The survival game “Medieval Dynasty” is currently enjoying more players on Steam than ever before. The reason for this is a highly sought-after update that My MMO author Linda B. has been waiting for for a long time.
What is Medieval Dyanasty? The game in a medieval setting is a mix of survival, life simulation and building strategy.
You complete quests, collect resources and build your own village. NPCs can then move in there and carry out various tasks for you. To secure your dynasty, you can even start your own family.
The game, published by German publisher Toplitz Productions, left Early Access in 2021 and has received 90% positive reviews on Steam.
You can get an impression of the new multiplayer update for yourself in the trailer:
Finally also in multiplayer
Two years after its release, an update was released that adds the long-awaited multiplayer to Medieval Dynasty. How many people were waiting for the new mode can also be seen in the number of players: from an average of 3,000 players, the numbers shot up to over 31,000 when the update was released (via SteamDB).
What’s new? In addition to the new multiplayer, a new map, “The Oxbow”, also appeared with the update. There are completely new villages, NPCs and quests to discover here. You can experience all of this alone or in co-op mode with up to four players. However, cooperative play on the old map is not possible.
Also new is the character editor, in which you can customize your village leader according to your wishes. There is also now the option to play a female character.
How does the multiplayer work? In order to experience Medieval Dynasty together, a player must start a save game on the new map in co-op mode. Up to three players can then be added using an invitation code.
It is important to note that only the host can save and unlock Steam achievements.
MeinMMO author Linda has been waiting for this mode for a long time and tells you about her first impressions here:
You will then see me in the Middle Ages
Who is speaking here? Linda B. is a big fan of survival games, which she prefers to play in a relaxed atmosphere with her partner or fellow student. She was particularly fond of games like Conan Exiles or Valheim, in which she spent many hours. In addition to gaming, she also has a great passion for everything that has to do with the Middle Ages.
Even in single player, the game impressed me with its cool mix of survival adventure and city building strategy. From the villages to the clothing, the setting is very believable, which is why Medieval Dynasty is one of my favorite medieval games.
At the same time, I always thought it was a shame that I could only play the game alone. When the new co-op mode was announced, I couldn’t be happier.
Other players also felt the same way as me when they found out about the announcement:
What’s great? In my opinion, the game is almost perfect for cooperative play. There is a lot to do, especially at the beginning, when there aren’t that many helping hands in the village. Resources for village building need to be grinded, there are quests to complete, farming to do, villagers to organize, and so on.
Growing seasonal plants and quests that expire after a season require proper timing. You can work up a sweat just by yourself. In co-op, however, you can simply divide the work according to personal preference.
This really works great. And what could be cooler than building a medieval village together? Medieval and survival fans in particular will get their money’s worth here.
What about the quests? Even though the survival and management aspects are in the foreground in Medieval Dynasty, the game always surprised me with funny quests and dialogues. In co-op mode, you can listen to dialogue from other players by interacting with the same NPC.
This of course makes sense in terms of content. You can only hear a conversation if you stand next to it. In terms of play, however, there is a risk of missing out on beautiful dialogues if you are busy doing something else.
We then solved it by reading particularly interesting conversations to each other. This worked well for us, but it’s definitely not for everyone.
Personally, I always find it pleasant when I can listen to other players’ dialogues, even from a distance. For example, using a button that allows me to briefly switch to the view of the interacting player. This is definitely a matter of taste and not decisive for the game, but it should be taken into account by story fans.
Are there bugs? Basically, the cooperative game is already quite stable. However, it is not yet completely free of bugs.
In our almost 10 hours of play in co-op mode, we experienced connection problems once, causing an item stack to disappear from the inventory.
Once again the game crashed completely. But only with a fellow player, not with the host itself. Therefore, no game progress was lost and we were able to continue playing seamlessly.
Whenever the seasons changed, we also had the problem that everyone except the host woke up at the first spawn point instead of in their own village. This can lead to annoying walking paths, especially if you want to build your village very far away.
Otherwise there were a few visual glitches, for example moving walls or floating NPCs. However, they had no influence on gameplay functions.
Conclusion? Overall, we had a lot of fun with the new co-op mode and will definitely spend many more hours building the medieval village. The cooperative game mode really benefits the game, just as I hoped.
Even if there are still a few small problems, the mode is still playable. The developer has also already released the first patches, so bugs should hopefully soon be a thing of the past.