Разработчик: RogueWare
Описание
You must avoid starvation and frostbite while working under the thumb of a corrupt census taker, and turn the tables on him.
-A Unique Blend of Genres.
From farmsim to survival, role-playing to strategy, FreeHolder presents a compelling and revitalizing blend of classic game genres.
-Detailed Character Evolution.
With seven classes and over thirty skills (with many more of each planned), you can be everything from a master sculptor to a hardened warrior to an efficient rancher.
-Roguelike, not Roguelite.
Challenging and highly replayable, like games should be. Over a dozen procedurally generated factors gives you a new experience each game.
-Original Retro Soundtrack by Blue Mage.
Drawn from a lifetime of obsessive involvement with video game music, the soundtrack for FreeHolder has been crafted to evoke memories of the classic console era.
The Story of FreeHolder -
You and two comrades are escaped slaves who while fleeing Roman territory, stumble across a recently-raided farm, and although almost everything of value has been taken a small amount of wheat, a few tools and a couple silver denari might allow you to eke out a stealthy existence on the fringe of Roman lands. Unfortunately, you agree to run the farm together just as the Roman census-taker is knocking on the small home's door.
Only slightly terrified of being found out, you are unable to convince the Roman that you are anything other than escaped slaves. However, this particular census taker is, 'flexible' and offers the fugitives a deal: if they run the farm and produce enough wheat to fulfill the wheat quota demanded by Rome, and toss a bribe on top for himself, they can go on running the farm instead of being sent back to face their master. With no other options, and no way out, you and your compatriots agree hastily.
This state of affairs does not have to last, however. A slave you may have been but you can choose to resist the Romans by stealth, subterfuge, or brute force, and by allying with the northern tribes. Or you can purchase freedom for yourself and your friends and buy your way into Roman high society. With ten different classes from agronomist to ranger, engineer, rancher, witch, and gladiator, with multiple different upgrade paths and special actions, you can play exactly the way you want to.
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7 and Up
- Processor: 2 Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 256 mb video memory
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 250 MB available space
Отзывы пользователей
I've waited for six and a half years for this one to leave early access and it hasn't, so I figured that it was time to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it plays out exactly like what you'd expect out of a nearly abandoned and unfocused design effort. Once windows started opening up and obscuring the screen that I couldn't manage to close, I gave up. Obviously don't pay money for this.
Brutally difficult. Not sure if I am playing it wrong but genuinely fun to play even if I am bad at it. I desperately want more turn based survival games
Too many bugs, Tried to get a refund but I played a couple more hours than the refund limit.. oh well. Maybe he will fix the game some day..
Game is unique and really enjoyable, though buggy. Has that 'one more turn' feeling. For a couple of years, the dev (a one-person team) made infrequent updates as life took precedence. But there hasn't been a serious update in a year. I would assume this game has been abandoned until there are new updates.
All of that said, I have a lot of respect for the dev. To come up with a good, new idea and even get it this far without a full team is notable. If you want a few hours of something different, I would say to get it, but don't expect a full experience.
Game development seems to be on hold, maybe indefinently. Meaning that game more or less isn't going to reach the heights that it it seemed to be reaching upon. No hard feelings but that is what it is and so I cannot really recommend it. Even so it can offer 10-30 hours of decent gameplay with interesting mechanics for those who feel interested to try it out.
Game is dead in the water. Do not buy,
It's been over a year since the last posted update from the dev, and a year prior to that since an update to the game (2 years, no updates). Game has great promise, that's why I backed it in EA.
At this point the dev is stealing people's money. Take this off of Steam and host it on a dedicated site. Don't add unnecessary trust issues to the EA program.
On the other side of the coin, I wish the dev and his family the best. I really want the dev to finish (or at least work on) the game.
At it's core, FreeHolder is a cheap-ish variation (maybe even clone) of a game from Clarus Victoria. It plays very similarily to Predynastic Egypt except latter actually has decent quality and way more content. And it had a full release just few months after this game came to EA.
Freeholder is just painful. It gives you VERY limited options. You have, like, 7-9 action points per turn. Most actions are absolutely random and it is not uncommon to have three in a row to fail completely. If those actions are food gathering you most likely are screwed, since you CANNOT STORE FOOD AS IT SPOILS AT LUDICROUS RATE. And then you start anew. And you reload since MOST OF THE TOWN QUESTS ARE SUPPLYING LUDICROUS AMOUNTS OF FOOD WHICH SPOILS AT LUDICROUS RATE AND YOU CAN MOVE ONLY 5 UNITS PER TURN. And you do all of this with horrible, half-completed UI in a game full of bugs. It goes like this - even if you are doing fine at the beginning, starting disadvantages like this start snowballing and wreck you late in game. EVEN if you are doing well, and usually you aren't. I played for, like, 15 hours and during this time I survived more than a year only once...
And this costs around 10$... Well, in my region it's not, it costs, like, 1.5$ on sale - which may or may not be developer's ignorance about local pricing. So i have not THAT much problem with this game and may even play it a bit more - just to find the way to finally cheese it. But obviously i'll never recommend stuff like this to anyone.
UPD after 12 more hours of cheesiness: expectedly, after you beat the early game, it becomes laughably easy since all these crippling randomness is negated by higher-level skills. And then it becomes just boring since the main threat to you is unending stream of trashy gifts from friendly cities (lol), which overflows your storeroom and allows really important goods to be damaged by weather.
Well, this game is complete mess and judging from update speed it will stay this way for quiet a while. *Gone to play Caves of Qud*
Got to say I bought this on the winter sale thinking it was quirky, played it for 10 minutes and dumped it.
The following day I tried it again and could not get enough...
This game is extremely unforgiving, the non-existent tutorial section and save bugs may make you cry.
But, this is the best digital suffering since rimworld. The settings is charming, and the board game feel refreshing. There is a lot going on that I have not even tampered with yet offering much reliability and constant testing. Classes are diverse and seem to be each in their own right a new game experience when selected as a starting character but, not so different as to lock you out of the tried and tested strategies.
I very much recommend this game and look forward to new content and bug fixes !
As much as I love survival games, I can't get behind this one in its current version. It's frustrating to navigate and gives no objectives or tutorial to the player.
So, I have some mixed feelings here. I absolutely love the tiles - it feels outside of the first ring very similar to Settlers of Catan; you flip a tile, and it's one of seven or so different resources. These give different items, when worked on - farming for wheat, beans, beets, and more, forest for lumber and firewood (plus hunting and gathering magic items), to lakes, marshes, mountains and more.
Really great concept, game is very cool. The layout... a little strange and takes a hot minute to get used to, but it makes sense after some time.
The game is buggy as all hell. Bows, for example, should be used to increase your hunting ability. Can't equip bows. Combat is supposed to be a big part of the game. Can't equip items for my guys. Combat forces you to move... and you have nothing so you move into an enemy rapestorm.
This is a 60/40 yes from me. Concept? Amazing and fun. Layout, pretty solid. 8 bit music and graphics? Totally passable and retro. Gameplay? Broken on several key areas.
If you're willing to drop a 10 spot to help a developer that has a great game get greater? Go for it. If you want out of the box playable, you're gonna have a bad time.
This game would absolutely rock if I could equip and use weapons that I have looted but the bugs that are within the game are preventing me from doing so . Do not get me wrong , this game has been made in a way that it could be a real gem if only some of the bugs were fixed. I will rate this game as a NO for now but once the games bugs have been fixed I will change my rating to recommend . Once this game is finished it will truly be something special .
They've really got something here, very tough, extremely replayable and highly addictive. Graphically, it takes me back 30 years, but that's unimportant as it's all about gameplay, and this game's got it in spades. Try the free demo and see how long you can last before you just have to buy it. It took me about 10 hours. Saying that, it's still in Early Access and therefore still has some bugs, particularly with the save game files. So get used to complete restarts, which isn't as bad as it sounds as it takes many hours to figure out how to optimise class mixtures, of which there are many possibilities than implied by a group of 3 people.
Best EA title I've bought since Subnautica.
A little unclear from the outstart what the objective is. The UI is a bit difficult to navigate. It's a fun concept and I'm sure it'll be better after a full release.
If you liked Agricola, this is a game for you! It's unique as hell and a challenge to boot! Very promising in its current state, but has lots of bugs. It also probably could use a proper tutorial. But definitely something to keep an eye on!!
I rarely write reviews, but this great little game needs more publicity, and the devs deserve the credit.
In Freeholder, you play as several escaped slaves who need to survive in the wilderness while also developing enough resources to pay off the greedy Roman bureacrat who shows up annually to harrass you with demands for money and wheat. You'll need to carefully balance feeding yourselves, gathering firewood and medicine, planting/tending/harvesting your fields, expanding your territory, building up your village, crafting trade goods, and interacting with nearby towns. There's loads to do and the choice of what to prioritize feels exciting, since success can be very lucrative, while failure can be devastating. It can be tempting to pursue a long-term goal, like the construction of a new building, while neglecting short-term needs (such as firewood), so there's a good amount of strategy involved.
The classes all have good variety and there seems to be quite a lot of ways to make money. The only mandated task is farming enough wheat to appease the census-taker, though it may be possible to simply buy it on the market if you earn enough. My first few attempts have focused on agriculture, hunting, and leather trading, which was a very satisfying way to play. You can also be an artisan, a thief/spy, a warrior, or even a priest(ess). I haven't gotten to all of these play styles yet, so I can't say whether they're all equally viable. But I'm looking forward to finding out.
The game's difficulty is, in my opinion, just right. It's quite difficult to meet the census-taker's yearly demands, but it's rare to have your entire game undone by a single stroke of bad luck. There's a lot of complexity, but you won't spend hours and hours debating your next move. Your success or failure will come from the cumulative weight of your decisions, rather than a single choice made at a crucial point of time.
The only negative about this game that I can see is that the pace of updates is very slow. It seems like the devs are struggling to balance Freeholder with their other committments. I very much hope they'll be able to continue to add new features and work towards a full release, but even if they don't, Freeholder is already more than worth the 10 euros they're asking for. I'm completely hooked.
Even if not completed, this is still worth $10. A combination of sim, survival, rpg rougelike in retro style, with great music. There is no "grinding", and every decision is a meaninful tradeoff and thus matters. Multiple different play styles. I'm looking forward to some UI improvements and finalizing the game.
I cannot recommend this game at this point, although I do see the potential. It is a hex-map turn-based survival roguelike that bases on base development, which is one of its kind (I'm a huge roguelike fan from Dwarf Fortress and Don't Starve to lesser titles, so I know what I am talking about).
However, be aware that the current build is fun but very tedious. You literally have to be careful on every single move, and a single game takes thousands of moves to complete. The developers have to figure out a way to speed the pace up. Currently the player is rather like a slave of the game.
This game is pretty sweet for being EA. Almost completely playable. And thorughly enjoyable. The simple systems and randomness makes complexity enjoyable and well worth a couple of bucks to play for a bunch of hours.
This is a game that made me think: "Huh, this is new! I like it." I've seen a random youtube letsplayer playing it and just fell in love.
It's puts some good old mechanics into new context and setting and also brings something new to the table.
I really recommend to put this game on your wishlist and see what it becomes when it's release. It's got a really good potential to give you hours and hours of fun for a humble price.
As of ALPHA 2 (aug 2016), gameplay base seems solid, but some branches need work. As I understood, lots of content, mid-game and late-game stuff is going to be implemented in future builds. Art style is cute at places, though I think it needs a lot of cycles of art/graphics polishing to become something really wonderful.
I have been playing games since 1988 and this one takes me back, reminding of me of old school classics like ROTK with so much more added to it and so much more depth. It definitely allows for you to choose your own play style, between the class system and being able to advance in the game by focusing on the aspects you like, or taking to it in a broad manner doing a little bit of everything. It also carries with it some very realistic aspects like some of the minor details they've incorperated i.e. nitrogen lvls in the soil. (as a organic veggie farmer irl I dig this) I have definitely invested in some flops, and this is not one of them with a good replay value even at the alpha stage this is something I have to recommend.
After nearly 8 hours of playing the first alpha release, I think I'm ready to write a short review for this early access/ealy alpha version of Freeholder.
In one statement: this game is great.
Do you enjoy any of the following: turn-based strategy, farming simulators, crafting systems, old-school rpg asthetics, or merciless rogue-like randomness and gameplay? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should definitely give this game a shot.
Okay, but is it worth my $10 for an early-release/early alpha game?
Even though this game is still very early in developement, there is already an impressive ammount of depth and complexity. You would have to log many dozens of hours to fully experience the systems already in place. So far, the developers have been very responsive to community input and have been releasing updates and fixes like wildire. I think this is a great sign of things to come and being on the ground floor of a game like this is half the fun.
GET FOOD. GET HEAT. MAKE MONEY. GROW WHEAT.
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | RogueWare |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 26.01.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 78% положительных (68) |