City-building games have come a long way since Volker Wertich helped create The Settlers back in 1993. His latest endeavor, Pioneers of Pagonia, comes from the team at Envision Entertainment and seeks to breathe new life into the genre he helped pioneer three decades ago. A unique art style and procedurally generated worlds are just a few of the ways Envision is trying to revolutionize the genre.
Pioneers of Pagonia puts players in charge of a new colony of citizens looking to expand their footprint on the world they have landed on. These colonies start small, with only a handful of available resources, but quickly expand as players raise new buildings and discover all that the world of Pagonia has to offer. There is not too big a focus on lore or storytelling, but there are still plenty of mysteries to uncover while exploring the world.
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At the start of the early access period, Pioneers of Pagonia boasts over 40 building types and 70 different resources to play around with. This level of depth can feel extremely overwhelming on paper, but it was surprisingly simple to manage once things got going. It helps that the core gameplay mechanics will be incredibly familiar to anyone who has played a city-builder game before. Buildings are clearly described and their range of effectiveness is shown quite clearly, which helps make it easy to learn the ropes when placing them down.
What really impressed in Pioneers of Pagonia is the lack of grid-based building. Everything is free-flowing, which allows the growing colony to feel so much more lifelike. There is no “right” way to start growing your civilization. Instead, the game allows an incredible amount of freedom for players to grow their cities naturally. So many games in the genre have prioritized optimization and efficiency, so the focus on player freedom is greatly appreciated.
The sheer amount of options this early on in the process makes the city-building experience feel almost complete already. There is a roadmap of updates to come that will make the existing systems more intricate as well as add in new ones that are not currently available, but surprisingly, it does not feel like anything major is really missing here. It would make sense for an early access game to feel incomplete, which is why the core mechanics being so sound and fleshed out here is so impressive.
As the city starts to expand, so does the world around it. Each world in Pioneers of Pagonia is procedurally generated, meaning that no two playthroughs are going to be the same. The familiar “fog of war” around the starting city slowly burns away to reveal a completely different world each time, with so much to discover and explore in the process. This expansion presents new challenges throughout, chief among them being hostile enemies that need to be defended against.
The whimsical feeling of Pioneers of Pagonia fades away as the importance of building up defensive troops rises, but I was impressed by how well this feature fits in with the overall feel of the game. The coziness of building a city runs head-on into the dangers of exploring a new world, and the two mesh together in a way that fits perfectly. These threats are never overwhelming but instead feel like a natural extension of an already natural world. They also never become the most important mechanic. It is just an additional focus in a game full of so many different things to pay attention to.
Thankfully, there are not just hostile characters spread throughout Pioneers of Pagonia. There are also neutral villages spread throughout that players can interact with. Creating trade deals and alliances is key to progressing your own city. There is a surprising amount of depth to this mechanic, although it would be nice to see more added eventually like wars between rival civilizations. The NPC civilizations are just a little bit bland, but planned updates should make them significantly more important in the future.
Amidst all of its mechanics, it’s important to note how beautiful Pioneers of Pagonia is. The visual style gives it more of that cozy feeling, with vibrant colors and so much detailed animation. Every action the citizens of your city take is shown in detail, from moving supplies to even sweeping the streets of dirt. These low-level activities being shown in such detail is part of what makes the experience come to life and really immerses players in the world they are exploring.
There is quite a bit still to come to make Pioneers of Pagonia a truly game-changing experience, but what is there already shows some real promise. The core mechanics feel polished, giving Envision Entertainment the time they need to implement updates that add more depth. A co-op mode is coming, which is going to be perfect for a game as interesting as this. Additional economy updates that are coming in early 2024 will also help it stand out as one of the better city-builders in recent memory.
Pioneers of Pagonia may only be in early access, but it is already showing signs of a truly impressive city-builder. The depth of mechanics and thrill of exploration help make it stand out in a genre full of imitators, and if the gameplay balance can be kept while making further additions, it will quickly become a game to remember.
Pioneers of Pagonia releases in early access on Steam on December 13, 2023.
