trading mechanic is solid.
+ Game is deep and shows you a huge list of upgrades that your farm can access overtime.
+ Each world feels massive and unique because of the procedural generation mechanic.

Cons

- Combat is incredible weak and heavily RNG-based, although the Developer is intending to fix it. However if you pick a pacifist job-class, it is largely avoidable. I find it hard enough to survive without engaging in combat so I'm fine avoiding it.
- Certain resources like timber, firewood, and fish can be depleted over time, but the game makes no distinction about how much is left. Starvation is a serious concern so I wind up fishing over and over again unsure if I got unlucky the previous search or it's really dried up.
- Board games have found ways to combat bad RNG, but Freeholder is perfectly happy giving you 0 resources over and over again; in the early game this can be game ending.

Other

* I found the eating mechanism a bit strange, each of your three characters needs food to survive. A meager meal takes 3 units of food, while a normal meal takes 5 units of food. Because of bad RNG rolls I wound up with exactly 5 units of food once, and had to watch my farmhand starve while my main character had a normal meal. Weird flex, but okay.

If you like both Eurogames and Roguelikes, Freeholder does not disappoint. It's rough and unfinished and certain playstyles (warriors) should be avoided, but the core survival mechanic is incredibly fun to learn.

Review posted on 14/03/2019, 23:43:00.