We’re in the heart of August as I write this review, and a few things are starting to call to me as summer winds down. I read more this time of year, try new recipes, and always hunt for a sim game to sink hours into. I can’t explain it, but when autumn is around the corner and we lose hours of sunlight in a single month, I’m eager to celebrate with cozy nights and a great management experience. That led me to the Xbox Series X release for The Wandering Village, a game that PC and console players have had their hands on for awhile via Early Access and Xbox Game Preview. Now, with 1.0 released, here’s my thoughts on The Wandering Village and whether it’s worth your time.

The Wandering Village takes place on the back of a massive creature that wanders a post-apocalyptic world. As the giant creature wanders, you form a relationship with this being and seek to settle a city and community on its back while it strolls around. Conceptually, from the jump, I love this. There are typical elements to the game’s city-building and management sim gameplay, like environmental threats, social considerations, and even planning out the way you design your city. However, the fact that it’s taking place in a strange world that, to you and your settlers, is limited to a kaiju wandering around? Great world-building from the start.

The dilemma to the game’s management elements casts the player in a challenging situation: how do you prioritize your city’s needs while also keeping your massive friend you call home happy? If only we thought of our Earth as something to care for and consider, what a concept! I find it effective that The Wandering Village maintains genre stereotypes, such as building and planning, or even research, while also prompting you to consider ways to care for the creature. It can get sick, and it can also be used for some wild resources in the later game, but at the being’s expense. There are choices to be made here that inherently make you consider everything around you, not just your little city.

The story taking place here is minimal, but the gameplay and management experience are enough to satisfy that sim itch I feel right now. Depending on how you want to experience the game, you can enter Challenge Mode to really be tested or Sandbox Mode to just sort of vibe out. I appreciate that the main mode felt challenging yet fair, especially since luck and bad timing can sometimes make sim games feel a bit too random for my taste. By just playing the game through without min-maxing every element of my experience, I clocked in around 16 hours of gameplay to finish the story.

The length here fits well for me, with The Wandering Village not blowing my mind at any moment but also not overstaying its welcome. Late-game does get a little stressful since you have a finite amount of space to establish your city, and it’s not like the creature is suddenly going to grow a bigger back. Your planning is key here, as is your ability to balance the needs of your massive friend and your fellow dwellers. If games that feature survival management gameplay or city-building appeal to you, I think picking up The Wandering Village is a safe bet for a good time.

I won’t be playing this game all autumn long, but I loved my time with The Wandering Village. While things like the finite space did make me feel a bit limited in expanding my little town, my only other gripe was the art design. With a lack of color diversity and a ton of earth tones and natural environments, it was a little samey throughout and did little to really captivate my eye. That said, the gameplay itself was well-crafted, as was the world and its intricacies, so I’m happy with the time I spent building my city and learning more about this strange world.

An XSX review copy of The Wandering Village on Xbox Series X was provided by Stray Fawn Studio for this review.

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The Wandering Village

29.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Original concept for world and lore
• Good mix of traditional sim mechanics and new twists
• Great length that does not overstay its welcome

Cons

• Color and art are pretty average
• You can feel the walls on your creativity a bit too much