GamesManagementGamescom 2024Tavern Keeper feels like being a fly on the wall in a D&D campaign, and I never knew I needed that in a management simWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesManagementGamescom 2024Tavern Keeper feels like being a fly on the wall in a D&D campaign, and I never knew I needed that in a management simWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Greenheart Games)
An adventurer wanders into my tavern just as I’m serving up a pint of something almost certainly inedible. Clicking on his valiant armour-plated character model opens up a story book, and with it, one of many unique moments of randomized storytelling in Tavern Keeper.
Greenheart Games’ fantasy management sim neatly pairs tabletop RPG-style storytelling – courtesy of its fully-voiced narrator – with fastidiously detailed design and business systems. From purchasing casks of ale to placing furniture items, decorating tables, and preventing an all-out fist fight from breaking out in my nice respectable establishment, my brief half hour with Tavern Keeper surprised me with just how exciting life as an old-timey barkeep can be.
Roll for initiative
(Image credit: Greenheart Games)
Just about managing(Image credit: EA)Our list ofbest sim gameshas plenty to keep you busy until you can head behind the bar in Tavern Keeper
Just about managing
(Image credit: EA)Our list ofbest sim gameshas plenty to keep you busy until you can head behind the bar in Tavern Keeper
(Image credit: EA)
Our list ofbest sim gameshas plenty to keep you busy until you can head behind the bar in Tavern Keeper
The tutorial segment of the game is a short one, but charms me almost instantly. Panning around a cheery ready-built tavern reveals a host of rosy-cheeked revellers, swigging tankards of ale and wandering about to interact with the many decorative or leisure features on offer. There’s darts, for example, with a description suggesting patrons use the visage of their enemies to inspire a true shot at its bullseye. Elsewhere, an elven visitor looks to be picking her nose in an empty corner. The whole pub feels teeming with life already, and all I’ve had to do is sit back and enjoy it (and learn about nested tooltips).
(Image credit: Greenheart Games)
After opening a pub of my own in a dank swamp, furnished with naught but wooden crates repurposed as tables, barstools, and countertops, one of the first things I have to do is hire a worker. I select a tall, spindly-looking elf, underskilled and undertrained for the job at hand. However, her worker bio mentions that “thinking of ogres makes her laugh,” and that, in turn, makesmelaugh. Even the wholesale deliveryman, a beady-eyed cyclops who pulls into the swampy waters behind the tavern to peddle his wares, adds a unique vibrance to the proceedings. It’s these little moments of humour and silliness that infuse Tavern Keeper with a sense of whimsy – it’s clear Tavern Keeper’s 10-year development journey has been paved with nothing but love for the fantasy world and management sim genre.
GamesRadar+ is in Cologne playing the most anticipatednew games of 2024, and speaking to the developers bringing them to life. For more of our hands-on previews and exclusive interviews, visit theGamescom 2024coverage hub.
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