Timberborn PC Review
Summary: Timberborn is an excellent city-builder with some unique ideas and a charming aesthetic that set it apart from other titles in the genre.
4.3
Charming!
In a post-apocalyptic world devastated by droughts and toxic where humans are long gone, two factions of beavers fight for survival and domination of the planet.
Timberborn’s premise alone was enough to make me want to take a look, and despite still being deep into its early access period, I spent some time with the game to see how it’s shaping up.
Timberborn is essentially a colony management game with city-building elements, similar to titles like Surviving the Aftermath, Endzone, and other management games. Gameplay on a moment-to-moment basis involves making sure that your beaver population has everything that they need, from house to food, and tools to a means to keep clean and healthy. This takes the form of assigning them to various tasks necessary to keep things running. These tasks could be working on a farm, harvesting food, working a well to keep a steady flow of water available, or gathering materials so that the colony could expand its area of influence.
One of the ways Timberborn sets itself apart from other similar games is through the environmental interactions that occasionally occur. Beavers are typically water-dwelling creatures, and rely on a steady stream of H2O to do a lot in life. Plant life in any given area requires a nearby source of water to survive, power is generated from water wheels and everything needs to drink. The world of Timberborn being what it is, there are frequent periods of drought that plague the land. These droughts quickly dry up rivers and lakes, which in turn lowers the water level (to nothing in many cases). This lack of water means that a lot of planning needs to be done to ensure that your colony survives in the long term.
Water and food must be stockpiled to make it through the dry spell. Some flora is hardier than others, though. Most trees, for example, can make it through the average drought relatively unscathed. Crops and berry bushes, however, typically perish within a few days, rendering any work on them up to that point wasted.
As your colony grows, it can be very easy to get into a situation where supplies run out before the land returns to normal again. This is where Timberborn excels. It’s very easy to create these mega-colonies with dozens of inhabitants, only for it to all come crashing down due to poor planning and resource management. Once you get into the swing of things though, it becomes an incredibly engaging city builder that it’s very easy to get lost in for hours at a time.
As the level of available technology rises, a huge number of options open regarding controlling the flow of water and what you can set your beavers working on in general. Dams can be created to create reservoirs, zip lines and tubeways (coincidentally the name of the latest update) become available to allow your inhabitants to get around quickly, and your city can grow to an enormous size, both in terms of horizontal area, as well as vertically. Many structures can be built atop one another, and if you have the pathways to get up to them, can lead to massive complexes of infrastructure and housing that rival the infamous walled city of Kowloon in complexity.
Graphically, Timberborn is respectable. The orbiting camera position that is typical for this type of game means that, in general, nothing is ever so close that the low poly nature of the assets becomes apparent. With that said, it’s possible to zoom in to an absurd degree, and even then, everything still looks reasonable and quite charming. From an audio standpoint, it’s relatively unremarkable. Despite spending a lot of time with the game over the last few weeks, I can’t remember any of the tunes in the game. Perhaps a perfect example of a soundtrack that should be heard but not noticed? Either way, it’s fine.
When it comes to performance, my time with Timerborn has been relatively flawless. The only notable moments of slowdown or framerate dips occur when the game autosaves, which is a common occurrence for games of this nature. Timberborn is technically playable on Steam Deck, with a rating of ‘Playable’ according to Steam. In my experience though, while it runs and controls without too many issues, the performance bounces around a lot, and as your city expands it’s frequently in the sub-30fps range, and as such, not what I would call an enjoyable experience on Steam Deck. Your mileage may vary, however.
Final Thoughts?
Timberborn is a fun and charming city builder with a lot of character. For a game that’s in early access, it’s very polished and has a ton of content, both of which should increase as they get closer to a final release, and the developers are regularly updating the game and introducing new features and bug fixes.
If you’re into city building, and colony management games and don’t mind the early access risk that this inherently comes with, then Timberborn is well worth a look.
Related Posts
Gears of War: Reloaded Multiplayer Beta PC Preview →
TRON Catalyst PC Review →
The Alters Review (PC) →
