Towns brings a fresh new take on the city building/management genre by introducing many RPG features.
It is a game with great potential. The gameplay is like DF Lite (If it existed), which is not coincidental because the developers said they had Toady's masterwork in mind while working on this game.
An important difference between Towns and DF is that Towns has an interface more attuned to the human eyes. That's right, wanna mine that wall? Click, drag, click, orders are now set! Now watch the Townsfolk perform hard labor!
(Note: Press Ctrl to toggle wall visibility. It makes tracking your village's going-ons easier.)
But for the next patch, something more unique will be added: Heroes and parties! In order to clear the dungeons at depth level 3 and below, one has to attract heroes to your Town. Then, try to keep them there with food, a cosy tavern and rewards for doing their thing! Once heroes are introduced, you can help them by adding soldiers to their parties. Once a dungeon level is cleared out, the villagers can safely access the floor.
There are still some minor issues, but that is what the beta phase is for. The developers listen closely to their fans on the forums and are actively involved with the (still quite small) community they have amassed.
If you're not going to buy it now, at least keep an eye on it.