Doloc Town Review: First Impressions & Early Access Tips

Doloc Town, developed by Redsaw Games Studio, launched in early access on Steam, delivering a post-apocalyptic farming simulation that immediately sets itself apart from genre conventions. After fleeing a devastating war, you return to your birthplace—a small, struggling settlement where survivors repurpose abandoned trains and shipping containers into homes. The game grants you land to farm while tasking you with restoring the town and its surrounding valley.

Video Highlights:

• 12 hours of early access gameplay coverage and analysis
• Detailed breakdown of the 2D side-scrolling farm layout system
• Overview of drone combat mechanics and weather interactivity
• Exploration of Metroidvania-style world design outside the town

The atmosphere is where Doloc Town truly shines. Unlike typical farming sims filled with bright colors, this world leans into darker tones—grays, browns, and rust dominate the landscape. Despite the grim setting, the retro 8-bit soundtrack creates an unexpectedly cozy and relaxing vibe. The beautiful pixel art conveys the brokenness of the world while maintaining a sense of hope as you rebuild.

The main quest and side quests help you get familiar with the town and its cast of characters. A simple relationship system lets you gift villagers, learn their stories, and receive gifts in return. While not every NPC is available for befriending in the current build, the characters introduced so far are compelling and play meaningful roles in the narrative.

Farming in Doloc Town operates differently from most games in the genre. Because the soil is toxic, you cannot plant seeds directly into the ground. Instead, you build stackable wooden platforms and grow crops in containers. This vertical farming system creates an almost puzzle-like experience as you try to fit crops, storage chests, and machines into limited space.

The weather system adds remarkable depth to daily farm management. The game features a dry season with dangerous heat waves and a rainy season that sometimes brings acid rain. During thunderstorms, lightning strikes can destroy your crops—but this threat becomes an opportunity once you learn to craft lightning rods.

The interactivity between weather and farming goes far beyond simple auto-watering. Lightning rods protect an area from strikes, and with batteries equipped, you can store the captured electricity. This stored power then runs sprinklers and processing machines, creating a satisfying loop of risk, preparation, and reward.

Combat often feels like an afterthought in farming simulations, but Doloc Town integrates it as a core mechanic. The post-apocalyptic valley is roamed by hostile robots, and engaging them with only a pickaxe is risky business. Early in the game, you acquire a drone companion that becomes your primary method of combat.

The drone system offers extensive customization options. As you save money and gather materials, you can upgrade your existing drone or purchase entirely new models. Different attachments and weapons provide distinct combat styles—some fire faster while others deal heavier damage. Each configuration drains the battery at different rates, encouraging experimentation.

Beyond the town limits, Doloc Town opens into a Metroidvania-style world that rewards curiosity. The valley features light platforming challenges, hidden secrets, gatherable materials, and shortcuts that gradually unlock as you acquire new abilities and better tools. The world size is substantial but intuitive—initial disorientation quickly gives way to familiarity.

Fishing deserves special mention as a dependable early income source. The minigame is straightforward—hold a button while a marker stays in the green zone, then tap when a yellow bar appears. Settings allow you to slow down the minigame if needed. Once mastered, fishing provides steady money with minimal risk.

The town itself serves as your hub. Shops sell seeds, upgrade tools, and offer services like ordering a shipping container to replace your starter tent. The bulletin board provides side quests that guide exploration and reward progression. Facilities around town can be rebuilt over time, gradually transforming the settlement.

Progression in Doloc Town follows a satisfying loop of daily learning and incremental improvement. The tech tree contains tons of equipment and technology to unlock, but the initial experience can feel simultaneously slow and overwhelming. Your starting storage is limited, your farm is tiny, and the sheer number of items to manage creates a learning curve.

Research plays a key role in expanding your options. Initially, you can only grow zinc and yams. By combining harvested crops with other resources, you conduct research that unlocks new seed varieties, tools, and crafting recipes. This gated progression ensures each new unlock feels earned.

Doloc Town supports both mouse-and-keyboard and controller play. Both input methods work well, though one controller issue has been noted in the current build.

The game offers a robust selection of accessibility and personalization options. Various retro CRT filters are available for players who want an authentic vintage look. Screen and text shaking can be disabled for those sensitive to motion. Elevator and stair animations can be set to skip automatically after the novelty wears off. The UI is highly customizable—remove on-screen elements that feel cluttered.

After extensive time with Doloc Town, the experience stands as one of the most refreshing entries in the farming sim genre. The core mechanics—farming, skill trees, crafting—are familiar foundations. But the way weather impacts gameplay, the unique drone combat system, and the Metroidvania exploration elements combine to create something genuinely new.

The dark-yet-cozy atmosphere, driven by exceptional pixel art and a retro soundtrack, immerses you in a world that feels both broken and full of potential. Every day brings a new mechanic to learn, a small improvement to make, and a reason to keep playing just one more in-game day.