Urbek is first and foremost a puzzle in terms of packing buildings and their various bonuses in an efficient manner, taking advantage of available space. I purchased while aware of this. What I wasn't aware of is how tedious/boring that game is when it comes to filling up my map with efficiently placed food production tiles, where there are over 6 different types of buildings that interact with eachother, all while running into the issue of needing to disrupt your pattern for biomes that don't support farm fields.
The intricacies of all the systems of this game really did end up fleshed out. Construction requires all the supplies delivered to site as well as the necessary machines and workers. Include systems such as energy, water, waste management, and even seasonal snow removal and you have a game that will stress even seasoned management muscles.
It's amazing all the good that went into Astrox Imperium. Sadly, it lacks polish, and the developer has barely made any sound in 2024. It's a playable sandbox space game, but it really lacks the polish to give it the staying power it needs.
The gameplay has some decent ideas with randomly drafting 3 buildings/cards from a deck and choosing one to place. It's passable, but it's really missing that special sauce that gives lasting appeal. The story is passable, giving a neat setting and plausible goals to proceed towards. The story contributes very positively to the worldbuilding, but also overstays its welcome in forcing some failures requiring new games to proceed. Most importantly, the price is right.
