This game was provided to us for free from the Stray Fawn Studios. Thank you!
Ever wanted to start your own farm on the back of a gigantic beast? Well this very specific wish of yours is about to come true with The Wandering Village! In charge of your own colony, you must give orders and create your own sprawling city, all while on the back of a gigantic beast named Onbu. Harvest resources, research, and build to survive unique biomes that Onbu travels through while aiming to not only take care of yourself, but the beast you ride on by maintaining a bond of trust. This could include feeding it, directing where it should go, and even taking care of any parasites that attach to its back. With this unique mechanic adding a new layer, this game is something else and a LOT of fun to play.
When I reviewed The Wandering Village when it first came out into early access, it was more barebones on the features to make it fully compatible with the Steam Deck, but as of January 18th, the game has full Steam Deck support! This means 1280x800 resolution (it had this before) and full controller support! I did create a controller scheme called "SDHQ Steam Deck V1" for the game, but with the controller support, it is no longer needed and you can use gamepad controls. It takes a little getting used to, but it feels great once you do!
Other than that, the game performs a bit better as well! With an average of 10W, a stable 60 is a fantastic experience. Though I did notice that by turning Anti-Aliasing off, you can save 1W, which will give about 30 extra minutes of battery. While it doesn't sound like fantastic savings, it is great to have for longer trips with no way to charge the device with minimal impact to visual quality.
Overall, The Wandering Village is a fantastic strategy game on the Steam Deck. With unique mechanics and a great visual style, the game is definitely one to watch out for! And with the new update, the game feels significantly better to play on the device. If this is how the game will be on full release, I would consider it a Best on Deck game!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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The Wandering Village has become a fantastic base-building sandbox game to play on the Steam Deck. If this keeps up to full release, this will easily be a Best on Deck game!
