PREVIEW : Lumberjack’s Dynasty (PC)
So many people dream of leaving to the country; fresh air, the big outdoors, and a more comfortable way of life. It doesn’t amaze that farming simulation games are big business. Combining the country fantasy, with the charm of big boy toys in the form of tractors, cultivators, combine farmers, and many more. we live in the country, but still love the escapism that arises with the idea and style. Lumberjack’s Dynasty Developed and published by Toplitz Production, this title has you controlling one guy who has decided to help his aunt and uncle sell their company while flying from the hassle of town life.
The game begins with a cinematic of a strong young guy who seems stereotypical of a lumberjack. He is driving the bus to the city, he intends to help his aunt and uncle while reliving his teen life in his popular lumber yard. On meeting your aunt you immediately get tapped into the action in the style of a tutorial. This illustrates the use of the inventory, how to handle tools, and ride vehicles. Luckily, you get quite an in-depth analysis of how to fell trees and how to move them. You’d expect this to be the main part of the gameplay as the title hints, well you’d be mistaken. Oddly enough, Lumberjack’s Dynasty has rather a vague storyline and hunt function. Like with Harvest Moon, this play is all about creating up your empire, whilst guaranteeing that the local association is supported. You are required to clear land, repair buildings, and various other tasks, surprisingly the characters of this town are ruined, so most of the jobs are paid for in kind. An old tractor, trailer, and other tools are used as payment to help you get on your way.
Your aunt and uncle have quite a bit of land, this houses various farm buildings. Once you have fixed them, you are free to employ them to make some severe money. Money is broken down into 2 different categories; cash and social points. Both can be utilised to buy assets, but how you get them alters. Cash is made by trading goods; planks, pet products, food, basically anything you can get in the farm. Social points are collected when you finished quests. You may be thinking, what do you need to spend your money on? Well, you are open to buying land, and equipment to make your life more comfortable. The better the gear, the simpler it is to perform tasks and to earn more cash
Lumberjack’s Dynasty isn’t just about felling trees, it’s much more than that. It’s about bringing agriculture to life and creating a sense of community.
Everything is dark, areas were impracticable to navigate, jobs were hard to complete, and for some strange reason, everyone’s skin had a glowing shine, as if they had run a marathon only minutes before. The cinematic is entertaining throughout. The acting is dreadful, and the animation to go with it is fairly bad. The lip-syncing is off, and the action is so robotic, that you’d think you’ve turned into some sort of 1960’s Sci-Fi convention, which is all about androids. For all its graphical shortcomings, there are some nice bits, the map, HUD, and exploration pins work well and are simple to use. The design view for jobs helps you to recognise what requires to be done, and the animation for using items is smooth and practical.
Toplitz Production has produced evocative audio. Using tools, to the felling of the trees, it all appears realistic. The music is uniformly enjoyable, a folksy sound which compliments the theme. The big let down is the verbal narrative in the cinematic cutscenes. The wooden nature is funny, the acting is so bad that it’s good.
Like with most PC titles, the developers have allowed for either mouse and keyboard, or gamepad support.
The joy of all simulation games is the relaxing gameplay and the pleasure of retreating to slowly progress. The jobs at the moment are too limited, and hence feel repetitious. The problems with the controls suck out whatever fun is to be had and converts it into a tedious mess. If the developers build on the grounds they have, then this has the potential to be a historic simulation game.
Unfortunately, going downhill this route has its traps, and you ought to be open-minded and practical about what you will feel. Lumberjack’s Dynasty has quite a way to go before its ready for its full release, with numerous gameplay issues, repeated and limited tasks, robotic and unrealistic NPC’s and graphical glitches that ruin the whole look of the game.
On the road map are several prospective features, most of which grow on the life simulation side of things, such as the capacity to raise animals, or to find a wife who will stay at home cooking meals for you. But for all its laudable goal to reset gender roles to the 1960s, this wonky early access lumberjack sim is light on features, riddled with bugs and usually unpleasant to play for very long.It soon becomes obvious that the eternal quests to nailgun strangers’ sheds back together aren’t what’s holding between you and the rest of the game, but that they are the game. You are not just the town’s new lumberjack, but the town’s prize chump-for-hire. And that, you’ll start to suspect, is the terrible secret everybody is talking about behind your back.
