Bellwright Review
Bellwright combines city building and survival crafting elements for a co-op experience that trounces most other attempts at the genre
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Introduction
My girlfriend and I have a problem. We both burn through co-op games like wildfire. We also are both interested in very different genre of game. She loves collectathon games, and sandbox survival. I, on the other hand really like management and strategy games. So my question is this: How do we find a game that bridges that gap and manages to hold both of our interests?
Allow me to explain the problem in a little bit more detail then I’ll get to Bellwright I promise.
I am an optimization machine. I love automation games like Shapez 2, Factorio, and Satisfactory.
The feeling of laying down the groundwork for something; be it, conveyor belts, robots, or citizens, satisfies something deep in my soul. Haha I guess trains do too. If anyone has an inkling about what condition this might be tied to, the trains probably give it away.
Perhaps its the same reason I want to start an ant colony, or really like making terrariums. I’m willing to tolerate the spreadsheets and planning in order to see the systems I’ve designed work for themselves.
My girlfriend is on the opposite end of the spectrum. She’s a loot goblin and refuses to skip any part of the experience no matter how minor. If there’s an option to do it all herself she’s going to take it.
These diametrically opposed viewpoints cause tension when we attempt to play games together.
When we play her games I lack the mental stimulation to keep up with the grind. My solution is to divert my attention to finding exploits, glitches, and sometimes cheats. If the game won’t let me skip the boring stuff I’ll find my own way.
This frustrates my girlfriend to no end because she gets the strong feeling that I’m not really helping out (which is definitely the case). Plus lets be honest nobody likes playing games with someone who’s bored.
Similarly. When we play my games my girlfriend lacks the stimulation from feeling like she’s actually doing something. She’s blinded by a game who’s UI is the bastard child of Excel dressed up to look like a videogame.
It’s not that she can’t figure out these systems. She is very smart.
She just isn’t stimulated by games who’s primary objective is for the player to retire their sword for the exciting adventure that is logistics and personnel management.
Plus as I’ve said. It’s no fun to play with someone who’s bored.
Therefore it’s exciting for me to say that Bellwright fantastically provides an experience that we both enjoy.
Survival Elements
Lets start with the stuff that my girlfriend likes since that follows the natural progression of the game.
The game starts the same way all survival crafting games start. We are Deus Ex Machina’d into existence with nothing but some undies and the will to succeed. The game’s tutorial leads us quite nicely through the motions. Pick up sticks, rocks, and make an axe. Build a campfire, build a home, build some chests.
What sets this game apart are the townships across the map. The towns have a problem. The entire region has been taken over by a bandit hoard. If we help the towns rebuild and rebel we gain their trust giving us a special currency called renown.
80% of my girlfriends time is trekking back and forth between towns supplying them with whatever it is that they need. She finds filling out these checklists rewarding and fun.
The other 20% of her time is a balance between crafting what she needs, and fighting. What’s unique about Bellwright is that players can use (nearly) all buildings the same way villagers do.
My girlfriend can go about her business without engaging with villagers at all.
Not only is this engaging to her, but it also allows her to approach villager management at her own pace.
City Building
Now lets talk about what I like.
The freedom to run around, collect resources, farm, and craft everything myself is there. I simply don’t want to. My goal is to automate.
Luckily, Bellwright is “heavily inspired by”
genre titans Rimworld, and Dwarf Fortress. Get villagers, assign them jobs based on their skills, and set work orders. Research new buildings, armor, and technology to get better items and higher tier resources. Rinse repeat.
While my girlfriend is running around, I get to sit at home, stare at the resources page, and debug our system till we are self sustaining. That makes up about 80% of my time. The other 20% of my time is ordering and equipping troops to fight bandit hoards. I also enjoy getting some blood on my own sword.
How these systems force us to rely on each other.
How They Work Together
The First Pillar
There are three main pillars that tie the questing and town management together.
Lets start by talking about renown, the currency I skipped earlier. Whenever my girlfriend fulfills a need for a town we get Renown (word up).
Our relationship with the town improves.
Critically, new villagers cost renown and can only be recruited (poached) from towns. To get better villagers we must reach relationship milestones.
In order to get what I want, I have to rely on my girlfriend questing.
Therefore the first pillar is Renown.
The Second Pillar
The second pillar is research.
As our towns reach higher relationship levels, they require higher quality equipment which needs to be researched.
Uniquely, research is the only job that cannot be done by a player. Therefore we must have at least some citizens. Additionally higher level research and buildings require progressively high quantities and qualities of resources that would take a solo player hours to collect and build. This forces my girlfriend to rely on me to produce a steady stream of resources that she can use to fill out quests.
The Third Pillar
The third and final pillar is combat.
As the game progresses the hoards of enemies we fight not only get larger, but they also become better equipped.
Combat in Bellwright is slow and clunky. Not in a bad way. I find the combat very fun actually. The clunkiness only serves to give numbers and equipment a large advantage in combat.
I need to rely on my girlfriend for collecting renown for more and better villagers. She needs to rely on me for keeping them fed and well-equipped.
This is why this game is perfect for the both of us.
Bugs and Cons
Before we finish lets talk about ways the game let us down, and ways it impressed us both.
Bugs. Throughout our experience we’ve encountered many bugs including: ai pathfinding bugs, quest markers in the wrong place, and UI errors.
Crashes. My game as the host has been totally stable. The same cannot be said for my girlfriend who has had issues with crashing, getting stuck in things, and desynced construction.
AI Placeholders. Bellwright has a decent amount of AI placeholder art which is sad to see, but gets the job done.
I think the largest offender is the AI voice acting they use for the NPC’s. Their steam page claims this is temporary while the game is in early access.
The writing in the game is not very good and has a lot of English translation issues. This is especially relevant with regard to the AI bark lines.
I can only hear an AI repeat
“There’s nothing like a good days of work.”
And,
“Why does it feel like the birds are plotting something?”
as I pass by my villagers.
Thankfully the voices can be turned off..
Visuals
The last thing I’d like to praise is Bellwright’s visuals and weather. Bellwright is a gorgeous game that understands contrast. When booting the game I was unimpressed with the games default Unreal Engine look. Even when looking at the trailers the Bellwrights visuals look rather generic.
However….
Without sadness there is no joy.
Bellwright simulates Europe. Europe is not always bright and sunny. Bellwright’s weather effects vary between foggy, raining, thunder, and most impressively snowy winters. Snowy winters happen about every 7 in-game days.
When winter hits plants don’t grow, there is nothing to harvest, it’s cold, and the vibrant green landscape is covered in a blanket of white.
During winter it is impossible to harvest any plants.
Famine and frostbite plagues our villages. The winter is smothering.
Upon the return of a clear blue sky and vibrant colorful hills I can breathe again. What was once a generic looking game reveals breathtaking views of early spring simply by providing contrast.
Conclusion
At the time of writing we have 35 hours in Bellwright and are nearly done with the tech tree. The game is still early access, so sadly we will reach an abrupt end quite soon. That fact has not stopped us from having a great time.
I highly recommend you give Bellwright a shot if you’re looking for a co-op survival city builder.
You can get it on Steam: Here
See the other article I wrote about Bellwright here:
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Bellwright co-op survival, city-building automation games, Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress inspiration, early access review 2025, survival crafting collaboration, resource management strategies, seasonal weather mechanics, village recruitment system, renown currency gameplay, survival game bugs critique, winter survival challenges, Bellwright vs Satisfactory, co-op gameplay balancing, AI placeholder critique, Unreal Engine visuals