The last couple of years have seen the rise of the ‘survival city builder’ – city-building games that include elements of crafting and survival games, where your small flock of people is constantly beset by the dangers of their environment. Farthest Frontier is the latest example of the trend, and it’s already a polished and deep experience as it enters Early Access on Steam.
In Farthest Frontier, you’re in charge of a band of refugees from a larger city who have fled the oppressive regime reigning over your old homelands. You’ll have to pick a place to site your first buildings, then set to work cutting down trees, finding food, and making sure everyone’s got enough firewood and shelter to stay warm – because winter is a-comin’.
Farthest Frontier may just be entering Early Access, but it’s already got an impressive set of features to play with. You’ll have to carefully plan out the cultivation schedule for your farms, making sure to plant crops that are right for each season and leaving time for each plot to lay fallow. Finding clean water is critical to fight off outbreaks of diseases like cholera, and run-ins with wild animals can lead to rabies infections.
In the early years, there’s always more to do than you have people to do it, and it’ll feel like a scramble to get things built up to any level of stability. But that’s the fun of survival games, right? Farthest Frontier lives on the edge, and you’ll feel that as you try to shepherd your little clan into a full-fledged township.
You can find Farthest Frontier on Steam, where you can pick it up for $29.99 / £24.99. The developers, who previously made the Diablo-style RPG Grim Dawn, estimate that Farthest Frontier will probably remain in Early Access for 8-12 months, and they don’t currently plan on adjusting the pricing when it hits its full launch.