Patron vs Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands
Patron
Patron is a medieval-themed city-builder that is quite similar to Banished. In this game, you play as a pioneer sent by your King to colonize a new region. With a group of peasants to help, it is up to you to build a town from the ground up and develop it into one of the most prosperous colonies of the empire!The game is all about optimizing production chains and subsequently, pursuing advancements. So, at the beginning, it’s important to produce enough raw materials so you can have enough materials to “fuel” your other production facilities in order to craft more profitable items. As your town expands, you’ll need to make sure your production scales up accordingly, be it by upgrading existing structures or building new ones. This is where the challenge really comes in.
Of course, besides upgrades and expansions, you’ll want to invest in research so you could unlock better and, hence, more productive buildings, as well as new production facilities which will then allow you to produce items that are usually more luxurious and lucrative to trade. From time to time, you will receive various edicts from the King or news of certain events. You’ll then be expected to choose between the two decisions provided.
All in all, Patron is definitely a much better version of Banished in every way, and this saying something since I’ve enjoyed playing Banished. This game’s a solid medieval city-builder with a nice level of difficulty which matches what a midcore gamer like me can handle. The game is definitely worth the cost!
Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands
Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands is a farm simulation/adventure game where you’ll not only need to maintain a farm and make sure that your surviving crew’s needs are being met; you’ll also need to set off on mini-expeditions to explore the many mysterious islands within the archipelago and to discover the secrets they hide. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you might end up finding a way off the island after all!The game is really easy to get into, mainly because the game is driven by its story-based quests so by completing these quests, you be able to unlock new areas and even new tools that will allow you access to different parts of the archipelago. However, you’re given complete freedom to explore any of the islands as you wish, though there are certain parts of the island that would be “roped off” until you’ve progressed far enough into the story and have unlocked the necessary tools.
Everything you do in this game requires energy - and yes, this includes walking – and it’s the main “currency” you’ll need to keep an eye on whenever you head out for a bout of exploring or just a resource-gathering run. Due to this energy system, the gameplay here can be quite strategic, forcing you to decide when you’d want to focus on exploring and when you’d want to spend some of the energy you have to gather some resources like fishing and chopping some trees.
Being a farm simulation game, Stranded Sails also has an allocated area within your base camp for you to grow some crops and feed your crew. You can even try your luck by fishing at the ocean, and then use those raw ingredients to whip up some delicious food to fuel your adventures.
So, overall, Stranded Sails is an oddly strategic farm sim/adventure game mainly because of its energy system, and as a result, the game isn’t as casual as some players would have liked. That said, the game has an interesting storyline going for it, and the gameplay, aside from the energy aspect, isn’t too shabby either. It’s definitely a game that fans of Harvest Moon or other similar games would love to play.