izigame.me

To get the obvious out of the way: At the time of my authoring this review, this is one of the most beloved games in Steam history, with an "Overwhelmingly Positive" 95% review score based on nearly 30,000 reviews, spanning over the course four years. This is no small feat. Thousands upon thousands of happy reviewers can't possibly steer your wrong, and this is a greatly fun game by my own admission. If you are only interested in the gameplay of this title, then I'd say to go ahead and buy it. It is a good game in its current state. Nevertheless, I am feeling a bit mixed about this game lately, for a variety of reasons I will proceed to outline below. If you are feeling particularly careful with your money, and are interested in reading a contrarian opinion which is focused more on the games industry than on this title's gameplay, then please read on to learn more about what exactly is my problem with this adorable game.
Summarized: This title, while very enjoyable to play as it-is, suffers from extreme developmental dysfunction... and the company behind it, from an inflated ego... to such degrees that I would ultimately qualify what Mechanistry is doing as "bad consumer practice" in the games industry.
ISSUE 1: "Early Access game with an extremely slow (or otherwise inconsistent) update release schedule."
This game released in September of 2021. As of the writing of this review, it is May of 2025. In the four years that have elapsed since this game's release, just six completed updates have been published to the main branch of this game, with a promising seventh on the way. This release schedule places this game into the unfortunate category of "Early Access masterpieces that almost never update," along with titles like STONKS-9800 and WORLD OF HORROR. The problem of developers not being able to deliver updates in a timely or regular manner has become such a issue on Steam, and is so damn frustrating for gamers that this matter alone will be enough to drive away many potential players. Countless Early Access titles have suffered over the years from non-communicative developers disappearing from public life after multiple prolonged periods of failing to update their game... And Timberborn could yet join their ranks. Thankfully, as of May 2025, the Timberborn devs are very communicative, and regularly publish hotfixes to the experimental branch of their game. They really do update the game, and are simply taking a long time to cook each one. If you are cool with playing Experimental, or waiting months or years for an update, you're in luck. Not only that, but when the updates do come, they tend to be decent. But **PLEASE** keep your eyes on this issue. I have found over the years, this pattern tends to dramatically worsen once the money dries up, and it very well may if Mechanistry insists on continuing to overcharge for this game.
ISSUE 2: "Lack of actual new content in the updates/ lackluster new content."
Of the six updates that have been published since the game launched in 2021, just three were content-focused updates. Updates 1, 2 and 5 collectively added a fair amount of new content to the game, with Update 5 adding a major mechanic in the form of "badwater." The remaining three updates all did include some original content, but were primarily focused on QoL, bugfixing, introducing modding support, and majorly overhauling the game's physics and core systems. Of all that which I have just listed, including the content updates, the physics and systems overhauls have by far done the most for extending this game's replayability. Among such changes, adding the ability to run water overhead of structures was monumental, adding nearly unlimited possibility to your builds. On the other hand, the "district" mechanic (a core system) was such an abject failure that it needed to be done away with in all but name. Considering how integral that system had been up until that point, reducing it to nothing must have been a massive undertaking. But then, also considering how much time has been spent between updates, and how little else has been added during that time, this feat doesn't seem all that impressive.
Furthermore, I must stress that-- other than badwater, which itself is a reskin of regular water-- the actual new content additions have been fairly minimalist in nature. You get a few new buildings each update, some new food crops, improved storage or mining buildings, etc... My favorite such addition has been the inclusion of power batteries, which really are a dynamic and interesting building that radically change the way you want to build your settlement. But even so, after all this time, we still only have the two factions of beavers (the "Folktails" and the "Iron Teeth") that the game launched with. This is completely ridiculous. We do not have procedural map generation... Instead, we have just 13 official maps, a mapmaking Olympics of sorts, and modding support. Again, ridiculous. Why not take that prize money, and give it to some new programmer as a starting bonus? I am so sick of developers that routinely under-deliver leaning into modding support as a way extending their game's life. Popular games get away with it, but they are nevertheless asking the community to make free content for their game because they want to keep their own expenses down. This is Mechanistry's game; it is Mechanistry's job to make content for it, and we want OFFICIAL content.
ISSUE 3: "The price is completely out of control."
When Timberborn first launched, it was a $20.00 game. This was believed by the market to be a fair price for the game, and its fair pricing is part of why the game ballooned into a massive commercial success. Just about everyone could afford to try out the cute beaver city-building game. In the time that has elapsed since launch, however, Timberborn has hiked its price all the way up to $35.00. That is a massive 57% price increase, which is coming on the back of six content-minimal updates spread out over four years, no new factions, and no serious new content additions except for badwater, etc... No matter how you look at it, that is completely and utterly insane. And that's without even factoring in that the game is **still** considering itself to be an Early Access title. $35.00 is a laughably high price for any Early Access title, let alone for one sporting Warcraft III-era cartoon graphics. But, there's actually an even bigger problem, here, and I ask that you please read this next part very carefully...
Because the game's price is already being raised over 50% during Early Access... It is almost certain that Mechanistry will try to hike the price again when ver. 1.0 is released. This begs the question: What will the "beaver game" cost in four more years? Will it cost $45.00? $50.00? $65.00? Only time will tell.
Just 15 years ago, such behavior would have been declared abuse of a loyal fanbase by greedy pigs. Gamers would not have tolerated this sort of behavior from any company. The company behind this game would have been laughed off the face of the internet, despite the game's many merits, and the resulting fallout would have been the subject of YouTube video essays for years to come. The problem is, that we gamers have collectively dealt with so much worse over the last decade. So when the company which rarely updates their Early Access game hikes the price and tells us verbatim that "We believe the change is justified," we respond by being happy that at least the game isn't as complete ""S"" as anything GameFreak has made recently, and by praying this means we can be hopeful for more content.
...All of the above considered, I can only issue a gentle recommendation based on the game's existing systems (which work just fine, and are fun to play with.) BUY ON SALE, *OR* NOT AT ALL. And PLEASE be loud and vocal about your disdain for anti-consumer practices in gaming. If you do not speak up now, you will be abused later.