Here we have a game that while in early access is one, I have been interested in for a while. The first time that I saw This Land Is My Land I got some very heavy Red Dead Redemption vibes. While it does not actually play anything like Red Dead Redemption, I find this period of history fascinating and was really excited to put those settlers in their place!
How to Download This Land Is My Land
You can download the game from Steam by clicking the Download button located below this review. And if you like Wild West games, check out also our review of RDR2.
The Game Review
The first thing that you need to take note of is who you play as. While this may be set in the days of “cowboys” you actually play as a native American chief who is trying to make things good for his people. The game from what I can tell is not exactly 100 percent historically correct, but this is the age-old war we have seen many times before.
I would say that This Land Is My Land is best described as part strategy game, part stealth, and part resource management game. In terms of strategy, you have a large map that you are fighting over with an unseen enemy. The more land you have the better for your people and the fewer settlers to ruin things for you.
This is the kind of game that just sounds awesome. While I did have fun with it, I feel that there are a few things that need to be fixed before its stint in early access is done. To start with there is a karma system at play which is way too harsh. You get bad karma for killing settlers which I kind of get. But when they invade your lands and you kill them you still get knocked down for it!
It is like everything you do to defend yourself gets you punished. Instead, the game wants you to use stealth and scare the enemy away. This is incredibly frustrating and the AI is very janky leading to huge invasions or them running away and nothing happening. I really think that the karma system is the first thing that they need to take care of.
Another big aspect of the game, but one I like is managing your braves. When you have a settlement, you can send your braves to do stuff like gather wood and make things. I ended up having a very efficient way of always having a stock of bow and arrows. As you progress and get more settlements you can get bigger and better stuff. While I think they have done this right, expanding on it would be really cool.
Visually, This Land Is My Land is probably what you expect from a game in early access. To be fair, I have not seen too many bugs in terms of the graphics. I do think it will probably get a bit of a spit shine before the full release, but even now I would say this is a decent enough looking game.
Overall, the gameplay I feel is teetering on being great. They just need to work a few things out and I think this is going to be something very special. In the meantime, unless you love games set in this time period, maybe wait for some of the bugs to be fixed before you jump in.
