Ale Abbey is from a company called Hammer and Ravens. Long-time readers may remember that they tossed me a game called Razerewire:Nanowars that I was once the world score leader on. I no longer am.
Anyway, I picked up a copy of Ale Abby because for years they posted screenshots and sent me little pictures, and I knew I didn’t want to miss it. It took a little longer than I would have liked, but it was well worth the wait.
The concept is very simple. You get put in charge of an abbey, this abbey worships beer, so get to brewing. You quickly learn the basics of how to put together a recipe, make booze, and build rooms. This is all very easy at first. Later on, when towns want special brews with certain levels of strength or flavors made with certain ingredients, it does get a bit more challenging, but only slightly. As the game tells you when you can’t pay your bills, this isn’t the Dark Souls of tycoon games. Pick up a couple orders that give you half up front and half when it’s filled, and you are on your way back to brewing.
At no point did I ever feel like I hit a point where I felt like I was so far in the hole I couldn’t keep playing, and my first attempt, I screwed up pretty bad by not paying the bandits cash or ale to leave my carts alone. This cost me a lot of money, more than it would have cost me to keep them happy.
I also made some bad choices on when to build new rooms, which hurt my ability to brew. My second run went much smoother when I paid attention to profit margins, bandits, and when to build. Keeping some booze in the basement, only building when you have extra money lying around, and remembering this is a marathon, not a race, are the keys here.
Ale Abbey has been a pleasure to play, and will be in my rotation of games to play for a long time. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
- Demonschool Playstation 5 Review
- JDM: Japanese Drift Master
- Duskpunk Steam Review
- Hunger games: Sunrise on the Reaping teaser
- VR Playtest News | Survival Horror Game Dread Meridian
Savior Gaming 