When we first visited Doloc Town during Early Access, the foundations were already there. Farming felt good, exploration kept pulling us forward, and the setting had far more personality than we expected. Version 1.0 adds enough meaningful content and smart improvements that returning players have a good reason to come back. What starts as another relaxing farming game slowly grows into an adventure that constantly nudges you away from your crops and into a world that’s equal parts inviting and dangerous.
Rather than dropping you into another cheerful countryside, Doloc Town asks you to build a new life among the remains of the old one. Rusted trains have become homes. Broken bridges stretch across dried-up landscapes. Nature has slowly reclaimed factories and forgotten highways. Despite all the destruction, it never feels bleak. There’s a strange warmth to the place that makes you want to see what’s out in this brave new world.
At first glance you’ll probably think of Stardew Valley or Terraria, but once you start wandering through abandoned ruins or watching acid rain roll across your fields, the comparisons begin to fade. Doloc Town develops its own identity through its setting rather than trying to compete with those games mechanically.
As for your daily routine, well, you’ll prepare fields, grow crops, gather materials, cook meals, fish, craft equipment, expand your house, and slowly transform an empty plot into something worth calling home. It’s a much more satisfying gameplay loop than our dry listing because every improvement has a visible impact. New buildings unlock better production, upgraded tools speed up everyday chores, and your farm gradually changes from a few scattered crops into a surprisingly busy operation.
Resources eventually dry up. Quests send you further from home. Before long, you’ll be exploring forests, caves, wetlands, abandoned facilities, and dangerous ruins looking for rare materials and answers about what happened to this world. Exploration rarely feels like busywork because there’s almost always something waiting around the corner, whether it’s a hidden chest, a shortcut, another NPC, or an entirely new area.
That feeling only gets stronger in Version 1.0. Old City Ruins drops into what’s left of a sprawling city that’s been split into recognizable districts. Residential streets, industrial complexes, elevated highways, parks, and commercial blocks all feel noticeably different from one another. They make the city enjoyable to wander through instead of feeling like one long stretch of identical ruins.
It also contains some of the game’s funniest moments. We weren’t expecting functioning traffic lights to become an obstacle in a post-apocalyptic city, yet somehow sprinting across elevated roads while waiting for the light to turn green became one of those moments we’ll probably remember long after we’ve forgotten individual quests. It’s such a small detail, but it’s exactly the kind of oddball humor Doloc Town sprinkles throughout the adventure.
Of course, the wasteland is far from empty. New enemy types keep exploration from becoming a sightseeing tour, and combat remains a steady part of the experience. It still isn’t the game’s strongest system, but it’s enjoyable enough that clearing ruins never feels like an interruption. Swapping between weapons while your combat drone supports you creates some surprisingly hectic encounters, especially when projectiles begin filling the screen.
Speaking of drones, they’re no longer just useful companions during fights. One of Version 1.0’s biggest additions is farm automation. Rather than handing you an army of robots after the tutorial, automation arrives once you’ve already invested a significant amount of time into building your farm yourself. At first your drones simply water crops, sow seeds, fertilize fields, and harvest produce. Later they begin transporting resources, feeding livestock, crafting goods, organizing storage, and managing production across multiple buildings.
By the time you’ve unlocked the more advanced systems, those repetitive chores have already served their purpose. Letting drones handle the routine work feels less like skipping gameplay and more like finally earning a well-deserved break. It also changes how you spend your time. Instead of rushing through a long morning checklist every day, you can head out exploring while your farm quietly keeps itself running in the background.
The townsfolk are more than quest markers standing in fixed locations waiting for you to collect rewards. As you help them, their personalities slowly emerge, and the town starts feeling less like a collection of NPCs and more like a place that’s trying to rebuild itself alongside you. The new characters introduced in Version 1.0 fit naturally into that growing community while expanding the story surrounding the Old City.
The walkman quickly became one of those features we didn’t want to play without. Finding tapes hidden throughout the world gives exploration another purpose, and being able to build your own playlist makes those quieter moments on the farm even more enjoyable. We can’t stress how much of a personality this feature adds.
Looking back at where Doloc Town started, it’s hard not to appreciate how much confidence the developers have gained over the past year. Early Access introduced an interesting idea. Version 1.0 finally feels like the game that idea was aiming to become all along. There are plenty of cozy farming games worth your time, and there are plenty of survival games built around scavenging ruined worlds. Doloc Town is one of those rare games that make both halves feel equally important.
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