Imagine Earth
I purchased this game some time ago and have waited a long time to review it, due in part to some issues I had with it, but also because I wanted to be fair, considering that it is an early access game. So with that being said, my review:
So I was flipping through the steam games and I came across this game called “Imagine Earth” in the simulation section, I saw that it had a demo and decided to try it. At the time the demo only had a missions available, a simple interface and not a lot in the way of content… but I was hooked.
– Real player with 41.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colony Sim 3D Games.
I really like Imagine Earth. It’s a fun, lightweight city building game, where you have to keep track of not only economical, but ecological development as well.
The game has come a long way since its appearance on Steam. I get, that a lot of people compare this to games like Anno, don’t! Anno was made by a company worth billions, this game was made by a small indy team.
And especially in times of heat waves and forest fires in North America and South Europe, never seen floods in Europe and Asia it is good to see, that some people still try to educate about global warning.
– Real player with 29.0 hrs in game
ISLANDERS
Islanders Review
This adventure never ends!
Some key points that this game offers:
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Procedural Generation; the fun never ends!
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Two gameplay modes
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Indie Gem 5/5
Gameplay & Controls:
The game is played with your keyboard and mouse; the layout and keys are pretty simplistic. This is in no way whatsoever a bad thing! This is simply a minimalistic game that doesn’t require much to offer you hours of joy.
You start the game on one island, choosing between two build packs. Once chosen it is up to you to determine where to place your buildings. Depending on the position that you build, you will receive a score for each placed building. There are several factors that multiply the score; it can either be increased or receive a loss. It comes down to some strategic thinking.
– Real player with 122.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colony Sim Puzzle Games.
THE ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY…
Islanders is a simple yet sophisticated city builder that is both incredibly relaxing and delightfully addictive—and a VERY worthy addition to your game library!
[➕] THE POSITIVES
- The ART STYLE. The game makes the absolute most of its colors and shapes to provide a minimalistic setting where you can build and grow your idyllic island city. Everything is themed to “fit” together—from the sprawling farmlands to the Tetris-like cities and manufacturing areas—and ultimately results in an island-scape that feels like your own, personal creation!
– Real player with 73.9 hrs in game
Sky Tale
A fun game to pick up and enjoy some nice hours in sandbox mode or try to get the highest points possible. Quite simple but still enjoyable overall.
The achievements are fun and challenging, but the windmill/wheat field one seems to be broken/wrong, as with all 8 wheats placed directly next to water tiles seems to never trigger a progress on the achievement itself.
Some polishing might be required, so that users can actually know how many resources there are on a tile (X rocks, X trees), how many resources are taken by each building (e.g. by hovering over the tile) and how many points you get at the end turn from certain buildings (houses)
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colony Sim Puzzle Games.
sky tale is an islanders -like, so I’ll be making a lot of comparisons to it (you might want to check the link for my review). this one’s on a grid with a bit more to it than plonking down random buildings where they give you the most points. sadly, neither lets you re-visit previous islands without copying files over, and this only keeps the one currently in progress, not all your previous attempts like islanders. I was hoping they wouldn’t copy this aspect as well…
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
SUPER BUILD
UPDATE 6-8-2020: The game, like most, also has an official Discord community. While the members are generally kind and helpful, the server is overseen by a handful of moderators. These few moderators subjectively decide whether or not you’re a “Good Builder” and rank you up according to their personal opinions. I find this very discouraging, as I’ve noticed certain unfair biases among a few of these moderators. We spend many hours on these creations using our imaginations, only to have a mod invalidate or overlook our entire creation. Whose to say we aren’t all Legendary Builders?
– Real player with 144.8 hrs in game
I began my journey with this game back when it first started as a little mobile project. As someone who always plays Minecraft in creative mode, I was immediately interested. It had a fun concept, beautiful visuals, decent interface, and constant updates. I think the updates were the best part early on. There were usually lots of new items making each update feel like an early Christmas. What really impressed me was the care the developers took to read people’s reviews, respond, and actually implement a large portion of the (unsolicited) suggestions. I’ve seen very few developers who care that much about player feedback.
– Real player with 43.9 hrs in game
The Colonists
5/5
This game is a fantastic take on base-building, resource optimisation and pathing. It’s simple to get into, scales sensibly and the campaign levels scale well in difficulty. I’ve played many of the similar games available and this one gets the complexity level exactly right with a nice style of graphics.
Mechanically, one thing that stands out for me is that this is a network optimisation game where the networks (roads and paths) are cost nothing and appear instantly, making experimenting and fiddling easy.
– Real player with 268.7 hrs in game
Short version:
Fun game. Has flaws, but definitely an enjoyable city builder.
Long version:
Okay so it took me a while to get into this game. At first it felt really clunky, the tutorial left me confused about certain things (namely how paths are supposed to alleviate traffic from raods), some of the mechanics are pretty weird and needlessly complicated but at the same time - they’re what gives this game it’s uniqueness and keeps it from being just another boring banished clone, plus the campaign is excellent!
– Real player with 111.5 hrs in game
Banished
Great game. It’s not so much about managing towns, more about whether or not people survive your town managing skills. Have fun.
– Real player with 2342.5 hrs in game
To me Banished set a golden standard for city builder/ colony sim games. There wasn’t anything especially new or innovative for the genre, but the mechanics and elements of the game just came together really well and the end-product was so polished. The graphics were something different, most games in this genre don’t focus on that much and usually have more simplistic pixel type graphics. This had a much more realistic look, which I thought was pretty cool.
A lot of city builder/ colony sim games have enemies that attack every so often or land you have to conquer. I like some of those games a lot, but I was also really intrigued by this one NOT having that and instead having nature as your enemy. Hunger, weather, temperature, natural disasters, etc. were your enemy instead. This focus on natural survival felt pretty original, though there are probably games that have done it before.
– Real player with 308.4 hrs in game
Kingdom of Bees
Pros:
-Very simple and fun game to sit back and enjoy.
Cons:
-It has a few things that need be fixed. (Adding in the game)
Example: A nearby queen in another hive died and I gained 2 warriors, 2 defenders and 1 worker but the maximum amount of bees didn’t change to add 5 bees to my hive.
Example: I had 3 warriors and 2 defenders killed by chemicals, it added correctly to where I went from 5 warriors to 2 and 3 defenders to 1, but the maximum amount of bees I could store didn’t change and I couldn’t buy anymore bees still until I upgraded hive.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
incredibly simple game. it does get boring quite quickly and there isn’t much to do in this game. it’s not really worth $1 though. It’s a good game to have playing in the background while you study though.
Cats also enjoy watching the bees fly around your screen. 10/10 for that.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Scorchlands
Become the leader of a magical bird folk, and discover the possibilities that come with the new land. In Scorchlands, a large-scale city building meets a serene logistics game, where you’re never pressured or rushed.
Perform powerful rituals to reshape the world, and work on new technologies to save the decaying world. Create new biomes and empower existing ones with the use of magic. Discover unique resource veins and use them to expand your creative range.
Start with one colony, create more, and see them expand. Unlock unique environments and dozens of technologies that will bring new aspects to the gameplay. Experiment with building placement, and manage laser-based logistic networks to connect everyone and everything.
There’s no pressure, no time limit, no enemy nipping at your heels. The game instantly reacts to your decisions. The pacing depends on you and you alone.
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Experience a relaxing city-builder in a world of magic technologies.
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Terraform the world around you with powerful rituals.
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Get creative and amaze at the scope of your civilization.
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Never wait for anything! Play as fast or slow as you want.
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4 biomes, 21 buildings, 36 resources, 47 technologies - and more to come!
MicroTown
Very fun village builder, easy to learn, on my second run I got to the end goal (Monument). Not much random so not a lot of replay value at present. Highly recommended but don’t expect it to keep your interest past one solid day at the present state. I really look forward to new developments in this game! Some specifics:
1. Nice easy to learn mechanics
2. Tutorial needs to teach balancing, in particular (a) how do you tell when to add workers at a building, and (b) how do you know when to build more houses, and © show how to change the number of builders & carriers
– Real player with 56.1 hrs in game
Worth the $8, a good game to mindlessly play while listening to music or a podcast. I recommend turning on background play so i can click away and do other stuff while the little guys idle away. I’d like to see a better graphics option and more content as it is updated but you get exactly the kind of game you expect. It’s quaint and relaxing. I’m satisfied.
–-{Graphics}—
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☑ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Paint.exe
—{Gameplay}—
☐ Very good
– Real player with 21.1 hrs in game
Sigma Draconis
Although there is nothing particularly unique about this game it is definitely worth the meagre asking price. You have to perform the normal tasks of collecting goods to house your workers, power their dwellings and also ensure that they have sufficient food in stock to last the winter period. This can be quite challenging and I needed a few attempts to get the balance right, but it was worth the effort. The dev is putting out significant regular updates and I know from experience that he listens to what his audience has to say as he promptly dealt with an issue I discovered. All in all a good, well thought out game that will keep you occupied for quite a few hours.
– Real player with 40.6 hrs in game
Very short right now, and you don’t get more than your original 8 colonists, but is a cute and fun little game.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game