Platform reviewed: Steam
Price: $14.99 USD
Taking a break from all the hustle and bustle of the modern world, sometimes it’s nice to relax to a simpler time of the 1500’s brewing ale in a monastery. This is exactly what I was doing in the game Ale Abbey. The premise of the game is to manage a monastery while producing ale and keeping up the happiness and comfortability of the Fermentines that helped me create the heavenly ales to sell to nearby villages and towns, all within a delightfully pixelated art style and a toe tapping soundtrack.
One of the challenges I faced when creating the ales was making sure they had the correct quality and type, which was done with a clever virtue system when creating your ales. Selecting the right ingredients and the perfect amount of said ingredients is how I increased the quality of the drink. There are 4 different virtues you have to keep in mind; flavour, colour, strength, and foam. Which increase and decrease with the amount of ingredients added to the ale. Having too many of a specific ingredient might be good for flavour but might not be enough for foam, so it's about finding that sweet spot when it comes to making the perfect ale. I also got to create a name for the ale after I was done finishing with the ingredients which I thought was a nice touch. Although I think it would be nice if they had a randomizer for names as it was required to name the drink and I was quickly running out of names to use.
Once my ale was made I had a few things I could do with it. I could sell it to a nearby town to gain fame and increase my reputation in the area. This would also unlock different types of ales to sell, as some towns would only buy certain types of ale. I would also get orders from the town for a specific type of ale and quantity. Which were usually for a festival, wedding, or a funeral. I found these were my best way to get income for the monastery as they were quick and resulted in a good amount of Florins. I could also store the ale in a cellar, which I could mark it for consumption for the Fermentines. This would increase their happiness but I also had to watch their drunkenness as they could be too drunk to do their tasks. Another thing I had to look out for were bandits, they would sometimes steal ale from my wagon on its travels to the towns to deliver their ale. I was able to bribe the bandits to stop them from stealing ale as well as if I was in good standing they would even loan me some laymen to help with deliveries. I also unlocked a way that I could bribe them with ale which I found was a way more cost effective way to keep them happy.
Final Grade A
If you are looking for a fun management style game with some well done pixel art, a fun medieval style soundtrack, and challenging but rewarding brewing system, then I would definitely suggest picking up Ale Abbey. As this game is in early access I am excited to see where the game goes from here, and I think I will absolutely be jumping back into this game in the future.
Review code provided by Shiro Unlimited
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