Craft The World
I had my fair share of fun in Craft the World, only matched by infuriating frustration it never failed to induce.
Dwarves are beyond dumb. They run from fights they would win and they stand their ground when they should flee. When equipped with ranged weapons they tend to get in close then run away in direction the enemy is coming from ending up in the middle of a horde of hostiles, then obviously being unable to get to safety without your intervention (open a portal if you have mana or take control of them, go through the enemies and hope for the best). This also occurs to melee characters as they flee.
– Real player with 536.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colony Sim Sandbox Games.
At the Time of Writing
Game: Craft the World
Price: $21.99*
Genre: Simulation/Building
Time Played: 95 hours
Personal Enjoyment Rating: ☺☺☺☺☻
Links I Found Helpful**
A Youtube lets play by paulsoaresjrhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FF8kgUIy-U
This video pick might seem strange since it’s episode 18, however I felt that it would give you a good idea of what the game is like. If you enjoy exploring a new game for yourself, then you perhaps don’t want to watch it!
– Real player with 244.7 hrs in game
Earth Elements
The game is great, definitely worth the buy. I love the game-play, and the overall freedom that the game offers without overwhelming me. There is a lot of in-game content and new things I can explore with each time playing, so it seems like ill never get bored of it. I am super excited to see where the game goes as it continues development.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colony Sim Early Access Games.
Outer Space Shack
Plan your space program, and send your precious rockets to the Moon or Mars. Build a small space base at first, and ensure the well-being of your astronauts. Feed them, protect them from hazards and radiations, and keep them happy.
Progressively, use more and more local resources, and make your settlement sustainable.
NEW Kickstarter campaign has started.
Space Center
Prepare your ‘rocket’ missions in the space center. Optimize every kilogram of payload of your precious rockets, and launch engineering projects to improve your rockets and the base hardware.
Base Building
Plan an efficient layout for your base, and increase its capabilities through new buildings and machineries. Start doing all the heavy work with a few rovers, and when ready, make your first astronauts come. Grow from an uncomfortable shack to a small village. Develop businesses on your base to make it sustainable
Astronauts
Feed your astronauts, ensure they have proper living space, protect them against hazards of space: radiation, space dust. Make sure they stay sane in the complex environment
Read More: Best Colony Sim Sandbox Games.
Survival Vacancy
Survival vacancy is a very approachable simulation game that is in early access. Some notable features, lossless experimentation (make mistakes, try new things, see what happens), resource tiles as well as resource nodes, flight available (no limitations on movement besides the jet pack timer), well paced phases to the game. The first phase of the game, you’re in what amounts to a safe sandbox. You can experiment with resource collection, production, supply chain. However, progress is gated by the introduction of enemies. Once you bring survivors in, you will be attacked, meaning you have to think through your supply chain beyond “just the next step”. This is an interesting challenge when first encountered and effectively shapes gameplay once understood.
– Real player with 73.4 hrs in game
Survival Vacancy I recommend, for a game made by a single dev, its extremely impressive to see.
But because it’s only 1 dev, only so much can be done in a given amount of time.
For the genre it feels like a bit of Oxygen Not Included, and a bit of factorio at its core, but aside from that it does have its own unique aspect which also sets it quite a bit apart from those titles.
I’ll start with the Pro’s:
-runs pretty well if you are aware of what causes lag spikes to avoid that, Dev has told me personally, that he’s working hard on fixing these before going to 1.0
– Real player with 58.6 hrs in game
Catizens
Herding cats is easy! Said no one…ever
Your main job in Catizens is to build your town around the personality traits of its inhabitants. Just like in real life, cats require personal attention and special treatment. Combinations of different personality traits and moods affect their proficiency and obedience. Catizens form relationships with each other and will occasionally issue personal requests, so you will need to learn what makes each cat happy in order to stay on their good side.
Create unique cats and design the perfect home
Pick from an assortment of facial and body features, as well as personality traits to create cats with distinct looks and temperaments. Design a place just for them by decorating the interior of their home with pieces of furniture, plants and other items. The better furnished a house is, the happier your catizens will be. So get creative!
Build and manage your settlement
Catizens can learn a variety of professions – from farming, to blacksmithing or offering protection from local wildlife. Different building types unlock depending on the traits and professions available. There’s no need to micromanage the entire settlement when it gets large. Invest your time and attention in a few outstanding cats and let them become town leaders.
Explore the wilderness
Develop your settlement, complete objectives and expand to areas with different environments that offer new adventures. Carefully examine your surroundings to find the best fishing spots, hidden treasures and quirky characters that may offer a quest.
First Feudal
The game is cool but it has alot of polishing and quality of life improvements to go.
-Your dudes just seem to quit hunting and cooking despite the avaliable resources and tools. you’re just strolling along and suddenly you have no food. You got the tools. the animals, no food, your dude’s just standing around. there’s no explanation. I’ve been having to manually do all the hunting.
-Need to have more options for work. some dudes I strictly want doing things, once those positions are filled I just want to place orders, I don’t care who does it.
– Real player with 112.4 hrs in game
I’ve been playing this game non-stop for a while so i can make a review, so here it is.
Things i like:
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Has a great sound track
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Has a great art style
In general its a fun game to play, not just to pass the the time, its a game where you can put a lot of hours into and still have a lot to do.The AI is great, i haven’t experienced many bugs with them besides a couple of times which ill mention later. Its a very re-playable game, with every new world being unique from the last, which makes you rethink strategies to survive on that map.
– Real player with 94.5 hrs in game
Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation
This is probably the game I played the longest while still being unsure if it is actually good. And I didn’t even finish it.
Story
J:A.S.S is a base-building survival simulation as the name suggests. There was a zombie demon apocalypse, you and a few others have survived the initial carnage but now you have to ensure your longterm survival. Maybe you can even find out what happened and if you can fix it!
Gameplay
Gameplay is divided between classic base building - farm food and resources, craft advanced materials, provide everything for your group of survivors, build defenses - and combat, which is itself divided between defending your camp and exploring different locations for materials and for clues about what happened to cause all of this.
– Real player with 176.5 hrs in game
TL/DR: Judgement simulator mixes Xcom’s unforgiving struggle for survival while capturing alot of the base-building and character nuance of rimworld. It’s intense and wild at first, but eventually becomes dull by not maintaining the level of challenge. Unforgiving, and not for the faint of heart.
I’m reserving judgement on this one for now (no pun intended). It’s a good skeleton of a game, but missing content in terms of story missions, and weak variety of enemies and gear. Awesome vision, but only good (read: above average, but not great) implementation. Sometimes I think I’m harder on good games with untapped potential, than on bad games; I may be leaning that way on this one. They say a full release is coming in the next few months with new enemies and story missions, along with a price increase, so I’ll probably have to re-evaluate this review after I see what it looks like.
– Real player with 122.1 hrs in game
Monsters Mall
(Early Access Review; as an early access release, you may experience bugs, content, interface, and optimization changes. If you are not excited to play the title in its current state & help to support the title to full release by reporting bugs and requesting additional content, you may want to wait for further development)
Welcome to Monsters Mall, a delightful new monster-themed management game. Even in the world of ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night, there are needs to fulfill, just as with humans. To satisfy all their monster desires you will be opening and operating a Mall just for otherworldly creatures. Start by attracting ghostly visitors to your shops. Collecting plasma spheres each day, you will upgrade the graveyard to unlock new creatures of the night, as well as stores. Spend your plasma wisely. As your stores turn a profit; you will be unlocking new areas to place your businesses. There are also areas to place various items, such as ice cream parlors, signs to hurry customers along and even crystals that generate plasma, with more to come. Watch for brilliantly-lit customers of various hues, who will drop additional plasma to use for unlocks. A fun casual fantasy clicker with many hours of gameplay already in place and updates coming.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Great and simple management/idle game with cute graphics, nice music and catchy mechanic.
I wasnt very fond at first, but after round 6 I really got the hang of it and when I saw it I was already in round 21.
Definetly gonna play until unlock all the monsters and stores.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
One Lonely Outpost
A barren, alien world needs YOU to bring it to life!
Start out with just an ancient space-RV, your handy tech gauntlet, a handful of potato seeds, and work to build up your colony. Grow crops to attract colonists, build a town and economy, and work to achieve independence while establishing your colony as a prime destination.
Whether you opt for an all-natural farm or a more high-tech one, you’ll need to balance producing food with other activities on your planet. Explore alien ruins to learn more about this strange world, grow your relationships with the many different characters that will join your colony, and have a blast playing various mini-game activities along the way.
It’s One Lonely Outpost … but not for long!
Decide: Natural or Synthetic?
Order up some supplies from Delivz-On, fertilize the ground, and plant crops with a unique tending mechanic – blow off dust, clip off dead branches, and watch for bugs! Pursue either a Synthetic route with robo-cows and gene-splicing (watch for glowing cabbages), or take the Natural path where you raise Earth-based farm animals and hand-tend your prize crops for premium produce. With either path, the more and better food you can make, the more colonists you can attract.
Build a Community and Forge Relationships
Every colony starts out with just one person (and a robotic pet), but colonists from around the galaxy will come to conduct research and offer other roles or services to help you grow the colony into a full-fledged town. But our career isn’t everything in life – befriend your fellow colonists to find fully developed people with their own histories, lives, and dreams. Grow your rapport with more than just gifts from your farm; perhaps even one relationship will result in true romance!
Explore Ancient Ruins
Ancient alien ruins have kept their secrets for millennia – until you’ve come along. Discover why a barren world is full of all of the features necessary for life, even though according to top scientists it shouldn’t. Puzzle and/or fight your way past the robotic guardians and be rewarded with rare items and a deeper understanding of your new farm planet.
Customize Your Character
Develop a unique sense of style and personality with clothing options and character statistics.. Choose how to balance your strengths and weaknesses across farming, exploring, crafting, socializing, and dungeon-diving as you progress on your journey.
Play To Your Interests
There’s no set path to perfecting your colony. Any element of the game can be played in any order. Whether you choose to focus on tending your farm to unlock every perk, spend all day exploring ruins fighting robots, or dedicate yourself to building up the town and connecting with residents, fun and rewards await to be discovered along the way.
Share With Friends
Play online with up to 3 other friends in collaborative co-op as well as competitive minigames. Friends can either visit your existing outpost with a greenhorn character, choose to start a fresh world from scratch together, or take a short vacation on your main to see what other colonies are up to, all while developing new relationships and even building branching families with other player characters or NPCs.
Stonehearth
Stonehearth is a game about building a small town, with the help of a group of ‘hearthlings’ who build, mine, farm and craft their way to victory (sometimes) over ever-stronger groups of enemies. You have an amazing amount of control over the appearance of your town, and you can custom build every house, road and wall. There are a variety of decorations and tools to place around your village, and there are two main storylines to follow (if you aren’t playing on peaceful) - fighting the enemies, and becoming a township. You also get to pick one of two types of hearthling: The Ascendancy, who live in the forest, or Rayya’s Children, who live in the desert. They have slightly different skill trees, so the gameplay is a little different.
– Real player with 1318.7 hrs in game
UPDATE 3: No I don’t recommend this anymore, the build system is completely borked. Tried to build a simple road with a few block columns and 5 hours of wasted time later I discover the engine has broken so bad not even instant build will build it. I tried to make it into a template to place it again but no, roads won’t lower. Absolutely disgusted the game was left in this condition.
UPDATE 2: I would switch this to recommend but since it’s one of the most helpful negative reviews I thought maybe leave it so people worried could see this update. The most important thing I want to say is: The devs have REALLY stepped it up, they are fixing bugs, updating often, and even responding on Steam which is hugely important to me. It feels like there’s been a major shift in priorities, and to be frank it’s making me very excited! :D
– Real player with 552.3 hrs in game