Tavern Keeper

This game is in Early Access - we will follow up with a new, final review when the game launches in 1.0.

I love the Middle Ages. It's a cool time period that spans more than a thousand years depending on where you are in the world. In the "Dark Ages", as Renaissance man called the previous period, enlightenment was far away. The feudal system was in full swing, and the peasantry were subservient to the lord of the manor. We're talking an average age of between 30 and 40 years. What a time. You just have to realise that you lived in a society where violence was an everyday occurrence and where tragedy, death and disease were commonplace. Where am I going with all this? Well, of course, what did you do after working in the fields for a long day? You went to the local speakeasy, had a beer or a schnapps or whatever you could get, and forgot about the day's labour for a while. And what if that tavern also contained imaginary creatures and had a good shot of Tolkien thrown in with various creatures that could be used as labour or maybe just wanted a pint. Yes, that's exactly what Tavern Keeper brings to the table. Your own speakeasy in a fantasy world where the peasants also arrive tired after a hard day's work in the company of trolls and other creatures and just want to relax - what's not to like?

Tavern Keeper is a simulation game where you basically just build a tavern in the middle of a swamp from scratch. You're greeted by a cool intro that shows a lot of fantasy creatures, you complete a few rudimentary tasks, and then the wild treasure hunt begins. And it's never really quiet. The waiter runs around with big beer mugs, people get into fights, the chef is very unhappy about something. The atmosphere is warm and the tavern looks appealing and cosy. This is exactly what Tavern Keeper wants you to achieve after a while with your new tavern. You see the game from an isometric viewpoint and the first tavern you take over is not very big or extensive, and it's generally pretty broken and dilapidated. Your task is to replace all the broken walls and floors, get the beer taps set up and ready to go, order kegs of different kinds of beer from the local brewer and hire someone to manage the bar. All of this is quite simple. The developers have obviously gone to great lengths to make the menus easy to navigate, so all the important things you need to build are in your menu. And if you want to get fancy and make your pub something special, there's the full design menu with so many options it's almost overwhelming. But in the beginning, it's really just about getting everything up and running and getting to know the game.

Tavern Keeper is not just a simulation game. It also has a pretty cool story that is expressed through the customers you get throughout the day. Customers may appear with a book icon above their head, which means they have a story to tell or a task to complete. You do this by opening a large book and a narrator explains what's going on with the customer you're dealing with, and then you can choose different answer options based on various skills you choose at the start of the game. These can be abilities such as charm, rhetoric or strength, and these give you an insight into how much chance you have to solve a problem or suggest something to the person you are talking to. For example, it could be an innkeeper who has a secret he doesn't want to share, and you can only get it out of him if you use charm and cunning. Later on, you also get a genie in a bottle that helps you through the day with all the problems that come up, and a lot of problems come up during the day. You need to keep your employees happy, you need to maintain a certain quality in what you do, and the way you do it needs to be acceptable. Later, you can get an even bigger pub or more pubs in the large map that you can see in the menus.

In short, it's about getting a whole bunch of systems to work together, and it can be both easier and harder depending on what chaotic events you are served. For example, one of the first things I experienced was the sudden appearance of a tornado inside the dart room, which is probably not something many people have experienced first-hand. It travelled around the room while my employees were sleeping, and it ended up smashing my bar counter that was connected to the kitchen. A very special experience. These chaotic events can be turned up or down, and the game generally has many difficulty settings so you can play exactly how you want. You can also get positive chaos events and set how often they occur if you want more good luck than bad. I absolutely love how customisable the game is. You can adjust percentages for difficulty, economy, whether the food and beer gets stale and so on.

When you finally get your pub up and running, people who want to sell you better things start to appear, which means your customers become more sophisticated but also harder to please. And this is where you need to keep your tongue firmly in your cheek, because suddenly there are a lot of things you need to keep track of to keep your pub running smoothly. Your inn can also become very large and a bit overwhelming, but luckily you can set the pace yourself, Sims style. If it all gets too much, you can pause the game and think or build at your leisure. It's great. It's also great to sit and watch the customers come pouring in, order cold beers and initially grill rats. It's super silly and full of humour, but under the hood is a deep simulation game that can consume many hours.

In its current form, all the building blocks are there - the campaign, the loop, the graphics. It works. But at the risk of sounding a little difficult, it's missing the connective tissue that developers can get to materialise through an Early Access period. Maybe it will be through a handful of cutscenes, maybe with a slight rotation of the different scenarios, I don't know, but I have a small reservation that the game needs to move from being a collection of endearing systems and mechanics to becoming a fully-fledged simulation experience.

That said, I've said repeatedly that the game is enjoyable, and it's enjoyable all the way through. The graphics are well done and the animations are so natural to look at that you sometimes think it's a cartoon. It's great just to watch the customers get their food, have a beer and leave. Considering it's an early access game, it's actually one of the most polished games I've played in a long time. It's super cosy and deep, so the fact that it's only in early access is pretty impressive. I can't imagine what it will be when it hits version 1.0. If you're into real manual labour in an age where everything needs to be automated, try Tavern Keeper.