Mystery of Neuschwanstein
Mystery of Neuschwanstein
Game
Game2025
Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown
Developer Zugalu Entertainment
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown is a complex city builder, where the fate of your kingdom hinges on your every decision. Explore this medieval land alone or with friends, make tough moral choices and conquer your foes in RTS combat. Will you struggle to survive, or find the strength to Thrive? From the Steam store page
220 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 29, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
50
Mixed
95 positive · 94 negative
95% range 43–57%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 95 | 94 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 22 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 9 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
167 of 290 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
51% recommend · 96 yes, 93 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 189 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (266 of 460 positive).
Many players enjoy the blend of city-building and RTS combat. [1][2][3] Some reviewers report game-breaking bugs and a lack of updates. [4][5][6] Several players see potential but note the game feels unfinished. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
Game is basically broken. Units get stuck constantly for no reason which eventually leads to riots. Game is way too slow. Most of my time isn't spent building, fighting or exploring, it's spent waiting for something to happen. It feels like this game had absolutely no playtesting done. I expanded my empire and the new territory I claimed immediately had half of the farmers get stuck in place. There is no way to get …
- [5]
There was an attempt, but now the game seems dead. Went from early release to 1.0 and it has been radio silence for three months. No updates, no bug fixes, nothing. Seems like they got a couple bucks and abandoned ship.
- [1]
Why the mixed reviews? I don’t get it. After ~4 hours of gameplay (which, let's be real, is barely scratching the surface for this genre), I genuinely don’t understand the mixed reviews. If you enjoy city-builders with story-driven decisions, give this one a shot. It instantly gave me Anno 1404 vibes – not because it's a clone (it isn’t), but because of how immersive and satisfying the gameplay loop feels. I really …
- [2]
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown stands out with its blend of city-building and RTS combat, but what I’ve enjoyed most is the multiplayer aspect. Managing an economy, expanding territories, and making tough moral choices feel even more engaging when playing with others. Whether cooperating to build a thriving kingdom or competing for dominance, multiplayer adds a dynamic layer that keeps every session fresh. Balancing …
- [3]
This game combines city builder and RTS very well. Even if you've played a city builder before I recommend playing with the tutorial activated first because you can still do whatever you want. The tutorial objectives are more of a suggestion. I really enjoy the progression, and multiplayer is easy to set up. It starts out slow, but it's really fun when you get your production and military going. 10/10
Summarised from 34 of the 215 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown sits at 50% positive across 189 opinionated reactions from 3 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 220 · most liked firstSo when there's big flat plains in the US, that's kinda what we like to do. But in the South? Our big flat plains are mostly deep, DEEP coastal sand. And grain DOESN'T LIKE SAND WE AIN'T GONNA THRIVE TRYING TO PLAY THE MIDWEST'S GAME ON SAND Y'ALL. WHAT ARE WE DOING
neutral · AI labelView post →Game is basically broken. Units get stuck constantly for no reason which eventually leads to riots. Game is way too slow. Most of my time isn't spent building, fighting or exploring, it's spent waiting for something to happen. It feels like this game had absolutely no playtesting done. I expanded my empire and the new territory I claimed immediately had half of the farmers get stuck in place. There is no way to get them unstuck either. I feel robbed, the game is literally unplayable in the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok I'm just gonna say it: every Pokémon game they release that doesn't involve humans shows how much they would THRIVE without us.
neutral · AI labelView post →There is some fun to be had here, and I genuinely admire the ambition — a city builder with strong RTS-style combat, and the addition of fantasy, mythological creatures? That’s such a cool direction. But unfortunately, the execution just isn’t there right now, and the payoff comes way too late in the game. Yes, it’s early access, and some rough edges are expected. But systems like trade routes feel unintuitive and buggy — caravans get stuck on buildings, or simply stop doing their jobs for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Why the mixed reviews? I don’t get it. After ~4 hours of gameplay (which, let's be real, is barely scratching the surface for this genre), I genuinely don’t understand the mixed reviews. If you enjoy city-builders with story-driven decisions, give this one a shot. It instantly gave me Anno 1404 vibes – not because it's a clone (it isn’t), but because of how immersive and satisfying the gameplay loop feels. I really enjoy the world and story they're building here. The fact that you can choose…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Everything takes too long, lots of little annoying bugs like "I cancel 1 building in a new expansion and suddenly every building i qued in that area vanishes, all my villagers instantly return to my main and all the resources from the caravan and i have to send a new caravan all over again." For example. Or. Other annoying features the dev overlooked entirely because they clearly don't play-test. Like villagers ignoring a fire because it's literally 2 steps outside of the range…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Open source evolution sim Thrive v0.8 brings more graphics improvements and new game mechanics #Thrive #OpenSource #Godot #IndieGame #LinuxGaming
neutral · AI labelView post →Our first ever #ScreenShotSaturday for our first game, Thrive! #GameDev #IndieDev
neutral · AI labelView post →Bought this as an EA... It 'had potential' then. Now its 1.0? Nah man. This game is blatantly unfinished and has many bugs and enough jank to make Bethesda envious. Wouldn't recommend a buy, which is a shame because it started out pretty good.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Open source evolution simulation Thrive brings Multicellular Stage advancements #GodotEngine #NativeLinux #Simulation #IndieGames #PCGaming
neutral · AI labelView post →Open source evolution sim Thrive adds currents, bioluminescence, additional environmental events and more #Thrive #Godot #IndieGame #Linux #Gaming
neutral · AI labelView post →I can't recommend that game right now in its current condition. A lot of the smaller bugs and feedback can, of course, be worked around but it's kind of rough to have been moved to 1.0. For example, I find it hard to believe workers getting stuck did not show itself in Beta and this is the first time the Devs have seen it. If that's the case, some more QA testing might have been warranted. Ditto for units not going into guard towers sometimes. It IS fun, but it's not fun to have constant…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There was an attempt, but now the game seems dead. Went from early release to 1.0 and it has been radio silence for three months. No updates, no bug fixes, nothing. Seems like they got a couple bucks and abandoned ship.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game breaking bugs and no updates. Game seems to have been rushed to 1.0 and abandoned.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game keeps breaking. It goes from my Inventory not going up, the story stops working, military units stop moving, Caravans getting stuck in towns, materials showing on the map that's not even visible to gather. Enemy siege units being immune to dmg from all spear units unless hit with a different unit. not being able to train more soldiers, and have to rely on milita contracts. It's happened twice, where if I leave the game I lose the save. I'm loving the game, but I can't keep losing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DO NOT BUY! Riddled with bugs, issues, bad optimization and lackluster gameplay. Abondoned by devs in a "semi ok" state. The game itself is ok, but only for the beginning hours.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Before you buy, there are bugs in the game that make it unplayable. It's a good game with good depth, but until the devs fix the bugs, its not great. Mine happened in multiplayer where my brother's town was having villagers just go strait to the enemy faction. So we had to stop playing. I would say if you want to support the game, get it, otherwise just wish list and wait until a more stable version is out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was looking for a game like Manor Lords that allowed multiplayer. It is very similar but different in its own unique and charming ways. When first starting the game, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff on the UI. It is also easy to get semi-frustrated with the amount of things in your face, so expect your first 3-4 hours to be dedicated to learning the game's basic mechanics. If you don't have the attention span to dedicate that much time to learning the game, it's probably…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played #Thrive on 2026-03-14 with 2 players #bgstats Apparently I'm not very good at this game. It's still fascinating.
neutral · AI labelView post →So, when folks ask "what kinds of games do you think are good for learning?" This is the kind of stuff I think of: Thrive, an open source evolution game inspired by Spore that attempts to dig deeper into reasonably correct science and teaches purposes behind processes. revolutionarygamesstudio.com
neutral · AI labelView post →unfortunately the game seems to be abandoned. while i had fun while playing and there are some interesting concepts, it's held back by some annoying bugs that don't seem to be fixed anymore, and the game itself isn't so complex that you would spend hundreds of hours just tinkering with the economy of your cities. the game certainly had a potential, but i don't think it's being realized anymore
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has unbelievable potential, this could be honestly one of the best games out there. A mix of banished and AOE, yes please. As of right now there are some bugs, crashes, and down right game breaking mechanics, but holy sheet balls i can see the diamond that's in there.... also the achievements seem to not register either so yeah..... early access.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Valkyries fans, Game 6 weatch party at Chase Center's Thrive City! Event opens at 7:30AM. #Valyries #GSV #Ballhalla
neutral · AI labelView post →Really enjoy this game if it wasn't for all the bugs that plague it. Currently lost yet another save due to one that causes everything to freeze and not render any building in but you can still move the camera. Game has a ton of potential if the developers were actually giving a damn about it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been fascinated with consensual tentacle porn lately. I do recall a game called Tentacles Thrive that i found a decade ago, but i had no clue how to play it. It has good art style and a lot of scenes also look really good
neutral · AI labelView post →Bought this game on sale - it was $10. Have played it for 10 hours so far - I've really been enjoying it. Yes, there's bugs in this game, which for me it's just during large military fights - I was being invaded by the King and his army, I had an army of about 80 people (20 horseman, 20 bowmen, 20 sword fighters and 20 spear fighters), and i highlighted them all to go attack... only the sword people moved, everyone else was stuck making circles within their spot. So yeah, that kind of wiped…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Complete waste of money, bought it on the 1.0 launch and it's got a few patches over 8 months with the last one being in Feb 2026. It still has bugs from before 1.0 and the multiplayer has desyncing issues that cause extremely long loads which only increase in frequency as your cities become bigger. This game is effectively abandoned and has one community manager/dev who's entire job seems to be to reply whenever anyone says the game is abandoned in discussions but the lack of patches or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Open source evolution sim Thrive adds planet customization https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/08/open-source-evolution-sim-thrive-adds-planet-customization/ #Godot #OpenSource #IndieGames #Thrive
neutral · AI labelView post →This game is really fun and has great potential, but it doesn't feel like a finished product. it has 3 big bugs that makes it unplayable for me. 1: sometimes when you recruit your militia, they just get stuck immediately making you unable to defend yourself from attackers in the early game. 2: I bought this game to play with friends in multiplayer, but I keep getting stuck at 700 global pop every time we try to play this multiplayer. My town just stop growing even though they shouldn't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thrive City is bustling with fans ahead of the Golden State Valkyries’ deciding playoff game against the Dallas Wings on Friday. 📸: Joy Jihyun Jeong/S.F. Chronicle
neutral · AI labelView post →It's just another silly clone of the "place a whole lot of management buildings but you can only succeed if you place them EXACTLY in the optimal configuration" style game. Totally unpolished and with plenty of issues right at the start. There is so much requirement for building support radius that you can't actually build anything fun or interesting just the same old patterns repeated. Zero options to change settings or adjust things in game makes this even worse.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Review: Mixed Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown is one of those games that shows flashes of brilliance but struggles to keep momentum. It’s not a bad game by any means — in fact, it has some unique strengths that set it apart from other city-builders — but the pacing and design choices make it hard to fully recommend without caveats. 👍 Strengths • Combat & Trade Routes: Unlike Kingdoms Reborn and other Banished-style games, combat and trade aren’t just tacked on — they feel like meaningful…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I would love to recommend this game but so many times during my playthru i have to go back to another save b/c game freezes, not the whole client just like the game and it wont save so i have to go back to most recent save. this just demoralize me. Not sure what else there is to do in the end game b/c im the only one in the land besides the npc ive ruled over. But the main thing that annoys me is that freeze of units and game wont let me save so it forces me to go back and do it all over again.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is no way this is finished game. Great idea but to many bugs. Even selecting troops and sending them to other side of my village is to hard for them. I paid £8.04 for this and I still feel cheated. If devs will be working on this game and fix it I will gladly change this review.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not ready for public consumption just yet
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Open source evolution sim Thrive adds currents, bioluminescence, additional environmental events and more https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/05/open-source-evolution-sim-thrive-adds-currents-bioluminescence-additional-environmental-events-and-more/ #Thrive #Godot #IndieGame #Linux #Gaming
neutral · AI labelView post →Edelgard would THRIVE in a mainline SMT game
neutral · AI labelView post →This game is very munch unpolished and unfinished. I REALLY wanted to like this game, because I like being a tyrant and not many games let me do that. However the game is littered with problems both buggy and design wise. The story skips around (I'm guessing a quest trigger was somehow skipped by me). You can't use the ESC key to exit menus for some reason. Diplomacy makes no sense (save ally from enemy camp, but ally isn't ON THE MAP!). Trading is non-existant. Supply convoys are clunky,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved the beginning but the further you progress the more buggy things become. Using Aqueducts is a nightmare boarding on impossible - there is no Wiki nor help articles for very basic things like how to gather certain resources (like Glass). I feel like this could be a great game but this need to bake in the oven a bit longer before it can be considered done. I hate paying for a game where I become the beta tester - if the game isn't finished, either don't release it or make it free until…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Anno clone without the polish, alot of bugs, issues restarting a saved multiplayer game, ui issues for new players to the genre, no wiki/online presence to help with small issues of understanding the core gameplay.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was very reluctant to try this game after I read some comments, but I had a go and bought it on special. After 3h I can say so far so good! It's fun and engaging. I haven't had any bugs mentioned here, no one was stuck, nothing disappeared. I made my second province and doing OK. Not sure what was happening to some other players but I enjoy the game so far. Will see what happens later when I have a proper army and maybe few more provinces.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown is such a wonderful concept, including many colonies to establish. Unfortunately, it had the bugs still had issue (many of them actually), especially when feeding the soldiers as some of them it does not work, despite the cart was there. I love this game, but those unresolve bugs makes me to not to recommend.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately, despite an interesting concept and an curious world, it is riddled with bugs. 4 hours in, I encountered a game ending bug that left me stuck in loading at 100% when connecting. The game would also randomly freeze for no apparent reason.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Greetings! Today we’ll be looking at ‘Thrive – Heavy Lies the Crown’…yes! Another City Builder. Over the past years these have become my favorite genre and even better when they add RTS elements and let me build an army to defend my kingdom! So, does this game deliver? Let’s Discuss! Can we Build it – At first glance we have a very serviceable builder, you gather resources, build buildings and slowly improve the lives of your populous. This game also has ‘tiers’ of your population.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is Broken. The longer you play the greater the chance of game breaking bugs starting to pop up, such as cursor misalignment, armies just not listening to your commands on where you send them, walls forever being not built, saves getting broken, and probably more, i don't know because I give up.... Don't buy this game, i doubt they will ever fix these issues. I tried this game when it was a demo years ago, and it still has alot of the same issues.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Full of bugs make yourself a favor do not buy
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to like this game as a co-op RTS/city builder it fits right in with my gaming group. However I cannot recommend it right now in its early access state. There are too many bugs and poor unit/resource optimization. Worst of all includes loss of save files, and being unable to progress in multiplayer as the "second tier" production unit known as the Laborer simply would not spawn making progress impossible. The price drop seems to be more of a cash grab than a new release promo.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the concept and i dont think the game is bad it just isnt what i was personally hoping for. I was hoping for more focus on ruling and military not micro managing 4-6 special resources that are diff for each class of citizen. if you enjoyed games like Manor lords or Farthest frontier, this should be right up your alley.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game was abandoned, and never fixed a game breaking bug for over a year
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →They need to fix npc walking in place stopping the economy in field and trees you cant see
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has some things they will need to workout but overall it is a very fun game. it is like a child of Anno and age of empires. very fun with friends. I wish it did a better job at letting you know that you were done researching a new piece of tech though. ALSO, YOU NEEEEEEEED FOOD STORE NEXT TO WHEAT, AND ALL OTHER FOOD ITEM. I know is sound obvious, but it was not. love that roads are free! ai pathfinding needs some work. combat is good. enjoy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →--- Bad --- You need to spend gold to build a wooden fence You need to spend gold to plant a tree The armory suddenly stops working for no reason and you become unable to hire soldiers, in spite of having all required resources Absolutely no idea how to complete the neighboring town quests (they ask for resources, but you can't send anything anywhere) - there's also no explanation about that in the help section Can't connect the dirt path to the stone road at region entrance Even after…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game shows promise and if it would work as it should would be quite fun. Seems early access was beta and 1.0 is somehow early access. In current state the game is unplayable. (Spending a lot of time trying to work around the bugs, this is now the second time I have to pause playing because I just can’t progress) The good: -Very cool to have a fantasy city builder where you can expand to other territories. -When in other games you would be finished here you get a continuous start with the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are still a number of basic elements simply broken. The loading of saves sometimes does not work, units coming out of buildings get stuck and so do the trade caravans. The quality of life is horrible, e.g. no production limits and a general lack of overview on what is going on. There are a large number of city builders in a much better state than this one.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Breath of The Wild is about how Zelda will whither and die when constrained by the shackles of expectations brought on by comparison to previous Zeldas and can only Thrive when exploring new frontiers. This is not My Reading or An Analysis this is literally the text of the game. They BEEN sick of it
neutral · AI labelView post →Early Access showed promise, since release nothing has been added or fixed to the game in over a year. Guess they didn't make enough money to carry on fixing and improving.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown stands out with its blend of city-building and RTS combat, but what I’ve enjoyed most is the multiplayer aspect. Managing an economy, expanding territories, and making tough moral choices feel even more engaging when playing with others. Whether cooperating to build a thriving kingdom or competing for dominance, multiplayer adds a dynamic layer that keeps every session fresh. Balancing resource management, diplomacy, and warfare alongside friends makes for a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has issues. I saved it and stopped playing after a couple hours. Then when i reloaded the save a little bit later, I had lost about an hour's worth of playtime. I would have returned it but missed the return time by 10 minutes. Also it is very unbalanced in a lot of ways that i won't go into. But losing all that time invested when i saved it. Only to come back and find it gone makes it unplayable for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game has some promise but needed alot more improvements, has since been totally abandoned. cant recommend at all.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't buy this. Promise so much, but nothing update after 1.0 release.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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