Since I’ve been a PC gamer for ages, I’ve long been a fan of city and civilization building titles. Whether in the form of the classic SimCity, or the iconic Civilization series, there’s an appeal to starting from scratch to build up something that can grow and eventually thrive. Of course, there have also been plenty of developers that have tried to implement their own versions of this style of play, and many have failed, but it’s always interesting to see what new directions people can come up with in this vein.

Fabledom absolutely wins the prize for having a left-field idea to change things up, and that’s first by setting this building sim in a fairytale world. The second step it takes is to very clearly attempt to slow things down and reduce the normally hectic pace, which is often fraught with potential catastrophes and pitfalls. Sure, you may end up getting mixed up with some giants who’ve come down their beanstalk, but that beats tense budget battles with bureaucrats or fighting to prevent your lands from being overrun by a bloodthirsty warlord. Finally, for the most part you can keep your objectives more focused on the positives, choosing to pursue some royal romance if you’d like as a means to strengthen your kingdom, rather than needing to be more traditionally aggressive.

Of course, the more laid back style can also lend itself a bit more to passages where things can drag. Even speeding things up to keep everything moving as quickly as possible, there are stretches where you’re trying to expand, or meet certain criteria to complete objectives that are key to your progress, that can feel like they’re taking a while. Your little workers are generally diligent, but it can sometimes be hard to understand what you could or should be doing differently to be successful. In part, this can feel tied to the in-game assistance not always being as clear as it could be, but also because it sometimes feels like your workers are almost drunk on the job in terms of their deciding what to do, when, and why.

The result is a take on strategy that’s refreshing, for sure, but can also sometimes be a bit aggravating. I do think there are sufficient surprises, and hidden goodies to discover, that it holds up well at least for a few runs. It would be fair to assume though, that by downplaying aggression and some other elements as options, that it also won’t as likely continue to hold up well as its peers when played repeatedly. Strategy limitations make it inherently more prone to falling into patterns, even if lessons learned can at least help subsequent playthroughs go more smoothly as you settle into how best to approach growth and success. It may not reach the heights of its more distinguished competition, but it at least stands alone as an alternative take if that’s something you’ve been looking for.