Manor Lords Has One Cool Feature Other City-Building Games Don't Have

isn't content to just be an average, everyday city-builder, and the game's commitment to doing something unique goes beyond its central concept. The obvious thing that makes different from other games in the genre is its blend of tactical battles into the mix, which gives it an extra dose of appeal. This isn't the only feature that's hard to find elsewhere, however, and another fairly unique addition also contributes to making its medieval settlements feel more like real places with real people.

The main satisfaction of playing city-builders lies in seeing a community rise from humble origins to a prosperous metropolis, with the rewards lying in big numbers and a pleasant cityscape to look at. The element of spectating, however, can often be somewhat anemic. The passing of decades has seen the genre progress from the flat overhead view of the original to isometric and eventually 3D perspectives that allow for more depth, but when it comes to seeing what a city might look like from the perspective of an inhabitant, the options usually remain limited.

addresses the desire to truly experience a medieval city creation with the inclusion of a visit mode, which makes it possible to wander around the streets of a town and see how the layout feels on the ground level. The level of detail found in the game helps this feel like more than a facade, as exhibited in a clip available from Wulgarny Gracz on X (formerly Twitter). In it, a lord wanders through streets filled with the bustle of civilians and livestock, with smoke from fires rising into the sky and windmills turning on the horizon.

Visit mode doesn't comprise any robust gameplay elements – there's no interacting with townsfolk NPCs one-on-one, for example – but it doesn't need to in order to serve its purpose well. It's a perfectly lively look at the kind of medieval setting that's often portrayed unfairly in media, showing that there's more than just drab squalor to be found in a rustic setting. Just how beautiful