Against the Storm

A game for people who enjoy variety! We all now random maps, events and missions, but this game tops it all with random production chains! In addition to the aforementioned randomness and a number of different biomes, you also get random selections of buildings in every game that challenge you to build your strategy around what recipes are available to you. Sounds tricky? It certainly is! But it is also expertly balanced, so you'll never really get stuck because of the randomness if you know what you're doing. The game also features several different difficulties, some of which introduce wholly new game mechanics, so you can learn the basics of the game at a reasonably tame level and then crank up the difficulty once you feel ready for more. All in all, this game offers endless hours of non-repetitive fun, but still allows you to apply learnings from past games to future ones. It's definitely the most thrilling city builder I've ever played, partly also because there's no save-and-load in this slightly rougelike game. There's only one direction to go, and that is forward, into the unknown.

so it's a city builder with roguelike elements. In order to win each city, you must complete randomly selected tasks. Your ability to complete these tasks is dependant on randomly spawning resources, and picking from random building blueprints. Completing tasks fills a completion bar that can also be filled by meeting luxury needs of your citizens. UNFORTUNATELY, there are "boss fight" type cities in which you can't just fill the bar by meeting luxury needs; you must complete specific, particularly difficult tasks. It is impossible to know what these tasks will be in advance. Therefore, it is impossible to actually strategize. This in addition to having to guess which buildings you may or may not need in the future, to not knowing what resources you will randomly find, makes it very easy to end up in a situation where you literally cannot complete any of the tasks. My current save file for a boss city is softlocked, where I must complete one of the following: A) increase morale of citizens using goods that I never got the blueprints to produce B) Find 4 extremely rare artifacts that only spawn in areas of which there are a finite amount, and which I have yet to find a single one, and I'm going to run out of time before I will even be able to explore any more, C) engage with a mechanic that I am flat-out not allowed to use because I have not unlocked the technology to enable it in my home base, which can only be done outside of active runs. Lacking any sort of mitigation for bad rng with the potential to make runs impossible, and especially requiring an out-of-game upgrade that the player has not unlocked yet, is INCREDIBLY slipshod and thoughtless game design. The game pretends you have some ability to succeed with strategic choices but in the end your ability to complete tasks is really just the result of a slot machine.

True, I am one of these persons, that are excited about base building and rogue lites. So I am the perfect target audience for this. That is why I forgot my principles and bought an early access game. But this game is just great. No it is not great for an early access, it is just great. It is easily worth the money if they would stop developing it now. It is not one of these early access titles, that have a good base but never managed to get a game out of it, it is a blast to play right now. Even better though, the opposite is the case. The devs are insanely active every few weeks there is new stuff to explore. They are active in their reddit, take in bug reports over multiple channels and seem to have understood, what makes the game special.

Excellent game. I love old school RTS base builders and city builders. This game scratches the itch for replayability by having you build relatively short lived towns. The ability to substitute recipe components makes the roguelite gameplay possible. Though, it does require you to learn where you can substitute materials, unless you pause to look things up. I haven’t run into a situation (yet) where anything but my own mistakes have killed me, but your experience may vary. Progression is great. It starts off easy and gradually layers mechanics in. Leveling and unlocks do help increase the number of options you have, and are needed to make some things viable. You can't, for example, initially produce your own tools. So, your playstyle will likely end up changing as you advance in the game. Similarly, critically useful elements like trading have to be unlocked. The sound track is nice and relaxing. You can pause at any time so it’s also not particularly stressful in most situations. Town building is also relatively quick so it doesn’t feel too bad if you ultimately end up losing a run.

... The looming Chronos and his scythe getting closer - seeing your efforts slowly crumbling; these kind of games are like a child running on the beach, threatening your sand castle. You saw the little brat from a mile away, but no damage control is gonna save your pride. Who likes that? Against the Storm is all about time-pressure. Each settlement is a fight against time, as the storms get stronger and the queen’s finger of death gets closer. Why is it good despite that? I tend to squeeze every drops of gameplay a game has to offer. It’s no surprise I love city builders. They traditionally set pressure through events (fires, diseases…) and decay (resource exhaustion, census…), offering time to place the most delightful flower beds in your rich neighborhood. Against the Storm greatness is about how the time pressure is directly influenced by the players actions. Players can fulfill goals in so many different ways that the expectations truly are planning and problem solving. Not how fast you click, scroll or set shortcuts. This game mechanically focus the gamer toward objective-focused plays. It punishes passivity, rewards risks taking behavior and smart decision taking. Things are going bad? Let's explore more. Let’s sell everything. Let the queen be impatient and villagers die. Anything the sort in any other city builders would feel like a loss, but this game is about riding the bumpy waves. When everything goes well: the game becomes hard. When everything goes awry: the game soften. Victory feels earned. Defeat also. I think this game outlined a new sub-genre. What could be better? Aesthetic. Fundamentals are superb, but delivery falls short sometimes (the aunt?). It lacks atmospheric productions and details that compliment the weird fantasy tone the game already have. Then not only the game would be great, but the artistic experience too.