86% rated medieval city builder launches soon after three years in early access

Early access is the norm for many games these days, but it's still exciting when the developers call time and announce that their creation is finished. Huge titles like Hades, Baldur's Gate 3, and, um, Hades 2 have enjoyed the benefit of close collusion with players during their respective development periods. This allows players to have an input on design decisions, and gives the developers a far wider group of playtesters, as well as funding to continue production. One such early access game that we've had our eyes on for the past few years is Farthest Frontier, which launches v1.0 next month.

Farthest Frontier is a city building game with a twist. As well as your traditional mechanics like managing populations and building taverns, Farthest Frontier leans into survival mechanics and farming sim elements to create a more nuanced game.

The game focuses in on the nitty gritty details that others overlook. If you love crunchy mechanics like picking between 12 different crops to grow or 190 different buildings to construct, then this could be the game for you. Build your town from a humble settlement to a bustling metropolis, complete with stone walls to repel invaders and a population resistant to any olde-timey disease that threatens your tranquil existence.

The v1.0 update promises a bunch of big upgrades to the early access game, however. There's a brand-new tech tree with 142 different options to choose from, more policies, updated animations, dozens of extra buildings, and even bridges. Yes, you'll be able to cross running water come October.

Farthest Frontier has been in early access for over three years at this point, and developer Crate Entertainment has teased a full release with major updates for years. During that time, the game has gathered over 20,000 Steam reviews, 86% of which are positive. Players praise the survival mechanics and focus on the grim realities of battling nature as you construct a town from scratch, and that only looks set to improve with the game's full release.

Farthest Frontier will release on Steam on Thursday, October 23 for $34.99 / £29.50. You can download it here.

If you don't want to dip your toes in early, check out some of our picks for the best survival games here. Alternatively, the best building games will give you some semblance of the Farthest Frontier experience while you wait for October.

If you'd prefer to twiddle your thumbs instead, our community Discord server is full of friendly faces including readers and staff, and we can promise it's completely free of medieval diseases.