Peter Molyneux–creator of Fable and various popular “god” games like Black & White–has released what he says is his final game, the “culmination of [his] life’s work,” and proof that he’s done over-promising and under-delivering: Masters of Albion, a “god game” that launched in early access yesterday. But rather than feeling like an omnipotent god, players say the game makes them feel like they’re trapped in a medieval version of Cooking Mama.
“The main gameplay loop seems to center more or less around a Cooking Mama style mini-game,” one player wrote on Steam, where the game’s user reviews are currently “mixed.”
Masters of Albion’s Steam page describes it as “A bold reimagining of the god game genre from the creator who defined it,” and explains that players can “shape a living world as a god–or step into it and experience it through [its] people.” The game includes building, town defense, and other typical life-sim-meets-strategy-game genre staples. But it also includes a whole lot of painstaking Cooking Mama-esque sandwich-making, apparently.
“For the majority of the time you will be making sandwiches, cakes, soups, pies, etc. Not being an all powerful godly hand,” one thumbs-down Steam review reads. “You literally put the bread down, then decide what goes on top of the bread, then what goes on top of that, or what ingredients you put in the soup … for each … and every … work order, with a vague hint of what the client wants.”
The hints start out fairly easy–for example, the first request seems to be a sandwich with “bread, dairy, and nothing more.” Clearly, this customer wants a cheese sandwich. But after watching a livestream in which the player fulfilled this request by making a sandwich with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, rat meat, and vinegar–and was still given a 10/10 score by the customer seeking a simple cheese sandwich–I have even more questions about how this is supposed to work.
Of course, there are plenty of other aspects to the game, and it is currently in early access, so there’s every chance that the focus on food prep may be dialed back in future updates. (Plus most players have only experienced the early parts of the game, as it’s only been out a day–the gameplay loop may involve less tedious cooking as players progress through the game). But speaking of the future, it turns out that–despite Molyneux claiming it’s the last game he’ll make–he’s also claimed that it’s the first chapter of a planned Masters of Albion trilogy.
“I hope the game gets more exciting than making sandwiches and soup during the day,” one player wrote in their Steam review.
No word yet on how much sandwich-making is planned for the game’s sequels.
