A subjugated people, starved by a government that raises taxes without considering the welfare of its citizens. The only solution is to emigrate and become pioneers. But we’re not talking about the present day — we’re not a news site. We’re reviewing Farthest Frontier, a medieval survival city builder developed and published by Crate Entertainment, which was released on Steam on 23 October 2025.
Do we need another survival city builder? My answer is an affirmative one every time, but read on to discover whether Farthest Frontier could be your favourite survival city builder.
Farthest Frontier: An unpredictable Journey
Farthest Frontier is a survival city builder set in a fictional medieval era. We leave our kingdom and set up home in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people. There, we build a settlement and start a prosperous town. At the beginning of our game, we can choose where to settle on the map, so we can pick a place with a near abundance of critical resources like food and wood, and maybe avoid predators and raiders.
Like all games of this type, Farthest Frontier encourages us to think carefully about managing the resources available to us and avoiding waste. In the early stages of the game, for example, we lack the facilities to produce food, such as animal farms and herb gardens, or the ability to reforest. It is only through technological progress that we acquire the necessary knowledge to grow and survive adequately.
Almost all resources in Farthest Frontier undergo intermediate processing steps before they can be used, in a manner similar to that seen in other titles such as Endzone: A World Apart, Frostpunk, Timberborn and Highrise City, which is halfway between a survival city builder and a pure city builder, such as Cities: Skylines.
Brace yourself, winter is coming
As any respectable survival city builder, the game features a cycle of seasons and enemies. In winter, for example, we will need to stockpile firewood and furs to clothe our settlers. However, firewood cannot simply be obtained by cutting down trees; it must be sent to woodcutters, who will then cut it so that it can be used by citizens in the fireplaces of their homes and shops.
Furthermore, productivity is reduced in winter because cold waves prevent citizens from leaving their shelters and fields cannot be cultivated. On the other hand, droughts in summer can reduce water supplies, thereby increasing the spread of disease.
The fields are the element that is most sensitive to the changing of the seasons. In fact, we have to decide what to plant and when. Moreover, there is an opportunity to carry out maintenance work on the field between growing different crops.
Each plant has different needs: some require sandy soil, while others prefer clayey soil. Some grow in arid areas, while others thrive in more humid conditions. Resistance to frost and heat is important when deciding when to sow. The presence of stones and weeds also affects crop yields. As the game is set in the Middle Ages, before fertilisers existed except in the form of manure, planting nitrogen-fixing crops such as beans, peas or clover helps to fertilise the field.
It would be good to have irrigation systems, which would make the game more challenging.
Prepare to resist
Climate events are not our only threat. In fact, our village may be periodically visited by aggressive wild animals or attacked by raiders. Animals such as wolves, bears and wild boars can be kept at a distance with fences, and citizens can often scare them away.
In the case of looters, however, the situation is considerably more intricate. As our village grows richer over the years, it will become an attractive target for raiders and cutthroats. Therefore, we will need to consider not only providing for our citizens, but also defending them.
In order to create a garrison capable of withstanding attacks by bandits, we will build walls, gates, watchtowers and barracks. Unfortunately, building barracks alone does not automatically provide soldiers. For each barracks built, however, we can pay citizens to enlist. We must also arm them by providing bows, arrows, swords, shields and chain mail.
As you can see, creating a garrison to defend the city is not easy, but with a little practice and the help of our dear citizens, we will be able to withstand these raids, even if they often result in losses among our settlers.
Conclusion
I was glued to Farthest Frontier for several hours. I love this genre, which, along with simulators, is my favourite. The developers did a good job of creating the character models and managing resources. However, they could have avoided including tricorn hats, as these were only worn from the 17th century onwards.
The AI of the citizens has also been carefully designed. For example, if a fire breaks out in the city, we will see all the citizens procession to the nearest well, collect water in buckets and return to the site of the fire to throw it. Once the fire is out, the citizens will return to their normal activities.
However, even when commanded manually — for example, to attack intruders or assist the hunter in killing a wild boar — they automatically return to their place once their task is complete.
I was not entirely satisfied with the market: it is not possible to make a profit by purchasing goods from merchants, though you can earn enough by selling your surplus production.
On the other hand, I was very satisfied with the implementation of the crop rotation system, both in the current year and over the three-year cycle. This system adds a touch more realism to the simulation and enables better resource planning for citizens, who unfortunately tend to favour meat. In fact, the game does not really recognise legumes as a source of protein.
One of the biggest flaws is the use of Unity as the game engine. Unfortunately, almost all titles in this genre use this engine, which makes the games very demanding in terms of RAM when the population increases.
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