cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23511179
Steam store page | GOG store page - Currently 50% off on both stores.
This is a great game. They’ve managed to pull off a roguelike citybuilder; a genre combination that one would think would not work. Great visuals and atmosphere too.
I didn’t think I would like it because I like colony sims and city builders where I’m just playing the same map for extended periods, but I gave it a try on game pass and ended up playing hundreds of hours. It’s something special.
It really is special. I initially tried it out because I liked the aesthetic and the map setup/setting; small fantasy colony surrounded by impenetrable forest in a post-apocalyptic world. I was really skeptical about the roguelike x citybuilder hybrid as I like long city-builder sessions with huge maps and elaborate city designs, but they pulled it off perfectly.
I have 100+ hours. I did stop playing after the one of the early access builds made some changes that undermined by core strategy, but that’s a personal thing. Really need to try out the DLC and start from scratch.
It also runs quite well and looks great on medium and low settings. I can run it on high on my 2060 quite easily, but I don’t feel like I need to cause the artstyle works so well.
Might not be a big deal for others, but I love when games look good while taking very little computer resources.
I had an intense love affair with this one earlier in the year that fizzled out quickly once the credits rolled. Solid game, but the only thing that keeps it from being in my collection of 1000-hour games is that it’s a little too dense for my taste. Keeping track of what builds what (and which build I had currently unlocked) was taking up a smidge more brain power than I’d like once the difficulty started demanding it. By the end I’d started layering in how to evaluate cornerstones, the best way to do trade, map modifiers, and it became too much. Ironically, I’d probably get to a level of comfort just by putting more time into the game but it’ll just feel like work.
One of those “almost there” games for me.
Was this before all the QoL updates around saveable production controls and easily seeing which builds what?
Just picked this one up since it was cheap.and I’ve been wanting to play a village management game in a while. Holy crap this game is amazing. I spent 6 hours on it un the first day alone. I love how the roguelike format keeps it always engaging and direct, without meandering about trying to figure out what I want to do. It has clear goals, needs to be met, and multiple ways to reach those goals. I usually like playing RTS games in short bursts of Skirmishes, and this feels very similar. Trying different strategies with different buildings and terrains.
I was also looking at Timberborn (funny how both games have postapocalyptic sentient beavers) and Farthest Frontier, but I think I’ll be busy with AtS for a while until I get to try those two. And I’ll never need to even consider giving Ubisoft my money for Anno ever again.
Timberborn is also really good, the water dynamics really makes the game stand out compared to other town/colony builders.
They’ve also added much needed improvements to water dynamics (aqueducts).
I agree, easily the city builder I sunk the most hours into in the last 10+ years compared to all other ones combined.
They also keep adding to it with more world events, a new resource (salt), new biomes, and with the expansion a whole new race.
Great game. First got recommended it here (I saw the game before but didn’t really pay much attention to it) and I love it so much. I’ve always stayed away from city builders cause I feel like they turn into something I don’t really care for as the game goes on, but the short scale rogue lite nature of this works incredibly well for me.
I really like that settlements are inherently temporary and that the game throws a lot of wrenches at me. It’s a good reminder to try and strive for flexibility rather than optimization. Settlements don’t have to be perfect (and likely won’t be), they just have to work well enough to get to the next.
They’ve also added a ton of content and quality of life stuff since I last played a few patches ago. The UI still has some issues, but auto loading saved production limits and the overlay keys for buildings and workers make it so much easier to see what’s going on at a macro level.
Tip for new players: after you get your bearing in game (maybe 1 or 2 settlements), take some time to just go through and check out the overlays. You can easily do stuff like move workers around or see and adjust recipes of all buildings on your map at once. I only just found those options and it’s a godsend compared to menu diving.
