Pioneers Of Pagonia Is A Modern Settlers Game -

We’ve waited a long time for a new Settlers game. While The Settlers: New Allies arrived earlier this year, it didn’t live up to the expectations of old fans—and didn’t do much to appeal to any new ones, either. In steps Pioneers Of Pagonia, a new Settlers-like arriving in Steam early access on December 13, 2023.

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This is a very pretty little game. From the funny citizen traffic jams that form on your roads to the glittering array of farms spread across the hills, there’s a whole lot of charm to be found in Envision Entertainment’s city builder. I love the organic way in which the city forms, expanding slowly into fresh territory – you’re always looking for a small spot to squeeze in another cottage, or setting up a central tavern area to feed your citizens.

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Of course, this is a colony simulator, so the only aim of the game is expansion. Although Pagonia might look like a lovely land of rolling green hills and wandering deer, it’s actually a place infested with bandits, thieves, and ghostly spectres. While the game is not an RTS, you can manage your troops with fairly basic controls – go here, do this – and the final game scenario available in this preview build is definitely challenging. You are beset on all sides by enemies, and they’re usually sat right on top of that bit of ore you need.

All of your success rests on being able to juggle resources and manage your production lines. This is fairly old hat for any fans of the genre, and you won’t find much out of the ordinary here. There are a lot of different moving parts, though. It’s daunting at first, but the game guides you fairly simply through the various sawmills, toolsmiths, and blacksmiths to help you set up. Without any enemies spawned on the map, it’s quite easy to build a massive sprawling metropolis teeming with thousands of units on the screen at once.

With enemies is a different matter, and that’s where the main challenge of the game lies. Veteran Bandits will slice your guards open and leave their bodies rotting on the path, while your regular citizens just step over their decomposing flesh. You’ll need to upgrade to better soldiers, which is a real pain when you’re constantly being attacked. I haven’t got my head around the final scenario yet – there are Thieves that keep stealing all my stuff – but like all good colony simulators, it’s the journey to success which is really the point of playing the game.

Pioneers Of Pagonia still feels in its fairly early stages – which it is, as it’s launching in early access – but there’s already a game here worthy of your time and investment. Once you’ve completed the various scenarios, ranging from the starting tutorial to the bandit-infested hellhole I just mentioned, you can go ahead and set up your own customized map. It’s in these custom scenarios that I see a lot of potential: colony simulator players love suffering, and being able to maximize the odds against you provides real endgame enjoyment.

I’d also like to see the friendly village mechanic fleshed out, which I’m sure it will be. Currently, you can build friendships with other villages by completing objectives (mostly just trade routes as it stands), and they’ll send you better deals for loot. They don’t do much else. It’d be fantastic to be able to incorporate villages into your empire, build in their territory, and even recruit troops from their population. Combat against other villages would also be great, as clearing out bandit camps and spectre tombs will get old eventually.

Overall, this is a neat city builder with a lot of potential, as it draws from the classic The Settlers games. It looks fantastic and has a soundtrack to match. I’ll be following this one closely through early access, as I’m intrigued to see which direction the developers take it in.