Fabledom Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Witches cast curses on you, fawns walk the streets, and you’ve found a missing glass slipper. You might think you know the rest of this particular story, but the question that Fabledom poses for you is whether to return that glass slipper to its owner or pawn it to swell your kingdom’s coffers. Fabledom is a city builder with a severe case of the bedtime stories, merging a traditional dose of laying down pathways, houses and woodcutters with princesses, dragons and evil witches. It’s an approachable and fun take on a genre that often takes itself a bit too seriously, and it’s all the better for it.

When I say that Fabledom is a traditional city-builder, that’s perhaps selling it short. Sure, the first thing you have to do is start chopping down trees and building houses, but there’s a series of well though-out wrinkles to the formula to make you sit up and take notice. Building a house, or several other structures, requires you to build corresponding attachments, whether that’s a garden, which you can lay out with a selection of different furniture, or a storage unit’s palettes of useful material. It immediately means that your little hamlet looks more unique, and more lively, and that your Fablings have a much more interesting home to tootle about in.

There’s a surprising level of additional depth to the building shenanigans too, bringing in more advanced features like ensuring that homes have access to water and sanitation and that your kingdom has a decent stock of coal in preparation for the winter. You also have to consider the attractiveness of an area if you’re going to build homes there. Pop down a bakery and everyone in the vicinity will be happier. If it’s a sawmill instead, be prepared for some unhappy faces, and far less chance you’ll attract new citizens to join you.

Those new citizens are the lifeblood of your domain, as they provide daily taxes with which you expand your reach, and as the workers in your key locations. It’s often a juggling act, as you