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

Summary Manor Lords introduces a visit mode for players to stroll through their medieval towns.

Few city-builder games offer detailed on-the-ground exploration like Manor Lords.

The inclusion of unique features like visit mode sets Manor Lords apart in the genre.

Manor Lords 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 Manor Lords different from other games in the genre is its blend of tactical battles into the mix, which gives it an extra dose of Total War 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 SimCity 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.

Related Manor Lords Updates Will Do One Huge Thing Other Games Need To Do, But Don't There's a ton that Manor Lords seems to be doing correctly before its Early Access release, but one thing could change gaming forever as we know it.

Manor Lords Lets Players Visit Their Medieval Towns

A Visit Mode Makes Strolling The Streets Easy

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Manor Lords 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 a town is will depend on how it's built and managed, of course, which is what should make the process and payoff so rewarding.

Related Manor Lords Release Date, Trailer, & Gameplay Details The strategic city builder/real-time tactical game Manor Lords is coming soon. Here’s everything to know about the medieval town sim ahead of launch.

Manor Lords Stands Out In The City-Builder Market

Games Like Cities: Skylines Don't Have Comparable Features

Manor Lords isn't the first game to try something of this nature, but it's definitely a more impressive implementation than what can be found in most city-builder titles. The Cities: Skylines games, arguably the pre-eminent modern standards for the genre, haven't progressed past basic first-person viewpoint options principally intended for taking photos. SimCity has featured driving modes in the past, but games with the feature have lacked the busy populations of the streets in Manor Lords, and the once-popular series has been dormant for nearly a decade now.

The Cities: Skylines games have robust modding scenes, so despite some fundamental limitations, options like city exploration can be more thoroughly addressed through third-party solutions.

The best major example of a similar feature might be Anno 1800, which offers a first-person mode that can be weirdly easy for new players to miss. Its NPC behavior is a bit more awkward than what's been shown in Manor Lords, but it's a good comparison point as a progenitor. The two games share a historical focus, which definitely adds some additional value and interest in roaming the streets as a pedestrian.

The first-person viewpoint in Anno 1800 can be activated by pressing Ctrl + Shift + R on a keyboard.

The most impressive thing about Manor Lords is that it's a one-man project, and the inclusion of unique features like the visit mode shows just how much of a labor of love it seems to be. Whether walking peaceful streets or waging bloody battles in nearby fields, it doesn't seem like there will be any shortage of things to do in the game. Manor Lords is a lot more than just a standard city-builder, and all the other elements that it brings to the table are what could end up making it a favorite in a crowded market.

Source: Wulgarny Gracz/X