Against the Storm

Up front: I am not recommending this game. I DO heartily recommend that anyone interested should try out the demo (which doesn't seem to be on GOG, unfortunately) because I have no complaints at all about what I've seen. Which is to say: pretty much an already-finished game polished to an impressive mirror sheen disguised as early access, and it seems to be doing everything right. The only problem is that depending on personal preference, the central gimmick might drive you as batty as it does me. There's a hex-based world map, each hex is a level, and you build outwards from the center. There are different biomes and possible modifiers, different randomized starting loadouts, and a lot of stuff to adapt to in general. You'll start by setting up some basics and breaking into nearby glades as you deforest, some of which will contain (clearly marked) major hazards and rewards. There are two progress bars on every level: one which fills by way of quotas and objectives, and one that simply progresses with time. If you fill the first bar, you win the level. If the second one fills, you lose. Then you pick a neighboring hex on the world map and do it all over again. For all this game does right and for the impressive variance you get to deal with while repeatedly building up a bunch of settlements from scratch... that particular loop isn't really my idea of fun. It has the mechanics, resource management, and personalization you'd expect from a longform city builder, but a level-based structure closer to that of a procedurally-generated Warcraft campaign in which you're fighting the environment and a time limit rather than a conventional opponent. You never get long enough with any one level to get exhausted of it, but you also don't get long enough to really admire it, and after playing X levels the titular storm rolls in and wipes the world map clean. This was already driving me bonkers by the end of the tutorial. If that part doesn't bother you, it's a great game.

My biggest gripe with the city-building genre has always been that there is no end goal. No matter how big or developed your settlement is, it is going nowhere. Against the Storm manages to fix this problem by making each city you build an hour-long mission. After completing you move on to creating another settlement with its own challenges. If this sounds good to you, the game is a must-buy. If you prefer endless city-building, then this may be a deterring point to you. My personal opinion is that the game is great and the constant updates really help keep it fresh.

I write this as a guy who doesn't like city builders and am hesitate to recommend Early Access games. I like this game a lot and would recommend it in its current state. I played the demo of this a ton when it first came out, I was impressed in how many hours I sunk into it. I enjoy how each map is different from the others in how each race specializes in different production, the many different ways you can aquire materials for production, the Deed system and hex modifers give each map much needed variety, and the atmosphere gives off this sense of dread when it comes to tackling the unknown yet is oddly relaxing. I even like how the game eventually forces a reset on all the towns you built as it feels apporiate for the world that they have created. Gameplay-wise it is very intutitive and easy to figure out in-game as I haven't had to go to a wiki to figure out how to beat games or complete quests. The only people who might find it frustrating would be people who like city builders as it's not really a game where you build this efficiant utopia of complex, interlocking systems. The randomness of RougeLite elements prevent you from having every building and it's more about building a strategy around what little resources you have. I'll update this review when we get a full release or abandonment, but right now, I do recommend it. Worth putting on your wishlist if you want to wait, although they do give a date on when the next update is coming.

I can see why people love this game - it's basically a roguelike puzzle game with resource crunch like you'd expect in a colony sim. Do not buy this if you like city or base builders or colony sims, this is not what this game is. Refunded for that reason. Not a terrible game, just marketed as a genre it's not.