I was really impressed by Farthest Frontier when I played it in early access a few years ago, so much so, I’ve been keeping an eye out for the full release ever since. And we now finally know when it will be: 23rd October, which isn’t far away at all.
Farthest Frontier is a city-building game spun around the idea of a group of settlers heading into a wilderness in medieval times and establishing a settlement of their own there, growing it from a handful of huts and shacks into something resembling a town.
What’s different about this game is how up-close the action is. You get to know settlers on a personal level, seeing details about who they are and what they’re like, and the game delights in the minutiae of surviving in a period like this. For instance, you’ll assign someone to fish and then have to build a little smokehouse nearby for them to smoke and preserve the fish in, but if you build the smokehouse too near people’s houses, they’ll complain about the smell, and rightly so. But if you don’t smoke the fish, they’ll go rotten in your stores.
Expect to think a lot about crop rotations and farming, to think about water supplies and how to keep them clean and away from your town’s organic waste, lest you spread disease. And to think about making sure everyone’s wrapped up to survive the very present seasonal weather. (There are difficulty options to nudge the complexity down if you want.)
This zoomed-in approach brings a great deal of calm with it. This is a slow game about the aspects of day-to-day life we now take for granted – that are handled automatically for us – and it is very connected to nature and the land around your settlement. Bears can roam into your settlement and attack your people, brilliantly. Well, it’s not brilliant for the people living there and getting mauled, but it’s entertaining to watch. Generally, though, it’s a very peaceful and gently absorbing game, full of forgotten intricacies of a time gone by.
But enough about that! Farthest Frontier has been in early access for three years now, and the success it’s enjoyed there – 1.2 million sales – has allowed developer Crate Entertainment to significantly beef-out the game. The 1.0 release will bring a significant amount of new content as well, including revamped progression, dozens of new building types, bridges (I hope there’s some troubled water to cross), a new policy system, updated animations, and more.
Note that the game’s selling price will increase when it launches, too, to reflect it being a fully rounded game. It will rise from $30 to $35 (the price here is currently £25, which I expect means it’ll rise to £30 at launch). Those existing prices will dip again before launch in a Steam Autumn Sale, which begins 29th September. Potentially, there’s a deal to be had.